Activists Depict Climate Catastrophe on Mall
The normally picturesque reflecting pool on the National Mall was witness to a grisly scene Wednesday, as fake corpses with the message “CO2 Kills” sprayed on their backs floated face-down in the shallow water. A water-borne banner reading “Obama, Climate Change Kills / Earn Your Prize in Copenhagen” floated amongst the bodies, symbolic of the 300,000+ annual climate-related deaths estimated by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s think tank.
“Climate change is one of the greatest threats to human prosperity and world peace,” explains Ricken Patel, Executive Director of Avaaz.org. “We cannot address issues of war and peace without addressing climate change.”
President Obama travels to Oslo, Norway tomorrow to accept his much anticipated Noble Peace Prize amid the Copenhagen climate summit, a UN meeting at which the US and 191 other countries agreed to initiate a treaty to address global warming. The Nobel Prize committee attributed their decision to Obama’s constructive reengagement of the United States with the international community.
“By attending the final day of the conference, Obama will be in Copenhagen at a crucial juncture in history,” explained Patel. “President Obama has the opportunity in Copenhagen to really earn his Nobel prize by going beyond engagement and uniting the world behind a sustainable future that saves lives and the planet.”
Obama previously planned to visit Copenhagen en route to Oslo but announced last Friday that he would instead attend the final day of the conference at the same time as over 100 other heads of state. The move was attributed to recent climate commitments from China and India, signals that a Real Deal is a possible outcome of the conference.
“The world wants a Real Climate Deal,” said Patel. “In Copenhagen, leaders must commit to a global peak emissions year of 2015, $200 billion in new and additional climate finance per year, and strong enforcement mechanisms—or we’re headed for climate catastrophe.”
