Getting to Copenhagen, a Reason to Worry

Sphere: Related Content GinaMarie Cheeseman recently posted from Care2 Global Warming about Why the U.S. Must Take Action to Save Copenhagen.

One of the reasons the Barcelona talks were not a rousing success is because the U.S. refused to offer targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions. Jonathan Pershing, chief U.S. negotiator, said little when questioned by reporters about U.S. targets. “I have no information to share with you on that… We are studying this question. It's a decision that is yet to be made.”

Unfortunately, the next day she is wondering Is Copenhagen a Lost Cause?

She, like I am, not very optimistic about the chances of a legally binding treaty coming out of Copenhagen in December.

The Earth Negotiations Bulletin reported that some delegates at climate change talks last week in Barcelona were “contemplating the increasingly clear high-level messages that a legally binding agreement at COP 15 will not be possible." The Chair at B Barcelona, John Ashe, from Antigua and Barbuda, said that progress was “less than desirable.”

This story from Change.Org supports that view.

Obama Disses Copenhagen

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has laid out his benchmarks for success at the upcoming international climate change talks in Copenhagen, calling on developed and developing countries to do all they can do to cut emissions. But as Stop Global Warming guest blogger Mike Smith notes, it may be too early for Ban Ki-Moon to count on the Obama administration to dance to the same climate change rhythm. (Read more)

Why this is so discouraging is that the stakes are so great. GinaMarie Cheeseman in another post wrote that Kilimanjaro's Ice Cover May Be Another Climate Change Casualty. I added photos, video and links to additional resources. The preponderance of evidence is substantial.

In 13 to 24 years Ernest Hemingway’s short story, The Snows of Kilimanjaro may serve as a reminder of what the world has lost due to climate change. The snow-capped volcano in Tanzania might be ice-free within the next two decades, according to a study(pdf) recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal.

More graphic evidence is available from NASA. Click on the photos for more information

November 1990

December 2000

Finally, from TED Video, Yann Arthus-Bertrand has captured the fragile beauty of the Earth. Through video and film, his latest projects bind together ecology and humanism.

Meet me at the Wall

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From

Climate Change or for this blog Millennium Development Goal 7. Environmental Sustainability is the issue with the most significant impacts both nationally and globally. It is not enough for us to get our own environmental house in order, we must also work to Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources, across the planet. We cannot lead, however, if we don't start first with ourselves.

The idea of creating a clean energy economy is starting to become more of a reality in America. Far more so than it was in 2007 when I first started dealing with this issue, though far more sceptically than now. This blog and Web 2.0 have been an important factors in the journey from that point to this.

One particular aspect of interest has been the ability of organizations to use the power of Web 2.0 to enhance collaboration. The challenge has been how to move from the virtual world to the everyday real world, while still maintaining the connections. Often these efforts are somewhat parallel with feedback. People sign up and coordinate collectively, act individually as groups geographically separated, and report in collectively. The Stand Up Take Action End Poverty, and 350.org global wide efforts are examples. These efforts are time-specific to create maximum affect on a specific issue at a specific time to create maximum exposure for press coverage.

The Wall is a place where literally thousands and thousands of people committed to a revolutionary new energy future for our nation and the world are coming together -- to express our hopes, share our resolve, and step up to a leadership role in building a grassroots movement for change like nothing America has ever seen. It's an opportunity for you to be part of the climate movement in a new way, in a way that takes us beyond ourselves.

Share your voice on The Repower America Wall right now.

I am still uncertain how effective this progressive "shock and amaze" or "shock and annoy" is really. It can be great for inspiring the true believers, but how effective it is moving the mainstream majority is still an open question. A better approach may be the The Repower America Wall. The Wall is collaborative and primarily online. They are reaching out to the real world through main stream media outlets such as TV.

Watch our first national TV ad featuring the faces and voices of supporters like you.

In the coming weeks and months, the messages you add will be part of a groundbreaking new campaign that speaks directly to our elected leaders on the television stations they watch, the radio they listen to, and the newspapers they read. The more photos and videos and thoughts that you add, the more powerful The Wall will be.

Today's national ad begins an aggressive new phase of our campaign. With your passion and the power of your voice, we will break through on clean energy and overwhelm the powerful special interests who profit the most by blocking progress.

The language is inspiring, but this effort was made for slacktivists, of whom I am one. Individuals can decide their own level of activism and then create a combined story. The effort does not have an apparent end point, so it can continue to grow, perhaps even more organically than the 350.org, which appealed more to true activists.

Three days ago they reached over 15,000 supporters of a clean energy future who have posted a message on The Wall. The question is whether they will be able to reach a tipping point in regards to collective activism. If all those who support this effort join and convince those slightly less convinced then this take a cascading viral path, but people need to be aware of it and take at least the action of going online. Fortunately, those most likely to support this effort are also more likely to have the knowledge and initiative.

Join thousands of fellow supporters at the Repower America Wall now.

A growing demand for clean energy from all of us together sends a powerful message to our leaders: American support for clean energy is broad and deep.

We're beginning to break through. But to get our leaders to listen and make clean energy a reality, we must rise up in numbers to make our voices heard -- to overwhelm the voices clamoring for the status quo.

We're competing with powerful interests who are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to protect their profits and block clean energy reforms at the expense of our families, our jobs, and our planet.

With every new message you add to The Wall you demonstrate that the most powerful interest in this fight isn't the oil or the coal lobby -- it's the American people joining together, speaking as one, for a clean energy future.

Add your voice to the Repower America Wall now

We all Stood Up, now which pathway from here?

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The Stand Up event is still getting a good deal of press, at least on the Stand Up and related websites, but its time to move on. First though, I am going to take some time to reassess this effort and what I have learned.

I have learned a great deal since starting on this pathway, more than I can actually absorb, so some resources have been put aside until I could get back to them. One of the positive aspects of the World Wide Web is that any one particular resource will most likely contain a plethora of additional resources. An original source for this effort was the work of Jeffery Sachs' UN Millennium Project. Sachs on Common Wealth was found on Chandan Sapkota's blog which in turn deals with economic growth, development, and public policy in the developing countries, so it fits nicely with the focus of this blog. Chandan's blog provides a number of Interesting links and some insightful ideas with his idea of Intervention Diagnostic. I still prefer an analytical approach to an emotional based one.

I am still optimistic. I still believe in basic liberal democratic free enterprise as laying out the path most likely able to take us to a new and better millennium. Alex Tabarrok of my favorite economics blog Marginal Revolution, doesn't mention the Millennium Development Goals in this TED video, but does cite the growth of China and India and touches on MDG2 global education and MDG8 trade.

• Alex Tabarrok on how ideas trump crises | Video on TED.com

I maintain my basic belief in an entrepreneurial approach though with a strong social aspect, realizing this is an oxymoron to many on both ends of the political spectrum. Still there are those who, even if they criticize current policy and practices, remain capitalists, perhaps not unfettered uber-capitalists, but at least they still believe in free enterprise, despite the latest economic crisis.

The challenge is that if we still believe in free enterprise after the worst recession since the Great Depression, then we need to find better ways of using the tools of capitalism. This TEDTalk video features Geoff Mulgan: Post-crash, investing in a better world.

Frogdesign champion Tim Leberecht provides additional pathways for the Future of Capitalism through Meaning-Driven Business.

One example of this is Umar Haique who argues that we need to re-boot capitalism. And like Reinhard Marx, he focuses on a re-definition of “capital.” His concept of “constructive capitalism,” however, is more radical than the social market economy solution Marx proposes.

Haique demands that 21st century economics fundamentally rethink “what capital isn’t – and what capital really is.” “The value equation of industrial-era capitalism was toxically imbalanced. Why is industrial era business so destructive – why does it slash and burn rainforests, endanger entire species, vaporize culture and community, marginalize the poor and disadvantaged, and erode our health and vitality? Because none of those have value in an industrial economy: none are capitalized. So the bean counters of the world are free to plunder and ruin them – because, economically, they actually don’t exist.

Tim Leberecht work provides inspiration for some, like Nathaniel Whittemore, to actually see a Rebirth of Capitalism? Social Entrepreneurship blogger Nathaniel Whittemore notes that, "In the social entrepreneurship field there's a huge push to proclaim a self-fulfilling prophecy of a capitalist rebirth that puts social and environmental value back into the heart of the equation."

Where social entrepreneurship is heading is discussed by Heidi Neck, Candida Brush and Elaine Allen in the The Landscape Of Social Entrepreneurship(pdf.)

Entrepreneurship has often been cited as the engine of economic growth (Reynolds, Storey, & Westhead, 1994). Today, economic growth is still necessary, but no longer sufficient. Social entrepreneurship is the engine of positive, systemic change that will alter what we do, how we do it, and why it matters.