Climate Change: Children’s Hour Is Over
Substantive contributions by NGOs to environmental policy has declined while their entourages of publicists, pop stars, sundry celebrities and layers of lawyers have multiplied. Now that the watchdogs have focused on publicity stunts and other entertaining diversions, it’s time for adults to take center stage on climate change issues.
In the latest bit of silly symbolism, Earthjustice and the Center for International Environmental Law have assisted in filing a legal petition against the United States before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights claiming that US greenhouse gas emissions constitute a human rights violation. The BBC notes that if “the petition is successful, the commission could refer the US administration to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for a legal judgement.”
In more significant news, the New York Times reports that scientists “from more than 60 countries are preparing to fan out around the North and South Poles in an ambitious two-year effort to understand the vital, shifting dynamics of ice, oceans and life at the ends of the earth.” The goal of the International Polar Year (IPY) project is to “clarify the role of greenhouse gases and global warming in the rapid changes that are already occurring at both poles.” The $350 million IPY project is important since “at both poles, scientists say, questions still outnumber answers.”
The undeniable reality of global warming requires serious scientific study, not adolescent antics. It’s time for the NGOs to either grow up or get out of the way.
See BBC article
See NYT article
