I'm packing my bags and heading to Bali tomorrow morning. After several stopovers, a few different flights and countless time zones, the plane will finally touch down in Indonesia just before midnight on Saturday. Of course, that's assuming everything goes smoothly (I'm not holding my breath).
It's a grueling schedule that doesn't leave much time for sleep before the UN climate change conference kicks off on Monday. Still, it's pretty exciting to be part of such a critically important meeting.
Who needs sleep when you get to spend two weeks inside a conference centre watching international climate negotiations go down?
Starting Monday, I'll be updating this blog on a regular basis with all sorts of news from Bali. If Canada tries to block progress on a new climate deal, you'll hear about it here.
In the meantime, here are a few good links to help you get up to speed before the Bali climate conference begins.
UN climate change conference: Everything you ever wanted to know about the Bali conference can be found on its official website.
Canada in Bali (pdf): The David Suzuki Foundation's background document on Canada's negotiating position heading into Bali (it's a little technical but there's a lot of good information in it)
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: The world's most authoritative voice on the science of climate change.
Bali backgrounder (pdf): This document prepared by the Climate Action Network Canada helps explains why the Bali meeting is so important.
Bali 101: Don't have time to wade through all that reading? This blog post summarizes all of the above in a few short paragraphs.
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Steven Earl Salmony, Ph.D., M.P.A.
I Wonder What Galileo Is Doing Tonight
I find it irresistible not to at least take a moment to wonder aloud what Galileo is doing tonight. My hope would be that the great man is resting in peace and that his head is NOT spinning in his grave. How, now, can Galileo possibly find peace when so few top-rank scientists all NOT members of the IPCC refuse to speak out clearly regarding whatsoever they believe to be true about the distinctly human predicament presented to humanity in our time by certain unbridled "overgrowth" activities of the human species that loom ominously and threaten to engulf the planetary home God has blessed us to inhabit?
Where are more leaders like Al Gore who are willing to support the good science of climate change that is being presented in the solid scientific observations and consensually validated empirical data from Dr. R.K. Pachauri and the IPCC?
Perhaps there is something in the great work of Al Gore and the 2000 scientists in the IPCC that will give Galileo a moment of peace.
What would the world we inhabit look like if scientists like Galileo adopted a code of silence, speaking only about scientific evidence which was politically convenient, religiously tolerated, economically expedient, and socially correct?
Steve Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population