I write now both as a
member of the college delegation that just returned from the U.N. climate
conference (COP18) in Qatar and as co-chair of this year’s In Focus theme on
sustainability. The global phenomenon of
climate change is likely the biggest challenge to a sustainable future.
The U.N. negotiations in
Doha ran over into Saturday, and thus far, no significant outcomes or
agreements have been reported. Instead, what you get from groups like RTCC
(Responding to Climate Change) are tweets (and linked news stories) such as:
- Protests: Doubts
grow over Qatari leadership at UN climate talks
- Blackmail: Venezuela accuses rich states of holding developing world to ransom
- NGO anger: Climate talks “sleepwalking towards disaster”
- Brazil: Absence of acceptable Kyoto deal threatens UN climate process.
- Blackmail: Venezuela accuses rich states of holding developing world to ransom
- NGO anger: Climate talks “sleepwalking towards disaster”
- Brazil: Absence of acceptable Kyoto deal threatens UN climate process.
Many of you might ask,
"Why should we care?" For one
answer, I suggest that you read my most recent blog post entitled "The Cost of Inaction" at http://moraviancollegeatunfccc.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-cost-of-inaction.html
and read the news report below about the “Loss and Damage” negotiations.
The US response to proposed new
financial compensation for nations worst hit by climate change threatens to
define the UN summit’s finale.[1]
As negotiations ran into the early
hours of the morning [Saturday] the US clashed with the Alliance of Island
Small Island States (AOSIS) on the issue of Loss and Damage. This is the proposed
mechanism to compensate countries worst affected by climate change.
The dispute spilled into a separate
meeting room last night where protesters gathered to back AOSIS.
A small island state negotiator was
seen leaving in tears. The BBC’s Roger Harrabin reports
that before the text was agreed Todd Stern, the US chief negotiator, was
heard saying: “I will block this. I will shut this down.”
The EU is understood to be trying to
persuade AOSIS to weaken its stance in Doha and carry the debate into later
round of talks. Whether the US accepts any mention of a future mechanism
remains to be seen.
As we break for the
holidays, many of you may go to see the new movie release Les Misérables. The
book on which the film is based, first published in 1862, has been called "one of the half-dozen greatest novels of the world". In Upton Sinclair’s 1915 book The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the
Literature of Social Protest, he
references Hugo’s remarks in the Preface of Les Misérables”:
So long as there shall exist, by
reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of
civilization, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny
that is divine, with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the
age—the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of women by starvation, and the
dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night—are not solved; so long
as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and
from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain
on earth, books like this cannot be useless.
Where are
the books, the authors like Hugo and Sinclair, calling attention to the social
injustices resulting from climate change?
Although more of a journalist report than an enduring literary piece,
Christian Parenti’s Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of
Violence describes how climate change will exacerbate violence in areas
already prone to conflict.[2] Poverty and lack of access to water are common
themes in the book. Countless research
studies and NGO reports have been published that show how the poor are already
experiencing the impacts of climate change, despite contributing little to the
causes. Areas that are prone to drought
are predicted to become even drier. Both
the Pentagon and the State Department have included climate change and its
impact on national security in their strategic plans (making Todd Stern’s
comments above even more puzzling). One
of my current students who plans to enlist in the military after graduation
this spring told me how, while in basic training, they were told about the
expectations for growing conflict due to both climate change and water
scarcity. His seminar on water scarcity
this semester was riveting. (All of this
reminds me of the French Revolution and other such historical events when there
were large disparities between the “haves” and the “have nots”.)
We don't have
campus-wide discussions about climate change.
I don’t know how many from the campus community follow our blog. I hope that the responses from the students
in my three environmentally-themed courses this semester (who were strongly
encouraged to read our reports from Qatar) aren’t indicative of the rest of
campus. Marla, the student who was part
of the Moravian delegation this year, commented several times about the
different level of engagement between the U.S. youth compared to those from
other countries. This is a sentiment we
have heard each year when students join us at the U.N. meetings. Today, Nikki DeLuca, a student from York College
in PA who is still in Qatar representing the American Chemical Society, writes
about an “action” by U.S. Youth at COP18:
I have decided that this disappointing
action shows a lot about the U.S. We seem to be unmotivated and uninvolved
internationally, and do not possess the spirit that the other countries here
obviously have. I was just at a talk by
the Costa Rican delegates, who have announced (and whole heartedly believe)
that their country will be "carbon-neutral" in 9 years' time. Where
is that ambition in the U.S.? Are we capable of being that ambitious and optimistic
about anything? I am personally sick of the negativity, doubt, and lack of
commitment I have been seeing.[3]
This week, two op-eds related to COP18 appeared
in the Huffington Post that included quotes from Marla and mentioned Moravian
College (see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-foy/un-climate-change-youth-i_b_2228472.html
and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-peterman/un-climate-conference-fee_b_2236560.html
). International coverage about the
activities of a student from Moravian! I
was hoping that this would generate some buzz on campus about our involvement
in the U.N. conferences and about climate change. Instead, I received an email yesterday: “Must
See T.V.: Moravian College
Alumnus Noah Rachels '00 in Winner’s Circle on Jeopardy!”
There is
hope, however. I was encouraged to see
the movement on some college campuses, including Swarthmore (also in Pennsylvania)
that was described in a New York Times piece this week.[4] A number of faculty members sent me the link
to this article. I was also contacted this
week by an alumna, Rebecca
V. Zoellner ’78, to see if Moravian is committed to this movement:
I’ve been receiving information
about 350.org’s “Do the Math” tours and their push to get colleges and
universities to divest themselves of holdings in fossil fuel companies. I found
your name by searching for information about Moravian and sustainability
initiatives. I’m proud to see that Moravian has such a commitment to this
issue. What I’m wondering is whether there is significant investment in fossil
fuel industries in the Moravian endowment and, if so, whether there is any
effort on campus to change that. I don’t know if you have all that information,
but perhaps you can point me in the right direction.
I would love to hold a
campus dialog next semester to see how we should respond to Ms. Zoellner’s
inquiry. It seems quite appropriate to discuss
a challenge like this during the “Year of Sustainability”.
[2] The Perseus Books Group, 2011. You
can read an excerpt from this book at http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2011/6/29/book_excerpt_tropic_of_chaos_climate_change_and_the_new_geography_of_violence
[3] Nikki DeLuca’s blog post from
12/7/12: http://www.studentsonclimatechange.com/4/post/2012/12/does-this-add-up-no.html
.
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