Future thrills

Greenpeace   http://www.greenpeace.org/international/about

Norges Miljøvernforbund:    http://www.nmf.no/index.asp

Enova was established to work for a change to sustainable energy-use and -production in Norway.         http://www.enova.no

Bellona Norwegian based organization working with environmental facts, information about energy and climate, atomic power and radioactivity, food and food production, waste and transport.  www.bellona.no/ 

Zero     Our vision: A modern world where carbon emissions cause no threat to nature and environment.      http://www.zero.no/

Future in Our Hands:    http://www.framtiden.no/om-oss/in-english/

The Future in our hands (FIOH) is Norway’s largest movement for comprehensive social change.

”Forum for the future” has made tentative scenarios for the future:

The climate changes will twist the economy in many ways – some of which will be unpleasant.

There will be not only physical considerations, but psychic and social changes as well.

History will judge us: heroes that solved the problems or villains that let things slide?

Technological innovation could be massive or not: CO2 emissions will become very expensive, nobody has cars anymore, you rent or travel collectively, Sahara will be green due to desalination technology, power generation from tide or waves, large areas will be depopulated due to lack of water,

Olympics will be virtual with billions of spectators.

Global development will make people have moderate lifestyle focusing on well-being and quality of life. We work only 25 hours, spending additional 10 hours doing voluntary work.

The environmental crisis has not been solved, price of oil is over 400 dollars, refugees are moving near the poles, energy is quota-based…

What do we want – can we have a positive development?

To move forward there must be an agreed upon set of facts describing the situation: What is happening? What are the facts and numbers? Who makes the numbers? Who is monitoring the situation?

International and national cooperation – strategy, agreements, laws, institutions, mechanisms

Plan of action: International projects, research necessary and coordination, national projects, time horizon, execution, follow-up

Consideration: National politics involved, effect of changes in governments, continuity, political motivation or professional motivation, roles for idealists and politicians, combination with development assistance, …..

Mainstream commentary is confused. There are few authorities, and discussions are often either restricted to scientific topics, or political or economic implications alone. 

Is it possible to have an internationally coordinated plan of action? 

http://www.masdaruae.com/

http://www.abengoabioenergy.com/sites/bioenergy/en/

http://www.fredolsen-renewables.com/

It seems the global warming is happening faster than expected. This is especially clear for the poor and people living on islands: 1 billion people in 100 countries. Dry land agriculture, tropical forests, fishing are affected. We see eroding coastlines, pests spreading and erratic weather patterns. The carbon footprints of these nations themselves are tiny. The biggest contribution these countries can make is through tropical forest conservation, which was excluded from the Kyoto agreement.

Private and public sector projects are starting: cleaning up degraded forest, selling new insurance to guard against climate change, consultancy on cutting footprints.

New taxes are introduced with proceeds going to climate and poverty projects. Rights to pollute are sold under cap-and-trade arrangements, later also in the US. 

The handling of climate change is becoming a business.

The actual amounts are too small, and most rich countries are not fulfilling their promises. There are more problems than money. It seems the ideas about climate change are not clear yet.

The rich countries must do more: they should be made to pay more, international law should force the rich to pay for the climate change they cause!

We need better agreements and international laws, better figures, better understanding, more money coming from the rich countries.

The first climate agreement was signed in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, in 2008 we had the Kyoto agreement covering some of the industrial countries – not the USA – which is expiring in 2012. Next year we have  a meeting in Copenhagen to enter into a new agreement.  The politics involved are difficult!