Climate summit made baby steps towards change

I didn’t have high hopes that talks during the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen were going to end Friday with a meaningful plan to stop the effects of global warming. After all, scientists say it has taken more than a century of industrialization for the environmental damage to gradually appear, which in the last decade has become more rapid.

So, establishing a plan in just two weeks between world leaders of 193 nations was at the very least, wishful thinking.

But strides were made, if not just baby steps.

It’s a start that all nations have committed to reducing green house gases that contribute to rising temperatures. To do that, countries have agreed to layout its emission-reduction targets by next month. Although not binding, the goal is to limit temperature increases to not more than 3.6 degree Fahrenheit during the next decade. In addition, developed countries have committed to helping undeveloped nations ($100 billion by 2020) manage the consequences of climate change.

During an interview following the close of the summit, President Barack Obama said controlling emissions within a country is hard enough, but controlling them between countries is even harder.

Still, the U.S. has a responsibility to be the world leader in committing to reducing emissions — which historically we have yet to do.

The world has been watching our lead. Science has presented a strong case that glaciers a few thousand years old in Antarctica, Iceland, Alaska and more, are melting too rapidly to fit into a cyclical historic pattern.

Arguments still persist.

It makes me think of the people who stayed on board the Titanic when it was doomed to sink because they were still convinced it was unsinkable.

It’s time to abandon our old ways, unless we plan to go down with the ship.

We have no time to waste.

— Kelly Ruhoff

Editor