There is a naive belief that the energy we use will never end despite the fact that the fuels that create our energy are finite. Expert opinion varies, but in general conclude that the supply might last for another fifty or a hundred years, but at some point it will come to an end and that is going to happen either in our lifetime or our children’s lifetime. Yet we continue leading energy hungry lifestyles with gay abandon while our environment is being affected by this insatiable need for energy.

There is clear evidence that the Arctic and Antarctic are undergoing massive changes which will affect our world – the argument over the existence of climate change is debatable. We see our world is changing and we could see even more radical changes in our lifetime. It really doesn’t matter how many climate conferences have been held or how many billions of dollars have been announced as a sign of willingness to fight these changes, it seems change is only a good thing as long as it doesn’t affect us.

The UN climate talks in Copenhagen were inches away from total failure and ended with an outcome far too weak to tackle dangerous climate change, WWF said today.

“Copenhagen was at the brink of failure due to poor leadership combined with an unconvincing level of ambition”, said Kim Carstensen, Leader of WWF’s Global Climate Initiative.

“Well meant but half-hearted pledges to protect our planet from dangerous climate change are simply not sufficient to address a crisis that calls for completely new ways of collaboration across rich and poor countries.”

Politicians around the world seem to be in agreement that we must stay below the 2 degree C threshold of unacceptable risks of climate change – in theory. However, practically what leaders have put on the table adds up to 3 degrees C of warming or more, according to WWF estimates.

Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd said world leaders had brought global climate negotiations back from the “abyss” after 17 hours of continual discussions that ended at 1am in the Danish capital city today.But Australia’s Prime Minister conceded that the final Copenhagen Accord left “much more to be done”.

As it stands, the accord simply describes Australia’s current emission reduction target range of 5 per cent to 25 per cent in the political agreement.

Top climate scientists comment that the eleventh-hour political deal hammered out at UN talks in Copenhagen falls perilously short of what is needed to stave off catastrophic global warming. What many had hoped would be a planet-saving treaty locking major economies into strong commitments to shrink their carbon footprints came out as a three-page political accord with key numbers yet to be filled in.

The Nobel-winning UN science panel warned in a benchmark 2007 report that if average temperatures increase by more than 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) on pre-industrial levels, it could lead to runaway climate change and severe impact.

We have already travelled 0.7 C along that path.

More recent studies suggest the planet could hot up by a devastating 6.0 C (10.8 F), and that sea levels could rise by more than a metre (3.25 feet) by 2100 unless we slash CO2 concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Such a hothouse scenario would create hundreds of millions of environmental refugees.

“Strictly speaking, it is a disappointment. We expected more,” French climate scientist Herve Le Treut said of the new accord.

“What we have seen is the diverging interests of nation states and the planet.” more

Many environmentalists and non-governmental organizations have openly criticized the “Copenhagen accord” as just meaningless spin.

Greenpeace criticised the accord for not having “targets for carbon cuts and no agreement on a legally binding treaty”. Oxfam International called the deal “a triumph of spin over substance. It recognises the need to keep warming below two degrees but does not commit to do so. It kicks back the decisions on emissions cuts and fudges the issue of climate cash.”

The “accord” confirms the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Developed countries commit collectively to providing US$30 billion in new, additional funding for developing countries for the 2010-2012 period. It also says developed countries support “a goal of mobilising jointly 100 billion dollars a year” by 2020 from a variety of sources.

Erich Pica, president of the Friends of the Earth (USA), said that the “climate negotiations in Copenhagen have yielded a sham agreement with no real requirements for any countries. This is not a strong deal or a just one — it isn’t even a real one. It’s just repackaging old positions and pretending they’re new. The actions it suggests for the rich countries that caused the climate crisis are extraordinarily inadequate. This is a disastrous outcome for people around the world who face increasingly dire impacts from a destabilising climate…
“With the future of all humans on this planet at stake, rich countries must muster far more political will than they exhibited here. If they do not, small island states will become submerged, people in vulnerable communities across the globe will be afflicted with hunger and disease, and wars over access to food and water will rage.

“The devastation will extend to those of us who live in wealthy countries”, said Pica. “The failure to produce anything meaningful in Copenhagen must serve as a wake up call to all who care about the future. It is a call to action. Corporate polluters and other special interests have such overwhelming influence that rich country governments are willing to agree only to fig leaf solutions. This is unacceptable, and it must change.