Climate change is often portrayed as a battle to save the polar bears, but it's not about them. They're "charismatic megafauna" -- large, photogenic animals that move people to action. I'm among the people finding them charismatic, and they originally moved me to action. However, at some point I realized that fighting climate change isn't about the polar bears. It's about people.
If you've ever surfed a television-related website with an address ending in .tv, you know the tiny Pacific island of Tuvalu. It has one cash cow, its country's internet domain address. And if you've been following Copenhagen news this week, you've also heard of Tuvalu as the tiny island that could...or could it?
Tuvalu has led the call to limit emissions to 1.5 degrees C, rather than the 2 degrees C acceptable to the United States and other developed countries. Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has just posted a diary, 1.5 Degrees or 2 Degrees Celsius? Life or Death for Tuvalu, explaining the science; suffice to say that the difference between 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees Celsius is likely the difference between survival and drowning for the tiny, flat island. Last Tuesday, its lead negotiator, Ian Fry, made an impassioned, verge-of-tears appeal to the United Nations.
Transcript (via ThinkProgress' Wonk Room):
The entire population of Tuvalu lives below two meters above sea level. The highest point above sea level in the entire nation of Tuvalu is only four meters.
Madam President, we are not naive to the circumstances and the political considerations that are before us. It appears that we are waiting for some senators in the US Congress to conclude before we can consider this issue properly. It is an irony of the modern world that the fate of the world is being determined by some senators in the U.S. Congress.
We note that President Obama recently went to Norway to pick up a Nobel Prize, rightly or wrongly. But we can suggest that for him to honor this Nobel Prize, he should address the greatest threat to humanity that we have before us, climate change, and the greatest threat to security, climate change. So I make a strong plea that we give proper consideration to a conclusion at this meeting that leads to two legally binding agreements.
Madame President, this is not just an issue of Tuvalu. Pacific island countries — Kiribas, Marshall Islands, Maldives, Haiti, Bahamas, Grenada — Sao Tome in West Africa and all the LDCs: Bhutan, Laos, Mali, Senegal, Timor-Leste — and millions of other people around this world are affected enormously by climate change.
This is not just Tuvalu.
Over the last few days I’ve received calls from all over the world, offering faith and hope that we can come to a meaningful conclusion on this issue. Madame President, this is not a ego trip for me. I have refused to undertake media interviews, because I don’t think this is just an issue of an ego trip for me. I am just merely a humble and insignificant employee of the environment department of the government of Tuvalu. As a humble servant of the government of Tuvalu, I have to make a strong plea to you that we consider this matter properly. I don’t want to cause embarrassment to you or the government. But I want to have this issue to be considered properly.
I clearly want to have the leaders put before them an option for considering a legally binding treaty to sign on at this meeting. I make this a strong and impassioned plea. We’ve had our proposal on the table for six months. Six months, it’s not the last two days of this meeting. I woke this morning, and I was crying, and that’s not easy for a grown man to admit. The fate of my country rests in your hands.
Much of the Copenhagen deal-making is on the subject of climate finance, i.e., how much rich nations should pay poor nations for adaptation and mitigation. However, for small island such as Tuvalu, it's not about the money: "it becomes a question of national existence for these island states. All of the billions and trillions in the world won’t do a darn thing if your country is drowning or, worse yet, no longer exists. For the small islands, the focus should be on drastic emission reductions and not a price tag for their existence." (Photo: Greenpeace.)
Tuvalu has put forth a radical proposal that would call for far deeper cuts in carbon emissions than any on the table. Officially, the United Nations will consider it next week; however, even China and India -- who normally join Tuvalu in the G77 bloc -- oppose the proposal. Meanwhile, key UN-affiliated scientists tell the UN that the cuts being proposed by various developed countries add up to about 8-12% total carbon emission cuts, far less than the 25-40% that scientists say is necessary. Tuvalu's proposal is thus far closer to scientific reality than anything else at Copenhagen. However, the odds of it passing the United Nations are no better than Tuvalu's chances of survival.
The loss of a small island's land and national identity doesn't appear to move American consumers and their duly elected Senators. Perhaps the loss of the American-consumer-friendly internet domain address will?