Those who are fighting to save the planet carry the lion's share of the pain.
Activists I know, and those I counsel, are experiencing intense mourning. 'I cry everyday about the future' - declared a colleague who works with seemingly tireless 'optimism' as an activist and psychologist. Another working for an environmental NGO is constantly confronted with Australia's failure to act effectively and feels helpless and despairing. The stories emanating from COP 21 are awakening many people to the reality of what is happening to the planet.
But mourning has survival value. It reveals truths and enables adjustment, change and a focus on solutions. It can show us what really matters. Experiencing the pain of grief can drive effective action.
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Bargaining can be seized upon to bypass and avoid reality.
Coal spruikers declare they will come clean and that the world need coal for decades.
At COP 21 the negotiating and bargaining has been frenetic. But problematically, the search for solutions is not coming entirely from the starting point of science and truth, but from politics.
Like many seasoned activists, James Hansen is feeling the heat. He believes COP 21 is going in the wrong direction. Pledges are futile without pricing carbon. While coal remains so cheap it will be burnt, says climate science 'father' former head of NASA Dr James Hansen. Tim Flannery author of The Weather Makers whom I heard speaking of his grief and our lethal complacency in 2005, is now advocating geo-engineering. Meanwhile protestors were dragged from the foyer as they railed against the coal spruikers who have bought a place at the Summit.
Over 600 posters have been displayed, accusing corporates of green wash.
But much of COP21 posturing is about what seems politically feasible to the wheelers and dealers.
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Even the 'safe' 2-degree target, which current pledges overshoot, would devastate eco-systems. It bargains away Africa, the Pacific Islands, the Maldives and Bangladesh, and millions of lives, while consigning many species to extinction. The sinking Pacific Islands have sought a limit of a 1.5-degree rise in temperature. But even at the current 1degree of warming there are already massive losses to be mourned.
An indigenous Flotilla of kayaks came sailing the River Seine, to carry the message of suffering and displacement of indigenous peoples and to vie for inclusion in the climate accord.
The wealthy nations with an over-representation by white males and influenced by vested interests need to learn that the climate does not do deals.
We cannot write off the extreme inequality of carbon generation and its consequences with an accounting trick. We need carbon devolution, not a smoke and mirrors trade off with exemptions that don't take emissions to zero. We in the developed countries have caused and continue to cause the problem as Pacific Islands are inundated. We have a duty of care.
As the stories emerge from the sidelines of COP 21, I too feel sadness hope despair and fear; but also motivation to act.
Grief demands truth. The mega fires, floods, droughts and heat waves predicted for decades are happening. Poorer nations are suffering and pleading. Facing the climate truth and the subsequent grief can bring a deeper valuing of mother earth and the energy to adapt and fight for our survival as we face potential extinction.
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