by Christopher Flavin

FACET Commentary No. 23 – December 2009

President Obama’s speech in Copenhagen last Friday included a line that few who had spent the past two weeks listening to bickering negotiators would disagree with: “While the reality of climate change is not in doubt, I have to be honest, I think our ability to take collective action is in doubt right now and it hangs in the balance.” Also hanging in the balance is the habitability of the planet. The Copenhagen conference did not come close to setting the world on a path to stabilizing the climate (…) While it is tempting to respond to the near collapse in Copenhagen with a combination of anger and despair, neither will lead to the result that we and others believe is urgently needed: the transition to a low‐carbon economy in the decades immediately ahead. [READ FULL TEXT]