Jessica Wishart participates as a student delegate
By Stephanie Smith
- December 6, 2007
Jessica Wishart is in the fourth year of International Development Studies. (Danny Abriel Photo)
Dalhousie student Jessica Wishart is on her way to the island of Bali in Indonesia for the 13th annual United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
“We have an increasingly shrinking window of opportunity to stop the effects of global warming from wrecking havoc on our environment and our economy,” says Ms. Wishart, 21.
Hosted by the Government of Indonesia, the two-week conference will bring together representatives of more than 180 countries, together with observers from intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations and the media. The delegates will be pressing for action on environmental issues such as the reduction of greenhouse gases and other harmful emissions, creation of clean technologies, and widespread tree-planting to counter the effects of deforestation.
“The CYCC (Canadian Youth Climate Coalition) selects approximately 20 students from all across Canada to attend these conferences,” says Ms. Wishart, who is in fourth-year of international development studies.
Ms. Wishart and another student from Dal attended the UN Climate Change Conference in Nairobi, Kenya last November. Attending the 10-day conference energized her commitment to the cause, she says.
But you don’t have to go to Bali or Kenya to make a difference, she says. Individuals can make “staggering impacts” on the environment if they only just try and make an effort.
“There are so many ways individuals can make a difference. From carpooling, to biking, to ensuring your home is energy efficient. Call, write and email your MPs and encourage them to take action on the issue of climate change. Individually and collectively, we can make a difference.”
This year, the delegation that Ms. Wishart belongs to hopes to encourage the involvement of youth in the climate policy process, meet with delegates from every country and network with national and international environmental groups.
Bali Declaration
World’s top climate scientists call for urgent, tough greenhouse gas limits
Helmuth Thomas
More than 200 leading climate scientists are urging the United Nations Climate Conference of immediate action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, with a window of only 10 to 15 years for global emissions to peak and decline, and a goal of at least a 50 per cent reduction by 2050.
The scientists, including Dalhousie professor Helmuth Thomas, Canada Research Chair in Marine Biogeochemistry, warn that if immediate action is not taken, many millions of people will be at risk from extreme events such as heat waves, drought, floods and storms, with coasts and cities threatened by rising sea levels, and many ecosystems, plants and animal species in serious danger of extinction.
The researchers have issued the “Bali Climate Declaration by Scientists” in which they call on government negotiators from the 180 nations represented at the meeting to recognize the urgency of taking action now. They say the world may have as little as 10 years to start reversing the global rise in emissions.
“It cannot be emphasized strongly enough that we have to do something and do something now,” says Dr. Thomas, an oceanography professor at Dalhousie. “As scientists, we are saying no more stalling.”
The Bali Declaration endorses the latest scientific consensus that every effort must be made to keep increases in the globally averaged surface temperature to below 2 degrees C. The scientists say that “to stay below 2 degrees C, global emissions must peak and decline in the next 10 to 15 years.”
The critical reductions in global emissions of greenhouse gases and the atmospheric stabilisation target highlighted in the Bali Declaration places a tremendous responsibility on the Bali United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Negotiations at Bali must start the process of reaching a new global agreement that sets strong and binding targets and includes the vast majority of the nations of the world, the scientists say.
The Bali Declaration concludes: “As scientists, we urge the negotiators to reach an agreement that takes these targets as a minimum requirement for a fair and effective global climate agreement.”
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