The Philippines’ climate change chief has broken down while delivering an emotional plea at the United Nations conference COP 19, and asked the international community to take action on climate change – and soon.
More than 10,000 people are thought to have been killed by Typhoon Haiyan – a storm which devastated the speaker’s hometown. He is still waiting to find out the fate of his own relatives.
Yeb Sano, the country’s climate change commissioner, told the other conference delegates that, “I struggle to find words even for the images that we see on the news coverage … And I struggle to find the words to describe how I feel about the losses.”
Sano asked the international community present at the conference to “stop this madness right now”, and start making a concerted effort to combat climate change. He continued:
I speak for my delegation, but I speak for the countless people who will no longer be able to speak for themselves after perishing from the storm.
I speak also for those who have been orphaned by the storm. I speak the people now racing against time to save survivors and alleviate the suffering of the people affected.
We can take drastic action now to ensure that we prevent a future where super typhoons become a way of life.
Australia is not being represented at the conference by a senior member of the Abbott government.
Please share if you believe climate change is real and that the planet needs action now.
Top Comments
Despite all the very passionate arguments from both sides, let's agree that man made climate change has not been proven or disproven at this stage, and that until the scientists get to the bottom of it none of us will ever win the argument.
With that in mind, I'd like to make the following long winded point...
If we do nothing and man made climate change turns out to be not real, at the end of the day there is no problem.
If we take measures to drastically cut emissions and the whole thing turns out to be not real, then we have spent a lot of money but perhaps stimulated the economy and created stacks of jobs, we have less pollution, healthier lungs and are not so worried about 'peak oil'.
If we take measures to drastically cut emissions and man made climate change IS real, maybe we'll have done enough to survive on this planet and we'll all pat ourselves on the back for acting before it was too late.
If we do NOTHING and it IS real, the human species (and many others) may be wiped out and we'll only have ourselves to blame.
Considering the four ways this could all play out, is it really sensible to ignore the possibility that climate change is happening and continue to do nothing about it?
The problem with your thesis is the fact that we cannot cut pollution. Apart from Nuclear energy there is no other way to provide to provide power. And seeing as we're not even close to getting a reactor online, the gasoline car and coal fired power plants will be with us for a little while yet. Also as the 3rd world is currently developing, it is unlikely that global emissions of greenhouse gases will go down. The problem we have here is that all life on this planet requires energy in one form or another and it's unlikely humans will go willingly to live back in the caves and hunt and gather.
With about 100 years of coal left in the ground, if we don't seek an alternative we may be doing that anyway!
You need to backup the 100 years with facts please. Link? As I said earlier, nuclear is the only option. Nothing else comes close to it.
Google oil reserves for yourself - there is no definitive, single link on any of this as nobody can know this, as you well know, hence I said 'about 100 years.' Are you disputing the figure? If so, please send me your link telling me this is grossly incorrect.
The consensus of climate experts (i.e. those who went to school, got an education and specialised in the field of climate) are pretty much all in agreement. Climate Change is real and it is man made.
Now, if you have a differing opinion from the experts, but have no actual training in Climate Science, then you really do not have a right to voice an opinion, as it is based on ignorance. If you think that it is all a hoax and want to prove the experts wrong, then go to school, learn the science, learn how to gather stats and how to interpret the data and get that piece of paper saying that you are qualified. Otherwise, go away and let's get on with the important business of SAVING OUR PLANET!
This article is specifically linking a single storm to man made climate change. My link further down is a reputable analysis that demonstrates that overall storm activity is extraordinarily low this year. The most offensive thing with this whole issue is the 'denier put down', in which any legitimate comment on anything that goes against the doomsayers view of the world can be instantly shut down. That is not science guys. That is the furthest thing from science. That is religion. To suggest that commentators are misguided to question linking this one storm with anything to do with man made global warming demonstrates how far from reasoned science we have strayed.
There is no such thing as "field of climate". There is whole plethora of natural sciences such as Biology, Chemistry, Physics, etc. Seeing as catastrophic man made climate change is a theory with no empirical evidence supporting it, it's very doubtful that all are in agreement.