Non-binding Climate Deal – The Planet Will Have to Wait

The news out of Copenhagen is not good, despite President Obama’s positive announcement of a deal before he left yesterday. And Stephen Harper called it a “comprehensive and realistic” agreement. That tells me that Canadians and the planet are the losers. Read more analysis of it on CBC,  The Guardian and The Toronto Star.

Meanwhile, I’m stepping into my fossil-burning vehicle for a 5 1/2 hour drive home for Christmas. While I drive, I will be thinking about the festive season and love for family and friends that is expressed in Christian parts of the globe at this time. Yet, we in “christian” North America and Europe are the ones that have created the bleak future for our children and grandchildren, and many generations after that. If we can’t collectively wean ourselves from the “heroin” of fossil fuels that we are addicted to, the gift we are giving them is bleak indeed. If Canadians and other citizens of democracies truly understood what was at stake, there would be no way in hell that our leaders would have gotten away without a real, binding treaty in Copenhagen. I’m convinced that we love our children more than our fossil-fuel burning cars and carbon-dependent ways. And the crazy thing is, we shouldn’t be in the position to have to chose between them. There is a better, greener way – our leaders just aren’t showing it to us.

This video reminds us what is at stake: