BlogActionDay

In honor of Blog Action Day, we are sharing a few ideas about how to get involved in the Climate Change movement as the Copenhagen Conference nears. We will highlight a couple of unusual ways to contribute your energy to the cause and provide you the tools to seek out local opportunities.

As you probably have heard, the world’s leaders are meeting in Copenhagen from Dec 7-15 for a critical conference, the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009. So here is a bit of background on previous proceedings and what’s on the table this year:

The conference is also known as COP15. This stands for the 15th Conference of the Parties to the 1992 international climate change treaty, The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (or UNFCCC). The now-famous Kyoto Protocol, begun in 1997, is actually a set of binding rules applied to this treaty. The treaty itself contains no emission limits, so these limits must be determined through such protocols.

COP15 is designed to address the impending end of the Kyoto Protocol’s timeline (2012) by applying the Bali Road Map. The Bali Road Map (adopted at COP13) aims to finalize a binding framework for emissions, and other steps to curb climate change beyond 2012.

There are three pre-Copenhagen negotiation meetings this year, in Bonn, Bangkok and Barcelona, the first two of which have already occurred. The key discussion points include:

  • Targets for emission reduction for industrialized, newly industrializing and developed countries and their varying responsibilities,
  • Reducing the impact from deforestation (REDD), and
  • How to transfer existing “clean” technologies to the developing nations.

What do you think? How should these problems and others be addressed? Here are a couple of ways you can participate and have your voice heard:

WiserEarth Find a Climate Change-related organization near you by using WiserEarth. Just click on this link and add in your location for a list of local organizations. Then click the links to find the contact information and websites. Many local organizations are addressing Climate Change in compelling but not so obvious ways. For example, Native Energy sets up windmills on Native American lands to reduce the use of fossil fuels, and Chicago Wilderness is a network of volunteers that maintain remnants of prairie ecosystems that are a sink for climate change gases. Volunteer and be a part of the larger movement!
BlogActionDay The UN-led Seal the Deal Campaign aims to galvanize political will and public support for reaching a comprehensive global climate agreement in Copenhagen in December. The petition will serve as a reminder that our leaders must negotiate a fair, balanced and effective agreement in Copenhagen, and that they must seal a deal to power green growth, protect our planet and build a more sustainable, prosperous global economy that will benefit all nations and people.
350 Register for the 350.org International Day of Climate Action October 24. In case you haven’t heard – 350 is the most important number in the world – it’s what scientists say is the safe upper limit (350 parts per million) for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Change Speak Out: Tell leaders what you want to protect at Planet Change. Our leaders must include natural solutions to climate change in their legislation and agreements – tell them what you want to protect.
CurrentTV Watch and help promote Current TV’s green-themed video journalism at: current.com/green Or you can take it to the next level and become a journalist: if you’ve got a climate change story, you can become a member and submit a “pod” or short nonfiction video through their Current Journalism program.
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