Hope - Cope - Copenhagen

So we reach the moment when our leaders gather to establish a plan for climate change. The hope being that the many and varied countries of planet earth will be able to come together and create a clear and workable pathway to a future which cuts carbon emissions to a level that is sustainable. That to me suggests that we are highly likely to have a business as usual solution, because no matter what the agreement looks like the general thrust of our economic model across the world is one of development, and development is defined by consumption and exploitation of planetary resources to ensure that people have the goods and products that they learn that they need to consume in order to be civilised. Political systems dont seem to have much of a grasp on the threats - global warming being but one, others include war, access to food and water, air quality and nuclear threat, a peaceful world seems a long way from today's reality. Our glimmer of hope lies in the fact that people seem to be getting the problem of climate change and the associated challenges much faster than politicians.
Lets just look for a moment at the scene - in India, the Down to Earth magazine is berating Indian government for its dire efforts to deal with environmental collapse, in China, the continuing problems associated with massive motor vehicle purchase and an underregulated chemical industry is making the air quality almost intolerable in the big cities, yes, they make an on the table offer of reduction of 45% emissions, but the catch is that this pledge is based upon emissions that equate to size of economic growth, the more their economy grows, the more emissions grow, it could be the greatest bluff in history, a nil return which looks on paper to be a substantial demonstration of goodwill. In Australia the opposition party reject the climate bill in parliament and elect a person in opposition who denies climate change is happening, in the USA President Obama is preoccupied with sending yet more troops to war in Afghanistan, the list goes on. Our political leaders are simply failing us, ordinary people, in favour of pandering to the myriad of corporations who in their infinite wisdom are lever every possible concession from their national governments to ensure that as much as possible they will not have to pay for their contribution to the destruction of the natural world.
We will see I guess, some remarkable posturing this coming week, by our political leaders as they seek to show just how green they are. Then they will fly back to business as usual.
Just one last thought, it is thought that the cost governments are looking at to respond to climate change is something in the region of 1.7 trillion USD. This is my friends, less than it cost to bail out the banks during the recent economic crisis. But our short-sighted leaders think nationally and not internationally - the financial crisis showed us that we are living beyond our collective financial means, just as the climate crisis shows us we are living beyond our planetary means. We must learn to cope with a new world order, not run by politicians, but one that will be increasingly run by nature, the sooner we connect to that order the better, it costs little more than will power.