It is Saturday March 28th and around the world, lights are going out. Here in Brussels, the EU Parliament will be in candlelight at the dinner gathering of over one thousand Greens, including the 70+ Green parliamentarians, members of the EU Parliament, plus dozens of other elected Green MPs from national parliaments.
We embrace Earth Hour. We applaud the one million acts of Green of CBC, Suzuki Foundation and on and on. Proper maintenance of cars, replace light bulbs, compost, recycle. All of these things matter.
But it will not be enough to change the course of the climate crisis. Stopping the rise in GHG before we hit a tipping point – a “point of no return “ in the atmosphere -- is all that matters. If average global temperatures rise above 2 degrees C, then avoiding 3 degrees is difficult. If we hit 3 degrees C, then the likelihood is that we will have unleashed an unstoppable run-away global warming impact. Three degrees becomes four, and four becomes 5, and 5 to 6 and 6 to 7….
According to the International Energy Agency, to avoid three degrees, the rise in GHG emissions must stop and reverse by 2015, at the latest. To get there, we need all countries in a working agreement. If it is negotiated in December 2009, at the 15th conference of the Parties in Copenhagen, it will be a steep hill to climb to hit those targets. If Copenhagen fails… Well, that sentence is to dreadful to complete.
We need to redouble our efforts in reducing our own emissions, and we need to make our acts of green political.
We need a million letters to the editors of local newspapers. We need a million phone calls to call-in talk radio. We need a million times an MP is asked what he or she is doing about the climate crisis. We need a million new members to the Green Party, and support for local and national environmental groups. We need a million people showing up for protest rallies. We got nearly a million Green votes in the 2008 election. We need ten million.
The message is clear. We are running out of time. The economic crisis means governments are required to get into the market place. Economic stimulus can shift us to a green economy. Now is the time for direction and vision to re-align market signals to a low-carbon economy. Now is the time to set the stage for a successful conclusion to the “do or die” negotiations set for Copenhagen in December.
We will not get a second chance to stop the arrest of greenhouse gases when there is time for the change to make a difference.
This Earth Hour re-commit to all the personal acts of responsibility to reduce your own carbon footprint. And take the next step. Take the personal political.
We need a million acts of political green.