Almost exactly two years ago I arrived in the most pristine place on Earth. Antarctica in all its untouched whiteness and dazzling beauty was awe-inspiring. My three weeks there with British scientists persuaded me climate change was real, the ice was melting and rising seas threaten low-lying communities across the world.
To what extent the warming is man-made I leave to the scientists. But what seems clear is that doing nothing is not an option. And this week is the chance for the leaders of our world to act in a meaningful way.
The doomsayers believe it is all about the battle to save the planet… the stakes, they say, are that high. So when leaders including Gordon Brown meet in Copenhagen they’ll be hammering out a deal to avert catastrophe.
Sounds straight-forward, doesn’t it? Simple. Well, it’s anything but. First of all, never has the debate between the believers and the sceptics been so vicious and nasty. It’s as toxic as the carbon-filled air we’re apparently breathing.
The consensus in the scientific world is very firmly that global warming is real and that humankind is at least partly responsible. But the sceptics, few in number, are fighting a guerrilla-style campaign that seems to be growing in intensity. The world of climate change science has also become shrouded in allegations of murky dealing.
A professor, head of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, is accused of bias and of burying inconvenient truths in research papers to bolster the case for action on warming. It’s been seized upon, quite rightly, by the noisy non-believers.
And there are huge differences too among the countries attending Copenhagen. The biggest polluters, China, America and India, have all announced their own targets for cutting emissions. But they’re nowhere near drastic enough for what the UN experts want.
Difficulties are looming too over aid the developed world should give poorer countries. Experts say rich ones should fork out 50 billion dollars a year from 2015. They’re pledging well below that at the moment. Copenhagen is fraught with obstacles, but progress is possible. What sticks in my throat is the way the issue has been hijacked.
We don’t need mega-rich rock stars preaching the green life while running several homes, flying them and their bands across the globe and selling synthetic cds in plastic cases in their millions. The hypocrisy around climate change does no one any good.
And one last thing. What about the unspoken issue in Copenhagen? Population. One of the most fundamental issues when it comes to resources will go unaddressed. It may be politically incorrect to say it, but can we afford to let the world’s population keep growing as it is now? nIt will be the elephant in the room. The looming crisis that dare not speak its name.