The United Change Climate Change Conference which began yesterday in Copenhagen Denmark is, how should we put it, a very big deal. The Cop15, as it is also called, has gathered the most powerful nations of the earth to come together and agree about what we can collectively do to begin decreasing our impact on Global Greenhouse gas and try to stymie rising global temperatures before the planet turns into a sauna for the land and the sea. Mind you, this is not a summit about whether climate change is happening, there’s only a few loonies who still have their head in the sand and believe it is all some kind of hoax. No, this conference will discuss climate change in real terms and try to come up with some real ways to curb CO2 emissions and rising CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere in much the same way that the Kyoto Accord tried and failed to do. One of the other main objectives of the summit seems to be a almost a score card of who’s polluted the most, who’s going to be most affected by climate change and how they are going to split up the bill. As marine aquarists we should be keenly aware of what goes on at Cop15 for two reasons: first is that the oceans are poised to take the brunt of all this acidity and higher water temperatures. The second is that our hobby is an energy intensive one and with some of us having tanks that require multiple halides, chillers, heavy duty water pumps and more running almost 24/7 some of these reefs consume more than our fair share of energy. If you want to know more about the UN CCC in Copenhagen train an eye on their front page blog which will detail the happenings of this very important meeting until December 18th.
