I am hesitating to write this simply because it has everything and nothing to do with what I want this weblog to be. A place where people who care for animals in any shape or form can come to get information or amuse themselves with the wonderful animal facts and videos. Not a place where politics and protest will influence what I put on the site, yet it seems this can’t be avoided. As unqualified as the politicians and their advisors seem to be, it is they who will shape the life or death of our world’s species, including us humans. For this reason I want to dedicate a little article to the Copenhagen Summit currently taking place. Time is running out, fast.

The COP 15 Climate Change Conference

With the Copenhagen earth climate change save the planet business now in full swing maybe we can all take a minute and think about what it actually all means. Is it to save the animals? – hope so. To make everyone aware just how bad the planet situation really is? – It’s necessary. Maybe to get us to cut down on CO₂ emissions? – it’s supposed to be. Or is it simply the regular meeting of extreme ridiculous propaganda and marketing and business that is staged every once in a while to make it look like important people care? – most likely.

People, namely government politicians, world leaders, campaign groups and scientists – pretty much everyone who wants to be heard or seen – is there, and not necessarily because they have something valuable to contribute or have a significant idea that might influence our environment for the better.

The Obama Influence

Lets face it, Obama, with his big CHANGE campaign that won him the election, is there because, if he wasn’t, he would be slaughtered by media across the world. This goes for probably 90% of the people at the summit, actually. Yet, I believe, and I think Obama believes, he can, if he wanted to, actually make a difference. I like the guy. I think lots of people who don’t live in America do. The same can’t be said for his predecessor ‘W’ Bush. Obama represents the USA, the country whose sole emissions per person is far greater than any developing country on the planet. Instead of complaining that China, for example, should cut its emissions, let me point out as many have before that China is still a developing country. It contains about a 6^th of the world’s population, most of whom are very poor, don’t have a car, electricity or in some cases even water.

America, contrary to public perception, actually has quite a few bright people in it. They are fairly on the ball as far as technology is concerned and above all can market the hell out of anything! This for me is probably their strongest asset from a political point of view. They can make most people believe what they want them to believe, for better or for worse. If Barack Obama tells people something, it will probably be taken as Gospel. It is this point which holds the US in such a strong global position. America is a developed country and seen as world leaders in almost everything they do and it is time they act like it.

Our buddy Barack received his Nobel PEACE Prize the other day around the same time he announced he would send more troops to Afghanistan. That’s another debate, but I reckon he could easily represent our world. If America sneezes everyone else catches a cold and the opposite is also true, if America does good then everyone else has the pressure on them to also do good. Hopefully he will take the opportunity and lead the way and spearhead some significant agreements to change our planet for the better.

Hope

I am a firm believer that if you want to achieve something you can, or at least come fairly close and give it a real good go. The key word here being want. They bailed out the world’s banks for hundreds of billions of dollars. They are in wars that cost hundreds of billions of dollars. But these actions were not seen as wants, they were, for some reason, seen as needs. Isn’t it time that the USA did something that benefitted everyone rather than just themselves? In this same Nobel Peace prize acceptance speech Obama at least admits there is an issue. “There is little scientific dispute that if we do nothing, we will face more drought, more famine, more mass displacement – all of which will fuel more conflict for decades”.

Lets hope that Obama doesn’t turn up to the Conference next week and waste his moment by being just a photo opportunity and that he delivers. He could be the person that really does change more than just the USA, he could change the world’s attitude on this if he is bold enough.

Oh, and one final point, as for all those people who seem to think Climate Change and the earth’s rising temperatures is a hoax and not connected to human civilization in any way – here is what UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has to say about it – “climate is changing much, much faster than we realized and we human beings are the primary cause”.

I just want something good to come out of these talks. It is a big thing, it doesn’t happen very often that most of the world’s important people come together and have a chat. I hope lots of positive billion dollar deals are done and we can all rest a little easier and do our bit in return. At the end of it all our animals and our planet do not have a choice about what happens. They are simply victims. Lets hope they get lucky.

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