Take more responsibility for your personal carbon footprint.
Fly less.
Use video link-ups, instead of flying to conferences in exotic places.
Sound familiar?
All advice you can expect from many governments on how we should all roll up our sleeves in the fight against climate change.
But over the next two weeks some 10,000 delegates including representatives from 186 governments, up to 2,000 journalists (including me) and members of 130 non-governmental organisations descend on Bali, Indonesia.
They’re attending a two-week conference to kick-start two years of talks to agree a new, tougher, sharper climate change regime to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
But why Bali?
Indonesia’s environment ministry estimates that the event will produce 47,000 tonnes of the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming, carbon dioxide.
If it had to be Indonesia, why not Jakarta, instead of forcing 10,000 people to take connecting flights?
Have the sponsor, the United Nations, made a PR gaffe by hosting a climate change event on a beautiful tropical paradise island at the Westin Resort, pictured above and below, which also happens to be miles from anywhere?
Tell us what you think. (BTW these are my photos, taken today)
Environment
Global environmental challenges
Should 10,000 people fly to Bali to fight climate change?
Posted by: Gerard Wynn
Tags: Environment
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3 comments so far
Bali is a beautiful, relatively unspoiled place. To hold a convention here allows the participants a glimpse of what is to be lost if we do not get a grip on the problem of global warming. The Bali culture, with its welcoming and artistic threads, is also conducive to diplomatic relations being positive and constructive. I think it is an excellent choice. The point that 10,000 participants are flying in and leaving a big carbon footprint is a valid one. World powers/polluters however are not at a point in their relations to promote adherence to a strict environmental ideal. Bali serves as a compass to a
- Posted by Nicole Mule'human habitat we all might like to aspire to. Admittedly, I don’t have the facts about Bali and its carbon footprint but I’ll bet it pales in comparison to the U.S., China, and India. TNX, NM
Bali may be a beautiful, unspoiled place, but it is in the Indonesian island group; one of the most profligate, wasteful countries in the world. Destroyers of habitats and creators of vast clouds of pollution from burning down rainforests for farmland, cutting down and selling off old teak forests as cheap furniture throughout Australasia, running factories that pour industrial waste straight into rivers used for drinking water; Indonesia is one of the of the worst polluters around. So, no, it certainly does not pale in comparison to other polluting countries like the US, China and India.
As for Bali appearing “pretty’ and “idyllic” from the outside, but it is also rife with poverty and a breeding ground for Islamic terrorists who revenge their situation by blowing up discotheques and all the Western tourists inside them. Bali is NOT a nice place, nor is it the ideal we should strive for; it is downtrodden, poor, underprivileged and profligate.
And the 10,000 all flying from around the world to attend are hypocrites.
CJ Australia
- Posted by Colinspot on, I bet you would not of had 10,000 attend
- Posted by steveif the venue had been the NEC Birmingham for 10 days in December, more like a thousand if your lucky. Perhaps the vast population will eventully relise this whole carbon con is nothing more than a gravy train which thousands have boarded in order to try and control your lifstyle, freedom and most importantly goverments see it as a fantastic new way to raise tax’s. Why tell us the truth that Co2 has nothing to do with climate change, put yourself out of work and miss out on all those lovly conferences around the world for years to come!