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President Jacob Zuma and top UN climate change official Christiana Figueres at the opening ceremony of COP17. Photo: Marilyn Bernard
President Jacob Zuma and several world leaders delivered stirring speeches in Durban on Tuesday evening on the need to act quickly to “save the world” from climate change – despite clear signals that political negotiators will once again delay the solutions recommended by most climate scientists.
“I don’t think you would want to disappoint the citizens of the globe... The world is in danger and we all agree that something needs to be done,” said Zuma.
“The world is looking at us with hope that we will take decisions that will save the globe for ourselves and the coming generations,” he told delegates at the opening of the crunch-time ministerial session of the 17th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17).
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also appealed to ministers and senior negotiators from 194 nations to “pull back from the abyss” before it was too late.
“Without exaggeration, we can say that the future of the planet is at stake... including the very survival of some nations... You are the people who can bring us back from the edge.”
Ban said many islands in the Pacific and elsewhere were in danger of slipping beneath the waves.
“I have seen open sea where ice once dominated the horizon.”
He had seen dried-up lakes in North Africa and the Americas, and had met thousands of people who had lost their homes to floods or the spread of deserts.
“Is this the future we want? A world of out of control, climate change, and a devastating scarcity of vital resources? The answer is clear, even if the exact path is not.”
Yet, despite the high expectations for action, Ban acknowledged that the goal of signing a legally-binding climate change agreement “may be beyond our reach – for now”.
He said none of the uncertainties should prevent real progress being made in Durban, provided negotiations were conducted with “seriousness and persistence”. “We might liken it to riding a bicycle. You stay upright and move forward so long as you keep up the momentum.”
He reminded delegates that the World Meteorological Organisation had said that carbon emissions were now at their highest level in history.
The UN’s Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change had said that greenhouse gas levels had to be chopped in half by 2050, while the International Energy Agency had warned that the world was approaching the “point of no return”.
Yet despite impassioned calls for action delivered last night, there was no indication of a break in the political log-jam between the US on one hand and powerful developing countries like China, India, Brazil and SA.
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Anonymous, wrote
The CO2 level caused by humans is MINISCULE. The environment puts forth much much more itself; e.g. from volcanoes. The earth has experienced in its history climate changes that did not destroy it. We are experiencing nothing unusual, nothing abnormal in light of the earth's past changes. It heats. It cools. There's ice. It melts. It freezes again. These changes are not "irrovocable." There is constant change. What you are reading is propoganda used to instill a fear in people so they will bend to and follow the cause which government will only use to control global society. I am glad to read in the comments that not everyone is blindly falling for this scare tactic of the human race being in danger and need to come back from the abyss of a global climate change made out to be something disastrous, which it is not. We are more in danger of the powers that be.
@joe, wrote
Joe, are you a scientist? What exactly do you know about climate change? We are no longer saying that humans are causing all climate change (because it offends thick people like you), what we are saying is that if we do not reduce the level of CO2 in our atmosphere the earth's climate will change irrevocably. That means foever Joe. Could we be any clearer?
lehlogonolo, wrote
Whether the cycles are natural or not, smoke stinks, so I will support any effort to clean our air.
joe, wrote
Mr. Ban is not a scientist, he is an idiot as are the 30000 in Durban. For goodness sake wake up all you pseudo scientists
Random Angler, wrote
well said badballie.....all this hot air is about advancing the self interests of a small band of environmental terrorists. same applies to many of the environmental laws enacted in SA...based on absolute hogwash and the so called 'precautionary rule' - devoid of scientific basis and a mosaic of disinformation sewn together to fabricate a blanket of untruths. give us our beaches back so we can drive to our fishing spots and enjoy our God given right to access the country's splendid resource. only the super wealthy, foreigners or greenies (leave only foot prints) can now access a resource that once upon a time we could all enjoy!!! GIVE IT BACK!!!
badballie, wrote
Stories like this are great in that they highlight that governments internationally are lying to their citizens and are actively involved in one of the most heinous cover ups of all time. Climate change is a natural cycle that CANNOT be stopped, assertions by world leaders that we need to act now to stop the cycle are an outright lie, even if every living thing on the planet disappeared instantly the cycle would still continue. secondly, any assertion that islands are being destroyed by rising sea levels is also an outright lie, anyone with even the slightest knowledge knows that all the worlds sea bodies are connected, there for any increase in sea level will be uniform and universal. The only variation in sea level being due to moon movement and the slosh effect. The simple truth is that any area being flooded anywhere in the world at present is due to Teutonic plate movement land is sinking as the plates below it settle, and most definitely not due to sea levels rising.
Polygamy causes overpopulation, wrote
A conference characterised by big spending, big carbon footprints, and big mouths spewing CO2. A case of do as we say, not do as we do. This planet we call home is overpopulated with people. Birth control, not climate control, is needed. Perhaps if there were fewer MP's driving big, expensive limousines, and wasting our taxes on air travel, they might make a contribution. I'm surprised the headline didn't say: "Zuma saves the World."
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