Fences Won't Wipe Out Greenhouse Gases

“We’re now facing one of the greatest threats in human history. 'Climate change' is a lousy phrase to describe it. What’s happening now is a catastrophic destabilization of global climate.”
- Phil Thornhill, Global Climate Campaign

Their message sounded all too familiar. The speakers at the Global Climate Forum in Rostock wanted to remind us and the G8 leaders that we must all act now to prevent global warming. Then again, climate campaigners don’t have any other choice but to sound a little repetitive: even though it’s now proven that climate change is propelled by human activity, the governments aren’t in that much of hurry to change things. And to wait for everyone else to start reducing CO2 emissions isn’t a smart idea.

“We’d prefer to hear clear commitments from certain countries around the G8 table rather than some kind of compromise everyone agrees on that wouldn’t mean anything”, claimed Astrid Rothe-Beinlich from the German Green Party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen).

Tinashe Nhete, representing Practical Action Zimbabwe, arrived directly from Africa to emphasize how poverty in the south is directly related to climate change. Droughts are longer and have become more frequent. Africans are discovering the effects of the environmentalists’ warnings in a very concrete way. As Nhete describes it: “In my country, we don’t talk about climate change, we talk about what it means for food on the table”.

After the Forum, Greenpeace created a human banner to draw the G8 leaders' attention to this specific problem. “G8, ACT NOW! Stop global warming” could be read by the police helicopters flying above Rostock's harbour.

To ignore this message is a lot more violent than you’d imagine, as the existing social problems will only worsen with every future ecological catastrophe. As the campaigner Phil Thornhill put it: “The actual energy consumption of industrialized countries is equivalent to an act of war.”

(Copyright: Günther Menn /Greenpeace)

To learn more about climate change, check out the Global Warming / Global Warning dropping knowledge magazine and participate in one the International Demonstrations on Climate Change on December 8, 2007, timed to coincide with the UN Climate Talks in Bali, Indonesia.