It is february. New York is being ravaged by blizzards and I am finding my feet in my new job. The New York City Library is where I take refuge when the city seems to big and busy. This is where I legitimately can take "me" time and just evaluate my current projects. This is where I was when I realized....the focus on climate is a distraction. Our biggest challenge is sharing our resources. The climate change debate is about waste. Imagine our atmosphere as a garbage dump. We know that it is half full. We know who filled the first half. Our challenge is working out rights over who gets to fill the second half. Sounds childish, doesn't it? We are not focusing on how to get rid of the garbage...instead we are squabbling over who gets to fill the remainder and how much time they get to do so.
We did not get an agreement at COP, and we won't get one at Cancun. But it is not all negative. There is always hope. That is why youth can make a difference. That is why any individual can change the world. No global agreement is actually a good thing. It focused on reducing emissions. But that is not the root cause of global warming, or climate change. It is merely a symptom. We can't rely on treating the symptoms and expecting the disease to go away. We are focusing on the wrong thing. I am not saying that we should not work towards a global agreement, I studied Politics and Government, I understand their value. BUT I think it is much more important to try and put pressure on our governments to see what can be achieved on our own.
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