COP-16: Two worlds clashing

COP-16: Dos mundos chocarán en las pláticas sobre el cambio climático en Cancún | Portal EcoDebate

Two worlds collide in Cancun. The first is a world in denial, where profits above the living and the most threatening environmental crisis in history is regarded as a business opportunity. The second is a world of small farmers, indigenous peoples, urban poor communities, and islanders suffering record droughts, water shortages and storms related to global warming. Two worlds collide in Cancun, but the two share the same planet. If the world that defend at all costs the current model of production and consumption prevails, the planet is closer and closer to the brink of catastrophe.

The climate change debate usually takes place within the boundaries of the cloisters of the luxurious hotels, the executive boardrooms, and diplomatic facilities. As we saw in the failure to reach binding agreements in Copenhagen, the conversations usually are as sterile as the environment.

As world leaders travel the world talking about the threat to the planet, are the poor who face the worst consequences of the imbalance of land thermometer. Marginalized and vulnerable populations-from small farmers in Africa faced devastating droughts, to the inhabitants of island nations that flood-are most affected by the refusal of developed countries and companies to significantly reduce emissions that are warming the planet.

Yet these same people are organizing and provide important social and environmental solutions and sustainable global warming.

The problem is that world leaders are not listening. It probably will not change during the meeting on climate change in Cancun, Mexico, starting in late November and runs until 10 December.

Laura Carlsen is an FPIF columnist and director of the Americas. He is currently helping to coordinate the independent media for the Global Alternative Forum for Life, and Environmental and Social Justice "in Cancun.