On world leaders and climate change

Never underestimate the power of your opinion.

Permalink Reply by sudhir on June 1, 2009 at 3:29am: Dont know about world leaders..............as far as my country goes.....but how does one get a person(s) to understand the need to save the environment when this person does not know where her / his next meal will come from - how to provide her kids with water to drink ? when the authorities will bulldoze their temporary homes and render them homeless ?
- does this person even care ?
- is it correct to expect this sort of an outlook / response / action from them ?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Katrina Encanto on June 1, 2009 at 3:58am: Dear Sudhir,

Allow me to explain the context of this video.

This December, 192 leaders will meet in Copenhagen for the UN Summit for Climate Change. Youtube and Cannes Lions teamed up with Oxfam International to generate awareness for the cause, by coming up with a competition that asked people to make a video that will tell people to sign a petition - one that will tell leaders to come up with an agreement that is safe, fair and ambitious. They targeted an audience of people from 18-35, who are aware of climate change, but not necessarily of the Copenhagen Summit.

Your sentiments are indeed valid, and while I do understand where you are coming from, I don't think this outlook is completely lost. Expecting leaders to listen to public opinion is an optimistic thought, but it is not an impossible one. In my country for example, we've seen Presidents taken out of office because of people power and democratic opinion.

While I have seen my share of betrayal from people in power, I do see merit in staying empowered about issues such as climate change, rather that helpless.

Thanks for sharing! :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by sudhir on June 1, 2009 at 10:59pm: Hey Katrina,

Thanks for the explanation. And I am totally with you as far as the casue goes. I am part of a group in my neighbourhood that puts up stiff opposition to those who are out to reclaim Mangroves' land for building their concrete complexes. And we have quite a following too. Although the ones that are with us come from the upper middle class of the society we live in and believe in new age values.

What I was talking about was the extremely impoverished who give two hoots to whether the mangroves are in place or not, and are ready to dive in there (at the promise of a few bucks), and uproot them overnight. And once that damage is done, the law of this land cannot do much about it. And much of this so called land-grabbing happens because of the so called influential leaders.

So I was wondering, if in countries like mine, leaders are bothered enough to push for such issues or is it still a race to get the maximum votes from uneducated and unaware masses.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Katrina Encanto on June 2, 2009 at 2:56am: Hey Sudhir,

You are absolutely right. The extremely impoverished will not care about climate change, and see only as far as their next meal. It is true as well for my country. That is why I think this initiative targeted those who do know about a bit about it - because the people who CAN do something about should do so by signing.

I think that is also the idea of having this UN Summit for Climate Change. The idea of the petition is for people all over the world to express their sentiments and pressure leaders to take action on the issue and create a deal that works for all of humanity. Ideally it should be followed. Like what Mark said below, it is truly a planetary issue, and it really cannot be solved by just one country. We will have to see what happens at Copenhagen.

Am happy to hear that you are doing your share with trying to reclaim Mangroves' land. It's always interesting to see how other countries are trying to deal with issues that affect us all. :)

Best,

Katrina; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by sudhir on June 2, 2009 at 5:15am: Hey Katrina,

Thanks for initiating this thought-provoking discussion chain.

Hope we get more topics like these to discuss on.

:)

Regards
Sudhir; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Katrina Encanto on June 2, 2009 at 9:30am: My pleasure Sudhir. Thank you for sharing your insights as well :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Mark Huckabee on June 1, 2009 at 4:31am: I think it is interesting to contrast this with a recent forum discussion I started ( here ). My belief is that many (most?) individuals are not willing to make the changes necessary to significantly affect our climate. It will require government action.

It is also clearly not the problem of one country nor can it be solved by only one country. A solution can however be undermined by only one country who refuses to change for the good of all. This is truly a planetary issue (see here ).

It will be interesting to see what happens in Copenhagen.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Katrina Encanto on June 1, 2009 at 7:35pm: Hey Mark!

Another blog posted my link and aroused quite a discussion as well. Some of the replies give information on how the government (in Toronto for example) has started to pass resolutions on plastic bags and rebates on replacing heating and aircon models to more efficient ones. Definitely I think government action is required for a problem of this scale.

http://www.ellentordesillas.com/?p=5565

Hoping things go well in Copenhagen as well.; ▶ Reply to This

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