Peak Oil News - Beyond Bali

“Climate change is a serious threat to development everywhere”, said Rajendra Pachauri last November as he released technical reports prepared by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “Today, the time for doubt has passed. (We have) unequivocally affirmed the warming of our climate system, and linked it directly to human activity.” To make sure there was no doubting his message, he added that “slowing or even reversing the existing trend of global warming is the defining challenge of our age.” According to Pachauri, global warming will lead to melting icecaps and rising sea levels, the drowning of some island nations, the extinction of species, desertification of tropical forests and more frequent and deadlier storms.

The world’s media soon became focused as never before on greenhouse gases (GHG) – the emissions (mainly carbon dioxide and methane) causing Earth to warm and its climates to change. The occasion was a United Nations conference meant to negotiate national targets for reducing greenhouse gases. The venue was the Indonesian resort island of Bali.