The inhabitants of overheating Earth are starting to realize that they only have one last chance to stop the rising heat from their planet from overwhelming life on Earth as they know it.
So they are staggering into their last chance saloon in Bonn this week and again in Paris in December to see if it's at all possible to come to a global agreement which after over 20 years of contentious negotiations might just possibly be coming together.
When they finally do arrive they find a table of card sharks representing the largest oil and gas companies on the planet already set up and offering what seems to be a sleight of hand: A suggestion that they consider instituting a global price on carbon.
Paul Smith writing at Climate News Network gives his take on the talks in Bonn which lead up to the December talks in Paris the 'last chance saloon'.
LONDON, 1 June, 2015 − The text of the agreement on how the world will tackle climate change and set targets that will keep global temperatures from rising more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels is being negotiated in Bonn this week. The 2°C limit has been set by politicians to prevent the planet overheating dangerously − but the cuts in carbon emissions required to achieve it have so far not been agreed.
It is this gap between the policy goals agreed by world leaders and their lack of action to achieve them that the Bonn conference seeks to address.
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Scientists and environment groups have said that this year’s negotiations are humanity’s “Last Chance Saloon”. If steep emissions cuts are not agreed and implemented quickly, the global temperature has little chance of staying under 2°C − with devastating consequences for the natural world and human civilization.
Amazingly, there is some momentum going into these talks because since the last seemingly unproductive talks there has been activity among the member countries to turn their nonbinding commitments into laws so that at this time three-quarters of the world's annual emissions of greenhouse gases are now regulated by national targets.
And the card sharks? It's hard to know what to think, but it's true, major fossil fuel companies have sent a letter to Bonn leaders asking that world leaders place a 'price on carbon'. I know sounds incredulous, but here is text of letter:
Paying for Carbon Letter
So will we all be able to ride off into the sunset singing 'Happy Trails'? We'll know more when the 10 day Bonn talks conclude. And by December, after Paris talks, we should know if we will be having many more 'Happy Holidays'.