Update: Video of Tuvalu's intervention:
Tuvalu is turning into the little island nation that could just be the game changer in these talks. After a couple of days spent digging in their heels on the legal form of a potential deal, and then making headlines again yesterday with the release of the AOSIS (Alliance of Small Island States) draft text, Tuvalu open this morning's plenary meeting of the resumed COP with an impassioned plea, which many observers immediately called the signature moment of the talks thus far. In an earnest, emotional address, lead negotiator Ian Fry called out the United States Senate and President Obama directly. To paraphrase:
I understand that we are waiting for the U.S. Senate. It seems the fate of the world lies in the hands of a few U.S. senators. It is [difficult] that we are waiting for one country to decide before the international community can move forward. President Obama was currently in Sweden accepting a Nobel Prize, whether rightly or wrongly. For him to honor his Nobel Prize, he should address the greatest threat to humanity, climate change, and the greatest threat to human security, climate change.He defended his obstructive position over the past few days of the talks, during which he has stood firmly in the way of consensus, demanding that the legally-binding nature of a deal be discussed in open sessions, not closed door backrooms. Fry urged that the entire population of Tuvalu lives within 2 meters of sea level, that their very existence as a nation is at stake, and that he isn't trying to embarrass anyone, cause trouble, or make a show, but merely serve the people of Tuvalu and protect their future. With tears in his eyes, Fry closed saying:
I woke this morning, and I was crying, and that’s not easy for a grown man to admit. The fate of my country rests in your hands.
Few were the dry eyes in the observers' section of the plenary hall. The U.S. did speak a few minutes later, but didn't respond directly to Tuvalu's plea. (What could be said, really?) Lead negotiator Jonathan Pershing did seem confident that--despite a number of problems with the current text from a U.S. perspective--the stage is set for great progress on Monday and that we will soon have "more clarity on the very core question of how we will have an operational agreement coming out of this meeting." The other core question, of course, is whether Tuvalu and other of the world's most vulnerable nations will, in the end, sit quiet and accept the outcome. If a legally-binding and extraordinarily ambitious deal that they now demand proves illusive, will a deal be better than no deal at all? We'll know in a week.
Read more of Ben’s reports from Copenhagen as part of OnEarth’s ongoing coverage.
If the gigantic size of global human population could be a primary driver of the global ecological challenges that loom so ominously on the horizon before humanity, when can the leaders of the human family be expected to focus upon this leviathan? It appears as if the skyrocketing growth of human numbers is, in and of itself, a clear and present danger to the human community. Billions more human beings, who strive the way the self-proclaimed Masters of the Universe among us do so recklessly now to conspicuously overconsume and relentlessly hoard Earth’s limited resources, could soon ruin our planetary home and its environs as a fit place for human habitation by the children and coming generations. If the leaders of the family of humanity willfully refuse to acknowledge this primary threat to human wellbeing and environmental health in our time, how can human beings with feet of clay be expected to address and overcome the challenges?
If sensible discussions of what looks like the proverbial ‘mother’ of all global threats to the future of children everywhere and coming generations cannot be openly and honestly held in Copenhagen, would Mexico in 2010 be a better place and time?
If not here-now, if not next year in Mexico, then when?
All the dunderheaded disinformation, deceit, delay, denial and disasterous decisionmaking of the past 8 long dark years are in past. With a little luck people with feet of play will overcome the arrogance, wanton greed and stupidity perpetrated by the Masters of the Universe among us, the most avaricious and self-righteous ones who widely proclaim their greed-mongering is God's work.
What mental disorder describes those among us who proclaim themselves Masters of the Universe doing the work of God?
Years of hard work by people with feet of clay all come down to this week. The "now or never" week is at hand for the children, global biodiversity, life as we know it, the integrity of Earth and its environs. This week is the moment that the Masters of the Universe cannot avoid any longer; all of human family are bound in this long-awaited momentous week. The time for action has come, finally. The opportunity held in this blessed moment must not be missed.
If anyone thinks of something that I can do to assist any of you to reasonably, sensibly, responsibly and humanely realize the goals of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, please send word to me.
Steve Salmony
Chapel Hill, North Carolina