COP28 was a worldwide gathering of national leaders, who came together from November 1st to December 12th, this year, under the auspices of the United Nations. The purpose of COP28 was to allow the nations of the world to discuss how we might, acting together, literally, "save the world," given the indubitable threat posed to human civilization, and to the biological integrity of Planet Earth, by the continued combustion of hydrocarbon fuels.
Make no mistake, we need, urgently, to stop burning fossil fuels. That will not be easy! However, that is what we should be trying to do. That is what is demanded of us (and by "us," I mean every human being alive today, and every government now in existence).
Holding COP28 in Dubai, the largest city in the United Arab Emirates, a nation whose existence is premised on a world economy based on the continued use of fossil fuels, and a nation which is defying the idea that our human civilization must conform itself to the "laws" that govern the "World of Nature," should indicate that the nations that say they care about global warming (practically all of them) are deeply enmeshed in what must be recognized as a mammoth case of "cognitive dissonance."
You can click right here to read an article from The New York Times (paywall permitting) that indicates that some people, at least, are getting tired of the 28-year charade that suggests that we "really, really, care" about global warming, but just can't see our way clear to doing anything very effective about it.
The fact that the President of the United States has not been willing to say that we must stop burning hydrocarbon fuels has not gone unnoticed. The United States is the world's second-largest producer of CO2, the "greenhouse gas" that is causing the most problems. Granted that China emits more CO2 than the United States does, that must be related to the fact that the population of China is 1.4 billion people, compared to the United States' population of 335 million. This means that China's population is almost four times our population, if I have done the math right. Per capita, the United States is way out in front of the parade of those nations that are burning their way towards the end of the world.
If COP28 is not going to be a "Cop Out," which means, using the dictionary definition just linked, "to avoid doing something that you should do or that you have promised to do because you are frightened ..., or you think it is too difficult," something has to change.
Let's all admit that we are frightened, and that we are afraid that stopping our combustion of hydrocarbon fuels may be "too difficult." Ok. Admitted.
But we still have to do it! Let's consider that our New Year, upcoming, can be (and I'd say, "must be") the year in which we stop "copping out."
yes, once again, a total COP OUT!
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