United we stand, divided we sink

At the 2009 climate meeting in Copenhagen I was working at the Conference Board of Canada and up to my eyeballs in climate change adaptation work. Then, like now, I wish I could have been a part of these Paris talks. Such exciting times! I doubt if there ever was any chance of these just completed climate negotiations failing like they did in Copenhagen but beyond that, is this the breakthrough agreement the world needs to turn the corner towards sustainability? Is this ground breaking history in the making? Barack Obama says the deal is “best chance to save our planet”.  But will it work? Maybe, but I doubt it. After the brutal senseless murders in Paris last month, it shows some impressive resolve and resilience by our hardy species, maybe something to be proud of? It will buy us some time though. After all, we haven’t yet reached our peak with GHGs, we have a lot of pain to endure before turning this Titanic thing around. 

I used to think the climate change debate was designed to get us (US?) to slow down our consumptive ways, to become cleaner, more efficient and smarter, but now it’s just becoming another technological fix for the almighty economy – another way to make money. The so called Green economy is obviously a good way to do business but it only goes so far without real work and sacrifice. I don’t believe that the rich or developed nations want to sacrifice much but they (we) need to be seen as making a serious effort to avoid sea level rise which will imperil most countries equally.

Of course when push comes to shove, it’s the developed countries and rich people who have more options and flexibility to “adapt” to the ugly aspects of climate change. When we realize that this climate shift is bigger than us and has more momentum than we ever thought; the diplomatic gloves will come off and it will be everyone and every nation for itself. I’ll be glad that I won’t be around for that chapter of humanity. Still this agreement gives hope that we can actually work together for a common cause and there is no bigger or more important cause than maintaining our sweet spot; our “goldilocks” climate. Of course, Nature doesn’t care or discern if the planet has runaway greenhouse effect from GHGs created from burning stuff or volcanoes suddenly blowing their tops. She will do what she has always done to mop up the mess and continue nurturing life.

The Earth’s amazing ability to maintain homeostasis has been going on for billions of years. We either work with the natural rhythms and limits to nature or we face the consequences, nothing personal. Our quest for so called sustainability is a myth because this has never existed before and runs contrary to the laws of change which is what we get on this dynamic planet. Sustainability is a mythical goal that humanity must strive to define and live up to if we want to continue to be comfortable on this ship called Earth. It’s quite possible our descendents will look back at this Paris meeting in 2015, maybe in 50 or 500 years, and say that we made a sincere effort to find some kind of harmony on Earth but it was beyond our ability or means. Obviously without genuine belief this feat of survival can be achieved, we don’t have a chance! Maybe it will become clear that we blew the best chance we had and it will simply be the turn for another species to try its luck at this rodeo circus of life by clinging on to the bronking back of  Mother Earth?