Climate Action in 2016: ARE YOU READY?!

This may be written by another person Jerome Wagner​​​​..

We are one hundred years past the inception of our knowledge about atmospheric warming (Arrhenius, 1896, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svante_Arrhenius#Greenhouse_effect ). We are one generation past early Congressional testimony claiming observable effects of actual warming (Hansen, 1988, http://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/24/us/global-warming-has-begun-expert-tells-senate.html?pagewanted=all ). We are a decade past Al Gore's release of "An Inconvenient Truth" (2006, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Inconvenient_Truth ). Several months ago, we learned that fossil-fuel giant Exxon-Mobil actively "poisoned the well" of public discourse relative to climate change (November 2015, http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/11/05/exxon-mobil-under-investigation-for-climate-change-denial ).

Meanwhile, Pacific Islanders are contemplating relocation ( http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/01/pacific-islands-climate-change ), the Greenland ice sheet is melting at an above-average rate ("Melt extent in Greenland was above average in 2015," http://nsidc.org/greenland-today/ , accessed January 2, 2016),

the impacts of drought continue to spread in California (December 30, 2015; http://www.cbsnews.com/news/carnegie-institution-for-science-study-almost-1-billion-california-trees-impacted-by-drought/ ), and extreme weather events batter communities around the world with increasing ferocity and frequency (e.g., UK floods, http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/31/uk-floods-your-photos-and-stories).

A reasonable person might have expected world leaders to react to all this with determined resolve when they met three weeks ago in Paris at COP21: targeting a near-term end to pervasive fossil fuel use; providing financial assistance to those countries most impacted thus far and to those most needing enhanced energy supplies); establishing firm commitments from developed nations as to what they'd do to mitigate the problem...

The Paris Agreement represents a modicum of success. As a high school team project, it might have garnered a C- against a rubric premised on low expectations. Clearly "not meeting requirements" when considered from the perspective of our grandchildren and their children; nor in the context of other lifeforms on the Planet.

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Civil society had both the first and the last words in Paris. Referring to the attached photos: Prior to the opening of the COP, the shoes of virtual marchers challenged officials to take serious measure of the impending catastrophes and Climate Guardians soberly vigiled. As the Agreement was being signed on December 12, "last words" were symbolized and spoken: the danger zones - symbolized by red lines - are already starkly and ominously in view; lives are already being claimed. One group positioned at the base of the Eiffel Tower echoed "The leaders have said 'F*** You.'" Adjacent the "Wall for Peace," demonstrators chanted, "One, Two, Three Degrees - It's a Crime Against Humanity" and speakers articulated our promise to continue work on behalf of climate justice and climate action.

The contributions offered by developed and other countries point us towards no less than about 3°C of average temperature rise - this, when nations had agreed to work towards less than 2°C.

We shouldn't have let the negotiators leave town with such a paltry conclusion...

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Our leaders did not accomplish enough in Paris. 

All people of the Earth remain in grave danger.

Let's focus the heat of our concern and anger on those and other leaders and on the projects rampant in our country which only serve to aggravate the climate crisis. 

In northern NJ, targets include the Legislature (e.g., re-instate partnership in RGGI), oil bomb trains, the Pilgrim oil pipeline, the PennEast natural gas pipeline, the CPV natural gas power plant in Wawayanda NY, Spectra's Algonquin natural gas pipeline expansion, the natural gas storage project at Seneca Lake NY, and the Cove Point LNG export project in Maryland. [True, this listing is far from complete. And, regrettably, new projects are being announced monthly.]

Events are planned for the first half of 2016 to underscore concern, amplify the message that more action is needed, and to demonstrate the resolve of this movement.

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Contact me on this thread or directly by phone (607-348-5773) to hook into upcoming events and ongoing efforts.

Sincerely, Jerome Wagner