Monday, December 14, 2015

12-14-2015 We are all Parisians now.


We are all Parisians now. The world has come together, both in the face of institutionally based opposition and threats of terrorism. Our nations have struck an accord to address our Climate Crisis. Scientists are wringing their hands that there are no enforceable mandates to lower our carbon consumption. 

There resides the space left for us, democracy, to push for 2°C or 1.5°C, for “Bike To The Future”, for “Soil Not Oil”, for “Leave It In The Ground.” And yes for "Peace and Environmental Justice." Democracy, that same force that pushed our national leaders to an acknowledgement of responsibility and requirement for action, is not written into the accord but it is in the streets of Paris. 


Neither two degrees centigrade nor 1.5°C are sustainable. Right now we are at 1°C and we are in the midst of the 6th extinction, a massive global die off of species. Our glaciers are melting and the world populations are on the move because their homelands are uninhabitable. So in my view the value of Paris is that nations recognize that there are limits, responsibilities and requirements for action. 

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