Cop21 Conference: The significance of optimism and the number 1.5
The 147 world leaders who attended the long awaited climate talks in Paris have finally come to an agreement. The plan requires countries to keeping the rise in the global average temperature "well below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and "endeavor to limit" them even more, to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the year 2100, compared with pre-industrial levels.
It's been 4 days since the Paris Agreement was reached at the pivotal Cop21 conference. All 147 world leaders who attended the long and grueling discussion have finally agreed to the following. That by the year 2100 all countries must keep the rise in global average temperatures (as compared to pre-industrial levels), well below 2 degrees Celsius, and to try to keep them under 1.5.
Even wording it as simply as I could, the agreement still sounds technical, complicated, and specific, and that's because it is. While the official goal is to be below 2 degrees of warming, the 'less official goal' is 1.5 Celsius. During the conference, there was a big push to make the official goal 1.5 Celsius, rather 2.0 Celsius. 1.5 is the maximum rise in temperature that would keep many islands and those living on coasts out of the water. Unfortunately, a lot of these are developing nations, and as we know, developing nations are not always heard as loudly. Though developing nations generally have had the least impact on our rising temperatures, they will feel the worst of the effects, in this case, for the island peoples, there home's will likely be submerged. "1.5 to stay alive," was a slogan that ran throughout the campaign, and I really wish I had done more to help with that. Yes, having it as the unofficial goal will motivate many countries some, but if you pay any attention to politics, you'll notice that countries frequently get by on the bare minimum of what they have to do. Without that extra momentum, some necessary changes might not happen. I could have done something to help spread the slogan. Even a simple tweet with the hashtag would have been worthwhile, but I did nothing more than think about it. This is a habit that I need to change, and probably, the same goes for a lot of you as well. Laziness is all too easy. Change doesn't come out of laziness though; it's a sad fact of life.
That being said, I'll try to leave on a happier note by bringing up a speech Obama made earlier in the conference. It was a very optimistic speech. (although the first few sentences were a bit scary). A lot of people tend to be very pessimistic in the face of global warming, saying that our efforts don't matter because they won't change anything. 10 years ago people said it was because one person's efforts wouldn't matter. Nowadays you hear people saying that it's because it's too late for anyone's efforts to matter. You see what kind of ironic hole we've backed ourselves into?! Anyways, the next step into the future might look back on that second stage of pessimism that is happening now, and be just as angry as we are at the last. So you see why it's so important to be optimistic, and, I don't know the science behind it, but according to Obama there is in fact a point! That we can turn this thing around, even for ourselves!!! Listen to Obama guys, be optimistic, because hope is required for change and for action.
Stay tuned for future posts on how to achieve that change, and look at my eco instagram for more!: mindyourfootprint. Also, for more information on the Paris Agreement, this is a good article right here: http://time.com/4146764/paris-agreement-climate-cop-21/. Thank you so much for reading!
0 comments