Environmental organisations launch global warming protest website

The protest, co-ordinated by the Climate Voice website, has been launched by 16 organisations including WWF, Greenpeace, and Friends of the Earth. The campaign’s aim is to send 10 million messages from the public to world political leaders. The pre-written message demands that governments should make the most of the opportunity provided by November’s Sixth Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, in The Hague, to reduce global warming pollution.

“It is now 10 years since the international scientific community issued its first warning about the threats the world faces from climate change,” said Andrew Kerr, of WWF’s Climate Change Campaign. “That’s why we’re aiming for 10 million messages – one million for each year that governments have failed to take action. It is scandalous that available solutions to this problem have been so thoroughly neglected.”

Though impacts characteristic of global warming have become increasingly evident on every continent, says Climate Voice, governments have failed to act, with many of the leading polluting nations, such as the US, even allowing emissions to increase whilst pressing for international measures to be toned down.

“Climate change is increasingly touching all of our lives,” said Roger Higman, Senior Campaigner with Friends of the Earth. “Food production, water supply, shelter, public health, disaster relief, and nature protection – all of these will be in the firing line. We urgently need the intervention of top politicians to give this problem the priority it deserves.”

According to Climate Voice, if governments fail to finalise the rules for operating the Kyoto climate treaty in November, it would be questionable whether nations would be able to achieve the Kyoto timetable for reducing emissions in the coming decade.

“It’s time world leaders recognised that the people who voted them in care about a cleaner, safer future for their families,” said Kevin Jardine of Greenpeace’s Climate Campaign. “People want action now to combat global warming. November’s climate summit – the first of the 21st Century – is the time for politicians to show they listen.”

Though some industry spokesmen, such as the Global Climate Coalition, warn that the Kyoto protocol will harm economies, some large companies are forging ahead with their environmental stewardship. One such example is the chemicals giant DuPont, who believes they can achieve their ambitious target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 65% of 1990’s levels by 2010, a DuPont spokesman recently told edie.

“DuPont’s energy efficiency, renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction goals are central to our vision of sustainable growth, which we define as reducing our environmental footprint while increasing the value of our goods and services to our stakeholders,” said Paul Tebo, DuPont Vice President of Safety, Health and Environment.