Yesterday was the first day of the COP 17 UN climate negotiations here in Durban, South Africa. I was able to briefly experience the negotiation room full of our world delegates and it was pretty powerful to see so many countries gathering together in the spirit of cooperation for climate solutions.
On the other hand, it was a little dispiriting to see Canada declare that it will no longer participate in the Kyoto Protocol. The country then went on to encourage other countries to support the Tar Sands since they are “ethical oil.” From what I’ve heard about the Tar Sands, there’s nothing ethical about them. The Tar Sands are a region of northern Canada where oil is extracted from the sand. The extracting and refining of the oil is a very dirty and risky process – which is unnecessary when we could invest in clean and renewable energy.
As I visited the different NGO booths around the convention center yesterday, I made sure to stop at the 350.org booth and to chat to the organization’s representatives. They had postcards for Jonathan Pershing, the US Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change, who is here at the conference. I wrote him a note supporting the US decision to delay and review the Keystone XL Pipeline.
The pipeline would transport the tar sands oil from northern Canada across the United States and down to Texas refineries. NASA climatologist James Hansen said that this project would be “game over” for the climate because of all the carbon dioxide emissions which would be created from extracting and burning the oil. I encourage every other young person out there to thank US government officials for not approving this risky pipeline.