The collapse of an Antarctic ice shelf underscored the seeming ineffectuality of the latest UN climate talks that wrapped up this past week. As reported on Economist.com:
. . . with America’s tree-hugging new leadership in place, and with a green stimulus suddenly in vogue, the outlook for a deal at the climate jamboree in Copenhagen at the end of the year has brightened somewhat. So it was with keen anticipation that the first of a series of preparatory pow-wows opened last week in Bonn. . . . But the rapture soon subsided, as differences re-emerged over how fast and far countries should cut their greenhouse-gas emissions.
Things certainly aren’t looking any better for the small island nations of the world. While AOSIS may have rocked it, the conference was widely reported as a failure in regard to the leadership of developed nations.
Nevertheless, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer tried to put on a happy face:
With all due respect to Mr. de Boer, islanders aren’t sitting around and waiting. From a recently inaugurated climate adaptation center on Mosuni to marine environmental protection on Reunion, check out what they’re up to with the help of their allies.
Even Barack Obama’s island home is taking the initiative. Or, perhaps, just trying to take up the slack?
