Will the world end in 2012?

DEC 21, 2012

People have pondered.
Philosophers have proposed.
Mayans have calculated.
Nostradamus has prophesied.
NASA found- solar flares are endorsed.
Atom crashers is preparing itself for a black hole.
Volcanic eruptions are building up.
Religious fanatics have preached.
Meteors have planned to attack.
Physicists have visioned a catastrophic event.
Magnetic poles have decided to reverse.
Aliens have plotted taking over the earth.

But will the will we all die ? MAYBE
why ? BECAUSE of Carbon DIE oxide levels.

DEC 31, 2012

Kyoto Protocol is the strongest political decision to reduce collective greenhouse gas emissions globally. Moreover, its the only protocol that allows for a differentiation between the nature of responsibility between developed countries and developing countries actions. It went as far as acknowledging historically who emitted more.

Kyoto had the power to protect people’s right to development and their future with one little catch - like every good insurance policy, it had to be renewed. And the renewal date for the second commitment period is set for 31 DEC 2012.

The Kyoto Protocol (KP) has been in trouble since US decided not to ratify it. Since then, negotiations to find global solutions to climate change have evolved into two tracks, with one working on an agreement the US might eventually participate in and one building on the work Kyoto could deliver now. The Ad hoc working group on the Kyoto Protocol was established to ensure a second Kyoto commitment period so the world could have a tool for global collaboration on climate change - while the US got it’s act together. Pledges were noted. Markets were established. And projects to reduce carbon DIE oxide levels were set up in countries all over the world.

Until, Copenhagen happened. Governments were so busy involving the biggest country in the world in a dream treaty that they forgot to ensure the future of the Kyoto Protocol and left it out for the talks in Cancun the next year. The fight has always been to defer progress in one track because of lack of progress in another. A bit like a jurisidiction problem faced at local levels back in India - where the MCD says that the work hasn’t been done because of the state gov’t. The state gov’t in turn says due to the lack of progress in the matter at the central gov’t level, they would have to delay decision on proposed action. A simple task of cleaning dustbins or a reviewing tax on property becomes stalled, even though all three levels have the capacity to fulfill and complete the task.

It only gets worse from here. Post-Copenhagen, a key govt, ironically the same govt that hosted the landmark historical conference which gave birth to the Kyoto Protocol, decided to give up its baby. The outlook grew dark as they decided not to carry forward the legacy they initiated by not wanting the 2nd commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.

In Cancun, countries made progress to talk about a so called link between existing kyoto protocol track and the track with the US on it. But there was pressure to make the KP irrelevant. Weaker. Big advanced developing countries like India and China cut a compromise by transcending both tracks and agreeing on verification and monitoring of how they reduce emissions.

But looks like someone’s developed cold feet, or maybe countries just went back and started learning what they did wrong. In Bangkok, talks are centered around what should be the agenda of the conversation. The chair had difficulty in coming up with an agenda for the meeting hence the morning plenary today focused around the key questions of clarity of the next commitment period,steps to raise the level of ambition and to resolve whether commitments should come first or the rules that govern them.
The list can be found here.

With high level of uncertainty of the KP continuing, the G77 group of countries with special emphasis on Tuvalu, Marshall Islands and Small Island States called for STRONG POLITICAL ACTION and a process to draft and come up with a document with country’s commitments listed for the second commitment period (or the KP2 as nerds like myself call it). While countries like Switzerland believed that “We have to understand what the numbers mean and we cannot agree to numbers without knowing what they are” as well as other developed countries.

Climate negotiators might beat all of these millions of people who believe that the world will end in 2012. Not only that, the climate talks will be standing proof of it.

Its still moving in circles. But just like when you learn that you’re dying - you start living fully. I hope negotiators decide for the best, and at least in the most cliche way possible to SAVE THE WORLD from catastrophic climate change and end and 2012.

Just like the Mayans ran out of paper to complete their calendar, scientific studies found to have the wrong assumptions, volcanoes long last dead, the old fashion-ness of Nostradamus and the advent of Twitter and Facebook.

Tomorrow, the mystery will be solved hopefully. And certainty will prevail.
And you, I and the rest of the youth will be able to see our cute babies live beautiful lives.