Bonn Climate Conference - Day 1

The Bonn Climate Conference opened yesterday.  Opening remarks and welcomes from parties from around the world.  The speaking was the kind of speaking that was non-specific, designed to evoke emotional responses, rather than action.  It was speaking in the language of generalization, concept and platitude.  It was the speaking of hope, good intentions and ideals.  

And then someone spoke that broke the rhythm.  The representative from Angola said that the work being done was insufficient and that it was time to make a change.  That the 2 degree limit generally accepted as the danger point past which we should work to avoid was far to high, and that it was time to get serious about what it was going to take to keep the temperature increase to a maximum of 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial level.  The language of her speech was specific and action-oriented.  

When she was done talking, you could feel the shift in the environment of the meeting, and for a brief moment, something was different.  Then the next delegate spoke, the same kind of speaking as before and the meeting went back to hope and well wishes. But everyone had experienced that distinct moment when Angola spoke.

The Real Climate Crisis - A Climate of Hope and Optimism

I attended 350.org's Countdown to Paris meeting tonight in NYC.  The communication was clear - The pledges that will predictably be made at the COP21 climate conference this December in Paris will fall far short of being sufficient to mitigate the crisis in time.  And in the face of no strategy or plan to effectively deal with the predictable failure, the panel of experts expressed their optimism. Optimism is the heroin of the powerless.

Great progress has been made in the matter of climate change as a result of previous global climate conferences.  However, the kind of alignment and commitment now called for among all nations is unprecedented, and the consequences of a failed Paris conference are much more dire.  This is our last shot.  We have five years in which to take the actions that will make or break our planet as a sustainable environment.  Not fifty. Not a hundred. Five. 

At a time in our history when speaking and action should be at its boldest, it is actually moving in the opposite direction.  In an attempt to get the countries of the world to participate in the conference and the pledging process, the language has been so watered down that the countries aren't making promises or even commitments, but rather "intended nationally determined contributions".  In making the pledging process more comfortable, they have also eliminated the need to do the real work of confronting the cold hard reality of where we are headed and what it will take to resolve the situation in time. 

So rather than working from a future of what is wanted and needed REALLY to effectively deal with the REAL situation, we are working from a past of what is considered possible, with hope as the antidote to confronting what it will take to bridge the chasm between the actions being taken and what the crisis ACTUALLY calls for.  

What is needed is not best efforts or contributions or good intentions or optimism or even progress, but A REAL PROMISE. For someone in the crowd to stand up and say "I promise a future of sustainability.  I promise to ensure that the temperature of our planet will not exceed the agreed point of no return of 2 degrees C. I promise that the nations of the world will make that collective promise at COP21 in December." We should not count on politicians or scientists to make that promise.  If it is to come, it will come from you. And me. 

This is our time. This is our planet. This is our future. This is our promise to make.

Laughlin Artz
March 19, 2015

Stay Tuned - 350.org's Countdown to Paris

Tomorrow we will be covering the New York meeting of 350.org's Countdown to Paris.  Clock is ticking!

Letter from America to Iran

WHAT SUCCESS IN PARIS LOOKS LIKE

The critical registers for success of the upcoming Climate Change Conference in Paris have now been articulated.  If these outcomes are achieved, we as a global citizenry will have a viable shot at resolving the situation.  

This is key, both in the matter of the focus it can potentially bring to the conference itself, and for the opportunity this brings to the ordinary citizen to influence the success of the conference, both prior and during.

These outcomes are:
1.  An all-country commitment to full de-carbonization by 2050
2.  A global alignment on mobilizing carbon pricing as the means to full de-carbonization

3.  The establishment of a network of civil society partners accountable for ensuring that the commitments are realized 

This is extraordinary in the opportunity it opens up for direct citizen engagement in this process and in our future.  

Our job now is to reach the citizenry of the world, to let them know what success in Paris looks like, and to offer everyone everywhere the opportunity for their voices to be heard and to have their voices count.

The Right Crisis

The real crisis is not the crisis of climate change.  That crisis is already happening.  The crisis is the crisis that is screaming to be created and at present does not exist.  That crisis is the crisis that will come into existence only once we have promised to effectively mitigate the existing crisis, i.e. to ensure that the global temperature increase will not exceed 2 degrees Celsius.  This new crisis will be fomented by planting firmly in our future the promise of limiting the temperature increase to 2 degrees and working back from that future, rather than the current strategy of working from the past.

What is missing is the promise to limit the temperature increase to 2 degrees.  Absent that promise, the crisis that is wanted and needed will remain un-fomented, and with that, the tremendous and critical opportunities afforded by that crisis.

MLK

I wanted to write this, to let you know that I had a real breakthrough.  In the midst of working on the next episode of Context News, I happened to see on some random tv station an interview between Robert Penn and Martin Luther King, Jr., one i never heard and didn't even know existed.  Not the usual kind of speech, not a speech at all, but just a conversation.  

Toward the end of the interview, MLK talked on the specific kind of revolution that the civil right movement was/is, what it was really all about, and i heard it in a way that i had never heard it before, anywhere, from anyone.  it was very clear to me that it was very clear to him that it was about one thing and one thing only - Integrity.

I found the interview and excerpts from it, and interestingly none of them included the phrases i found most critical.  So i did the transcription myself, and will find a way to house those statements firmly at the heart of what we are doing.  Those statements and others which speak of the same kind of new language, the kind of new language that was the language Martin Luther King, Jr. lived and died for - yes, a new language of racial equality, but at the heart of it much bigger, much broader, much more revolutionary - the language of integrity.

The new language that we are creating Context News in service of, that our shows will be in service of, that all that we do will be in service of is the language of integrity.

This gives us a very clear access into the world we are out to change and also a way of speaking about what we are up to that makes it gettable, at least enough to get us in the door.

This might all seem obvious to you, and maybe i am just a bit slow to get it, but this discovery of what this all really is has opened up for me a whole new world of what is now there to create and manifest.

Thank you!!!

Love,

Laughlin

Paris 2015 Pledges - Your Business

If there is something that you want to make happen, there is one group you would not give it to - politicians.  And that is the group responsible for making the collective global pledges at the Paris Climate Conference to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  These people have failed to reach a similar agreement at any of the previous climate summits and to think that they will pull it off in Paris is not to be in the hard reality of the situation.  

Couple this with the lack of transparency of the process leading up to the conference, and it is a real recipe for disaster, both at the conference itself, and in what will then ensue environmentally.  

It is time for the individual, the ordinary world inhabitant, the global citizen to step up and demand to be a part of this process.  To take the stand that this planet is your planet, and not the property of governments.  Step up and act. Demand a seat at the table.  Make sure that the pledges made in Paris are sufficient to ensure that the global temperature does not increase beyond the critical 2 degree Celsius threshold.  Your voice is essential.

The Promise

The one critical element missing in all the work being done in the matter of climate change is that NO ONE is promising that we will take the actions as a global citizenry to ensure that the temperature does not increase beyond 2 degrees Celsius.  And that promise is there for the taking.  

Being Heard

Sometimes it seems I can't get heard.  Interesting place to be, where you can see exactly what's missing and yet have no actionable way to get it in.  It is so clear the difference that a conversation to shift the context would have in the matter of mitigating climate change, and there is the task of getting that conversation to the people who can run with it and make the biggest difference.  I am working on getting a meeting with the UN Secretary-General.  

I also have to secure some kind of funding to bridge the gap until the consulting work I am lining up comes through.  

Welcome to my Sunday.