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Written by Milan Clarke   
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Monday, 09 November 2009

Copenhagen 2009

The Kyoto Treaty has set the world in the right direction to minimize one of the major problems we face this century, climate change. Established in 1999 in Japan, the plan looked to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions so that it would minimize interference with the world’s climate.

By 2009, 184 countries signed the treaty with plans to minimize the effects of global warming. However, with the treaty expiring in 2012, we could be left without a concrete international agenda to help prevent climate change. Concerned countries, like Denmark and the United Nations, realized this and created the Climate Change Conferences in Copenhagen, Denmark. For more background on the Kyoto Protocol, check out the Greeniacs Article on the subject: http://www.greeniacs.com/GreeniacsArticles/Kyoto-Protocol-101.html.

From December 6th to the 14th, 2009, the Bell Center in Copenhagen will host about 170 countries that will be represented by government officials. NGOs, journalists, and other representatives will be in attendance, bringing the total to around 8,000 people.1

Hosting the grand event will be Denmark’s very own Minister of Climate and Energy, and Prime Minister Lars Locke Rasmussen. The conference is also referred to as COP15, marking the 15th official conference making an effort to stop global warming.2 The main goal of the conference is to create a Copenhagen Protocol much like the Kyoto Protocol previously created.

Given that thus far, the United States has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, it will be interesting to see how President Obama and other government officials act. Obama has always made the environment important in his new political agenda and this conference is an important international event.

While most news reports state that President Obama will not attend the Conference in Copenhagen, it remains to be seen what will in fact take place. Obama will be in Oslo on the second day of the Conference, accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, and there has been speculation he would take that opportunity to address climate change.3 Going to Copenhagen in his place is Todd Stern, the administration’s special envoy on climate change. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may also make a last minute appearance.

In light of President Obama’s strong stance on climate change, many question how he could not attend this major international event. Some Americans believe the man has the power to part a sea, or something to that extent; however, Obama may not be of any help in Copenhagen. Another reason why Obama will not make the conference is because it is not a “Head of State” event. Fox News explains why: “One big reason the Copenhagen conference is not a ‘head of state’ event is because of the slow progress of climate change legislation in the U.S. Senate.”4 Climate change legislation is not only slow in the United States, but countries like India and China disagree on ways to deal with climate change, which could complicate the process of enacting the treaty everyone hopes is created in Copenhagen.

The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference is a crucial international event for the progression of limiting fuel emissions. Support from the United States is vital because we are one of the world’s highest fuel emitting countries. As for now, we will simply have to wait until December to see what happens.

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1 http://www.erantis.com/events/denmark/copenhagen/climate-conference-2009/index.htm.
2 Id.
3 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6881557.ece;
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/24/obama-likely-skip-climate-change-conference-copenhagen/.
4 http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/24/obama-likely-skip-climate-change-conference-copenhagen/.




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Last Updated ( Thursday, 10 February 2011 )

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Green Facts

  • 77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.

  • One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.

  • Bamboo absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than equivalent stands of trees.

  • You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.

  • Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.

  • Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct.

  • Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.

  • A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%.

  • Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.

  • American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.

  • Shaving 10 miles off of your weekly driving pattern can eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

  • Recycling 1 million laptop computers can save the amount of energy used by 3,657 homes in the U.S. over the course of a year.

  • Less than 1% of electricity in the United States is generated from solar power.

  • Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months

  • Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

  • If every U.S. household turned the thermostat down by 10 degrees for seven hours each night during the cold months, and seven hours each weekday, it would prevent nearly gas emissions.

  • Recycling for one year at Stanford University saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.

  • The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.

  • Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can save as much as 10 gallons a day per person.

  • It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.

  • A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.

  • Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.

  • For every 38,000 bills consumers pay online instead of by mail, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.

  • You will save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive if you always keep your car’s tires fully inflated.

  • Washing your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.

  • You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.

  • A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.

  • Due to tiger poaching, habitat destruction, and other human-tiger conflicts, tigers now number around 3,200—a decrease in population by about 70% from 100 years ago.

  • An aluminum can that is thrown away instead of recycled will still be a can 500 years from now!

  • In California homes, about 10% of energy usage is related to TVs, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and DVD players.

  • 82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from burning fossil fuels.

  • Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.

  • Americans throw away more than 120 million cell phones each year, which contribute 60,000 tons of waste to landfills annually.

  • Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.

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  • A laptop consumes five times less electricity than a desktop computer.

  • In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you'll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.

  • Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.

  • States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.