It’s been a little over two years since I finished For a Future. Oh well.

Who could have expected that Trump would gain ascendency and snuff out whatever hope there was for the Paris Accords? One has to remember that these voluntary accords replaced binding accords that were far less than what the Kyoto protocols—also torpedoed by the US—had envisioned. Such constraints on American freedom could not pass the conservative-dominated US Congress. That is why Noam Chomsky calls Republicans the most dangerous organization in the history of the human race on planet Earth. “Has there ever been an organization in human history that is dedicated, with such commitment, to the destruction of organized human life on Earth?”

The Climate agreement provided all the corporate news outlets with a positive story for the Holiday Season. No one expects to change their lifestyle until we are absolutely forced to.

That will be too late.

The COP21 agreement, with voluntary cuts, is a death knell for the human race and so many other species on Earth. It is irresponsible, continues our colonial past but was the best we could do.
I was limited to the public space, and though the climate justice activists met in that space, without a badge, I was not able to participate in a significant way.
Security was very tight.
That’s one way to muzzle dissent.

The U.N. climate conference in Paris is most likely humanity’s last chance to thwart global environmental disaster, Pope Francis said on Monday, warning the world was “at the limits of suicide”. Reuters

James Hansen, the climate change scientist who lead the wake-up call in 1981, released a paper a few months ago explaining  that the end of the world as we know it is not far off if we hit 2°C increase in global temperature. The situation is much worse than we think!

In so many words, slowing down to 95 miles an hour from 100 still drives civilization off of the cliff. He just reiterated that the cliff is massive and that its close.

Though China is the world’s biggest polluter, it pales when looked at per capita. The US, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Austrailia have per capita cumulative emissions that dwarf everyone one else.

Naomi Klein, the Climate Change rock star, was also at the Place to B newscast. Her theme that this changes everything has her working for a nonpolluting just economy in Canada that respects indigenous peoples in what she called the Leap manifesto.

My original intention was to hand her a copy of the book. I tried twice, but it didn’t happen. She’s pretty much inaccessible. I did learn that 75% of all mining companies the world over are headquartered in Canada.