Friday, December 14, 2018
Inconvenient COP
“We cannot fail in Katowice.” So Secretary General Guterres warned in Poland last week at the outset of the COP 24 conference of parties to the UNFCCC convention, which began in 1992. Nine years ago, at the pivotal COP 15 in Copenhagen, I was among those who saw a glimmer of hope. But the politicians, those who manage the form the awakening must take for humanity to unite to prevent climate catastrophe, have provided scant leadership over these 25 years, during which CO2 emissions have increased 65%.
It’s that time of year again, when Advent coincides with the COP. The challenge in Katowice, which is to outline a firm mechanism for achieving the carbon reduction goals pledged by 197 nations in Paris in 2015, is inconvenient for the nations of the world. They would rather deal with slightly less intractable issues. And it is inconvenient to Christians who don’t yet understand that, unless we have a viable species, we can’t worship the coming of the Christ-child.
I recently had an online debate with a colleague who claimed that “Politics is the major determinant of our lives.” I disagreed, pointing to instances where individuals overcame the external determinants of politics through inner spiritual development. But if we do not have a form to ensoul in, my point is moot. So, building upon his point, I will amend it to “Climate politics is the major determinant for the survival of our species.” Some people, their numbers probably accelerating as we approach the Event Horizon (not a Christianized Saturnalia, but the Incarnation as we never imagined it), will achieve enlightenment/moksha. But the billions who will require bodies in which to reincarnate to complete their spiritual perfection will be out of options – at least in the universe as we know it.
When I carried hope for the UN-led process, Barack Obama was president. He went personally to COP15, where he brokered the outlines of an agreement with the president of China, then our biggest opponent in the process of drawing up an international treaty to fight climate disruption. At COP 24, China is the leader of the forces attempting to drive a wedge against the Climate Beast, while the US is working with Russia and the Saudis to weaken the framework set in Paris. At COP 24, with Donald Trump having served notice that the US will withdraw form the Paris Accord as soon as contractually possible, the US has been further reduced from irrelevancy to laughing stock. Our executive, executor of the international goodwill towards the US that has been built since WWII, seized the COP24 stage to sell US coal, his agents improbably arguing that the right mix of fossils would help in the climate war. This may have delighted his base in the US, but the assembled company in Katowice literally laughed at the presentation. Sadly, extinction is no joke.
“Our world leaders have been behaving like children.” This is the judgment of my latest climate hero, Greta Thunberg, the Swedish 15-year-old who has been on strike from school in an effort to get political leaders to awaken from their moral torpor. Greta speaks from Stockholm every Friday. At first, she stood outside Parliament, where the cameras delivered a clear message. Now Parliament has forced her to move over the bridge, but those who are initiated into her courage don’t need the government trappings to get her point. In Katowice, where she has been featured in several venues, including an address to the hall of delegates, Greta has made it clear that “we” - the youth who are present in force at the conference, “are not here to beg world leaders to act,” but to serve notice that, since those leaders have consistently failed us, the people, led by those in their teens and twenties, will get the job done themselves.
In the UK, where Theresa May has withdrawn the Brexit deal for lack of votes, and public unrest like that tearing France apart is waiting in the wing, the other wing is soaring. The Extinction Rebellion, which means exactly what it says, was able to stop traffic in London, simultaneously occupying five bridges. Then with a sit-in of over one thousand, they blocked access to Parliament,. In just a matter of weeks, they have over 100,000 members world-wide. I am one of them.
Back in the US, the youthful Sunrise Movement blocked access to Nancy Pelosi’s office two weeks ago to demand that she lead a Green New Deal package as her top priority for the new Congress in January. A colleague drives his high school daughter to the actions, and reports an impressive degree of political sophistication and passion among the youthful protesters.
Greta Thunberg has called for a global climate strike by students today, December 14. There are already large-scale school strikes in Australia, with Canada also gaining energy and numbers. I sense that this is just the beginning, and my readers can help drive the momentum. Stand with Greta on Fridays at government offices, schools, and other public places. Write letters to the editor. More importantly, recored your own strike event and share it widely. This is what an extinction rebellion looks like.
It’s that time of year again, when Advent coincides with the COP. The challenge in Katowice, which is to outline a firm mechanism for achieving the carbon reduction goals pledged by 197 nations in Paris in 2015, is inconvenient for the nations of the world. They would rather deal with slightly less intractable issues. And it is inconvenient to Christians who don’t yet understand that, unless we have a viable species, we can’t worship the coming of the Christ-child.
I recently had an online debate with a colleague who claimed that “Politics is the major determinant of our lives.” I disagreed, pointing to instances where individuals overcame the external determinants of politics through inner spiritual development. But if we do not have a form to ensoul in, my point is moot. So, building upon his point, I will amend it to “Climate politics is the major determinant for the survival of our species.” Some people, their numbers probably accelerating as we approach the Event Horizon (not a Christianized Saturnalia, but the Incarnation as we never imagined it), will achieve enlightenment/moksha. But the billions who will require bodies in which to reincarnate to complete their spiritual perfection will be out of options – at least in the universe as we know it.
When I carried hope for the UN-led process, Barack Obama was president. He went personally to COP15, where he brokered the outlines of an agreement with the president of China, then our biggest opponent in the process of drawing up an international treaty to fight climate disruption. At COP 24, China is the leader of the forces attempting to drive a wedge against the Climate Beast, while the US is working with Russia and the Saudis to weaken the framework set in Paris. At COP 24, with Donald Trump having served notice that the US will withdraw form the Paris Accord as soon as contractually possible, the US has been further reduced from irrelevancy to laughing stock. Our executive, executor of the international goodwill towards the US that has been built since WWII, seized the COP24 stage to sell US coal, his agents improbably arguing that the right mix of fossils would help in the climate war. This may have delighted his base in the US, but the assembled company in Katowice literally laughed at the presentation. Sadly, extinction is no joke.
“Our world leaders have been behaving like children.” This is the judgment of my latest climate hero, Greta Thunberg, the Swedish 15-year-old who has been on strike from school in an effort to get political leaders to awaken from their moral torpor. Greta speaks from Stockholm every Friday. At first, she stood outside Parliament, where the cameras delivered a clear message. Now Parliament has forced her to move over the bridge, but those who are initiated into her courage don’t need the government trappings to get her point. In Katowice, where she has been featured in several venues, including an address to the hall of delegates, Greta has made it clear that “we” - the youth who are present in force at the conference, “are not here to beg world leaders to act,” but to serve notice that, since those leaders have consistently failed us, the people, led by those in their teens and twenties, will get the job done themselves.
In the UK, where Theresa May has withdrawn the Brexit deal for lack of votes, and public unrest like that tearing France apart is waiting in the wing, the other wing is soaring. The Extinction Rebellion, which means exactly what it says, was able to stop traffic in London, simultaneously occupying five bridges. Then with a sit-in of over one thousand, they blocked access to Parliament,. In just a matter of weeks, they have over 100,000 members world-wide. I am one of them.
Back in the US, the youthful Sunrise Movement blocked access to Nancy Pelosi’s office two weeks ago to demand that she lead a Green New Deal package as her top priority for the new Congress in January. A colleague drives his high school daughter to the actions, and reports an impressive degree of political sophistication and passion among the youthful protesters.
Greta Thunberg has called for a global climate strike by students today, December 14. There are already large-scale school strikes in Australia, with Canada also gaining energy and numbers. I sense that this is just the beginning, and my readers can help drive the momentum. Stand with Greta on Fridays at government offices, schools, and other public places. Write letters to the editor. More importantly, recored your own strike event and share it widely. This is what an extinction rebellion looks like.
Labels: Advent, COP24, Copenhagen COP 15, Event Horizon, Extinction Rebellion, global climate strike, Greta Thunberg, Paris Accord, Sunrise Movement, UNFCCC
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