Nearly 150 world leaders met in Paris at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference to discuss the issue of global warming and the health of our planet.
If you’re wondering “What’s the big deal with the planet?”, I’m glad you moved out of the rock you’ve been living under. Now allow me to catch you up.
Basically, since the industrial revolution in the late 1800s, people around the world have been burning coal and gasoline to fuel their machines and power pretty much everything. When we burn these materials, they release carbon emissions, also known as greenhouse gases, into the atmosphere. Those gases wrap around the earth like a big smog blanket, causing the earth’s surface to gradually warm up. This slow increase in temperature has caught up with us; now it's disturbing the balance in our environment and causing more intense hurricanes, droughts, floods, storm surges and other bad things.
The climate conference, held from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11, 2015, is looking for ways to avoid such disasters. The meeting is known as COP 21, or the twenty-first “Conference of the Parties”.
The first COP on climate change was held in Berlin in 1995. Since then, progress has been slow. It was not until COP 17 in 2011 that all leaders actually committed to slow global warming. Last year, COP 20 took a big step forward when all countries agreed to submit emission reduction plans.
There is a greater since of urgency with this year’s conference, however. As more and more scientists agree on the reality of global warming, major government leaders believe the time for scientific debate has passed. Their goal is to reach a global, legally-binding agreement that keeps earth’s average temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius, a number scientists find to be critical.
What happens if we go above that number? Environmental experts say the results could be catastrophic. Droughts, wildfires, rising sea levels, and animal extinctions are among the negative effects. If the average temperature continues to rise, polar ice caps will melt and and oceans will submerge major coastal cities, displacing millions of people. That leads to overpopulation, world hunger, and all around chaos.
President Obama was among the many attendees of COP 21. Upon returning from Paris, Obama told CBS that there is no longer a scientific dispute on climate change. He asserts that global warming has to be dealt with immediately, and his administration plans to establish a system to continue lowering carbon emissions and increasing clean energy.
In a State of the Union address, the president described climate change as the greatest threat to future generations. Some Obama opponents criticized that comment in light of recent terror attacks, but Obama stood by his statement in his interview with CBS.
“Climate change poses not only a medium and long-term threat, but it actually makes all the other threats worse. When you start seeing major shifts in climate, that translates into droughts, floods, refugees, people who are displaced. It puts strains on every country, particularly poor countries, and that then aggravates the possibilities of war, conflict, and terrorism,” the president said.
It’s safe to say climate change needs to be dealt with. But can we reduce emissions fast enough to beat the heat? Can lead emission producers like the United States and China significantly cut back and make the switch to clean energy? We may not have a choice.
Forbes Magazine on COP 21: http://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2015/...
CBS News on Why 2 degrees are so important: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/paris-un-climate-talks...
