BaliBuzz: Time 2 Act - 2 Degrees is 2 Much « It’s Getting Hot In Here

Youth were singing to delegates entering the UN Climate Negotiations a day before the high level negotiations kick off, highlighting the negotiation’s failure to move fast enough to address catastrophic climate change. With the latest scientific information about climate change explicitly outlining the dangers of a two-degree temperature rise, youth spoke out against the misleading threshold, which is not strong enough to protect their future.

A rise in temperature of two degrees Celsius gives us only a 50% chance of maintaining a stable climate. “Would you bungee jump off a cliff if your life line had a 50% chance of breaking?” asks Kartikeya Singh, a US youth delegate at the conference.

Youth delegates from around the world are gathering in solidarity today at the conference to encourage delegates to up the ante, especially in light of Kyoto’s 10th anniversary. Katrina Genuis, a Canadian youth delegate, emphasized that, “Delegates need to step it up now, we don’t have another decade to wait for effective action.”

About

As a sophomore at Walter Johnson High School in Maryland, Yochi was recruited to join the SSC's Montgomery County Student Environmental Activists. After a couple of weeks of hanging out with the SSC'ers, he started organizing what turned into a county-wide campaign that gained media attention and attracted the support of the county council. While an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, Yochi founded a business partnership called Brewing Hope with farmers in Chiapas, Mexico. Working with students, faculty and businesses interested in promoting the fair trade system, Yochi set up a program that not only sold coffee, but also created a relationships between coffee growers and latte drinkers. Brewing Hope's student delegations visit Mexico to learn about coffee production and meet with indigenous communities while farmers from Chiapas travel to speak at educational events in the Midwest. He turned over the management reins of Brewing Hope to study the connection between biodiversity, economic sustainability and coffee certifications in Central America. Yochi now works at Co-op America, the national green business network, expanding the market for fair trade products and pressuring businesses to adopting forward thinking policies on climate change. Yochi's first blog was titled "The Neoliberal Chopping Block"

It’s Getting Hot In Here