Are you going to do something about Climate Change?

- Don't recycle (it's a waste of time)
- Don't carpool (who needs to restrain themselves with other people in the morning)
- Don't mind fossil fuel, keep it burning (better economy)
- Don't be bothered to end CO2 gas emissions, in fact encourage it (will give you power over other)
- Don't encourage alternative energy (costs too much, bad for economy, waste of energy and human resources)
- 350 parts per million is a joke
- Don't reduce your carbon footprint (the more the cooler you are)
- Don't maintain green trees, chop them off and use their wood (+ they're blocking the view)
- Don't plant new trees (view of industrial factories with gray skies are more efficient these days)
- Don't save water, waste it even when unnecessary (can't you drink oil?)
- Don't try and keep the sea water level from rising (just scuba dive to see the Maldives...)
- Don't miss having refugees, we'll have climate refugees, (now that Palestinians are living happily ever after, we want more to take care of)
- Don't worry about having coral reefs die (it's not like they are important for the eco-system)
- Don't get upset when watching glaciers melt (what good are they for anyway)
- Don't be surprised from "weather" change (1, 2, 3 degrees warmer? It's no biggy, the warmer the sexier)
- Don't keep diseases from spreading (it's fine, only those poor people in poor countries get it, we're safe)
- Don't hope for your country to become carbon neutral
- Don't be sad when you see more species become extinct (dinosaur style)

And most importantly don't have children.

Because if you do have children, in 40 years don't feel guilty when your children look at you with disappointment, with depiction, because they know that you and people like you are the reason why the earth and the world has deteriorated, and especially because you could have done something when the time was right, but instead you were just too lazy to try and help prevent one of the most dangerous and serious "MAN-MADE" crisis... You didn't keep from the negative effects of Climate Change from happening. You were an irresponsible (dare I say human?) being!

World Leaders in New York for Climate talk (Except for Lebanon)

100 World Leaders such as Obama (USA), Sarcosy (France), and especially Presidents of China and India, countries that are playing a major role in the economy of this world and in the climate change issue are gathering in New York for Climate Week NYC.



Among those 100 World Leaders, most Arab countries are not present in the presidential form, and Lebanon is not even represented at all.

On Monday, September 21, Avaaz members and TckTckTck Campaign partners sent a deafening wake-up call on climate change to world leaders--with 2632 events in 134 countries, tens of thousands of phone calls etc... Video below

"Again Arab leaders missed yet another opportunity to defend the survival needs of the region from climate change impacts." said Wael Hmaidan, Executive Director of IndyACT. "While today’s climate summit is attended by Presidents of the US, France, China and many others, only Algeria participated at the Presidential level from the Arab region", added Hmaidan.

Yesterday, September 21st, more than 2000 actions took place in the world with one slogan "Wake up it is time for climate action".

Lebanon might not represented officially in probably the most important and fate-defining talks of our times today, however our NGO IndyACT which is always on the run, participating in all the negotiation sessions similar to COP15 that will take place in Copenhagen Denmark in December 2009, organized a get-together at Ain El Mreisseh Beirut at 8pm to which more than 100 activists, social media, environmentalists and other attended sounded the alarms of their clocks and mobile phones, honked their horns and banged their musical instruments, making a tremendous noise in a symbolic action, part of a global "Wake-Up call". The main purpose of this event was to tell the world leaders that are in New York today, one thing and one thing only "It is time for Climate action".



A solar enabled countdown clock will be put in that same spot to count the days that distance us from the most important negotiations to take place in this century, the COP15.



The purpose of COP15 is to achieve an ambitious, fair and binding agreement, a Climate Change treaty, for all countries.

In all of these sessions the Lebanese and many other Arab delegations have never taken the floor to speak even once. “The main Arab countries engaging the negotiations are Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, who only defend their oil trade. The Arab region is more than oil, and we have to know that if climate change is not addressed properly, we will lose our agriculture, water, economy and livelihood of our people in the region and globally”, declared Hmaidan.

IndyAct along with international NGOs and civil society worldwide consider the Copenhagen Summit as a key moment in our history, and call all the Arab governments to have an active and positive role in reducing global CO2 concentration in the atmosphere to 350 ppm (parts per million). 350 ppm is the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere that we need to reach to keep the global warming below two degrees Celsius and avoid catastrophic climate change impacts.

P.S. All the text blocks indented to the right are taken from IndyACT's press release 22/09/2009.
To know more about Climate Change, 350ppm, COP15, future actions, the science and politics behind, please refer to www.indyact.org, www.tcktcktck.org, www.350.org and some posts I have written in the near past about this subject 1 and 2.

Who's against doing something about climate change - Fact #1

Saudi Arabia does not want rich countries to cut on carbon emissions, because if they do, they won't buy a lot of fuel anymore, and if they don't, the Kingdom won't sell a lot of fuel anymore. Monetary compensation did not convince the kingdom, why you ask? Because it's all about power.

Saudi Arabia influences smaller and weaker Arab countries in the climate change negotiations.

Power vs Survival

And we wait to see what happens in COP15, Copenhagen climate conference in December 2009

Vote climate change for Blog Action Day 2009

Blog Action Day is a single day–October 15–when bloggers write about a particular topic in order to raise awareness. Last year, the issue was poverty, and over 12,000 bloggers covered it, reaching a total audience more than 13 million readers.

Change.org, the organizers of Blog Action Day, are running a 5-question, multiple-choice survey to determine the issue for this year's event.

As you might imagine, we think that issue should be climate change. Because it falls on October 15, Blog Action Day presents an excellent opportunity to set the stage for October 24's International Day of Climate Action. Plus, climate change negotiations on the Copenhagen scale don't happen every year.

If you agree, take 30 seconds and complete the Blog Action Day survey, selecting 'climate change' as the answer to the first question.

(And no I am not sorry for nagging your head about this issue!)

Protest-Camping in London to raise awareness about Climate Change

Ah... civilized societies!

The first day of 'Climate Camp 2009' proved a drizzly one for the hundreds who pitched up to Blackheath to raise awareness about climate change.

They had gathered at six London locations before noon, waiting for a text message telling them where the campsite would be.

The ruse served not only to confuse the police but the protesters as well, as there was a two-hour delay in relaying the information.

But just after 2pm yesterday, the messages started coming in.....

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209152/Test-police-thousands-climate-change-activists-prepare-secret-protest.html

On that note, Friday 28th of August will be 100 days away from the Copenhagen meeting (COP15), where a treaty about Climate Change will be agreed on, so on the local scene, something is going to happen in Downtown Beirut at 9pm! Be there.

Topic Selection for Blog Action Day 2009 - Help us pick Climate Change

Hi Everyone,

Blog Action Day takes place every year on October 15th, where all blogs blog about the same topic all over the world. They're doing a survey in order to select the topic that all blogs will be talking about, so let us all vote for Climate Change and spread it as much as we can.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=vgxlY3JzQGvGg_2fmM_2fr240g_3d_3d

Kind Regards,
Liliane

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: The Blog Action Day Team <mailout@blogactionday.org>
Date: Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 4:08 AM
Subject: Big News: Change.org to lead Blog Action Day 2009

Hey BAD bloggers!

It's almost that time of year again, and this time I have some
exciting news to announce.

When we started Blog Action Day two years ago, we had no idea
how large it would become.  Now that it's grown beyond our
wildest expectations, we've decided that it's time Blog Action
Day had a more permanent home where it can continue to expand.

To that end, we've asked the social issue blog network
Change.org to take over the project and make Blog Action
Day bigger than ever.  I'm thrilled to say that they've
agreed, and their team has already started working on
preparing for this year's event on October 15th.

As a first step, the Change.org team wants to get your
thoughts on the selection of this year's topic.  To give
your feedback on the topics being considered or suggest
your own, click the link below to a short 5-question survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=vgxlY3JzQGvGg_2fmM_2fr240g_3d_3d

If you have any questions, additional suggestions, or want to
get involved beyond blogging, email Robin Beck, Change.org's
Director of Organizing, at robin@change.org.

Thanks for all the support – we look forward to having you
all involved in this year's event, and you'll being hearing
more from the folks at Change.org over the coming weeks as
we all get ready for Blog Action Day 2009.

Finally, don't forget to add us on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/blogactionday

Cheers,
Collis

BAD Coordinator 2007/2008

Make a change in climate change before its too late

IndyACT and 350

I had the pleasure and the great opportunity to attend the Climate Change Media Workshop that was organized by IndyAct, an NGO based in Lebanon and who is playing a big part in this whole story. It took place on 5 and 6 August 2009, where we also met Bill McKibben, from 350 campaign which I will tell you all about in a future post.

Edited: I added the below movie so everyone can understand what 350ppm (parts per million) means. Because the world needs to know.








Climate Change

As the next person, I had heard about climate change, but I thought its consequences were something to happen in the next century or the one after, but sadly it's much less, we're talking 40 years only. I can't tell you what I learned in this workshop in 1 post, however I will pass these information along the next weeks to you so you can share as well... Actually, please share, it's your life and my life at stake here.

Climate change is a direct threat to our lives and the lives of our children. It would be completely unfair to ruin this world for them while we have the chance for once to make history and actually do something good.

Copenhagen December 2009

In December 2009, we will all be hoping for the leading countries to sign on an agreement and not just any agreement that will abide them to decrease gas emissions. More on Copenhagen December 2009 in another post.

Small Islands to disappear from the face of the Earth

I will share with you this video of the President of the Maldives, Mohammed Nasheed, in which he talks about how the Maldives, as small Islands will disappear before 2050 due to the sea level rise that is caused by climate change. Think about it, a whole country will disappear? Where will the population go? Plus, a whole country will disappear under our own eyes!!!!

Watch this video here please.



As the President of the Maldives put it: "Please, don't be stupid"