Meanwhile, these are the same politicians who have travelled to Glasgow, many in private jets with a large entourage, to attend COP26. COP, which stands for Conference of the Parties, will last for thirteen days and was first held in 1995. It's held annually to assess the progress in dealing with climate change. Have we really progressed in 26 years? Or is there just a lot of hot air spread around the conference hall with promises made that will not be kept?
Perhaps we are trying to control nature when it can’t be controlled. The climate has changed, as it has in previous centuries, but there is still doubt as to how much of that is because of the effect of humans. And if humans are responsible, is it naive to believe that every country will respond as we would want them to? When you see that the biggest polluters fail to attend the conference, you may have the answer. Further, to expect relatively poor countries to spend large amounts of money in an effort to limit pollution is unrealistic. Their priority is to feed their population and survive.
The politicians warn that the world cannot sustain the pressures of pollution that we are imposing on it. Ordinary people see COP as a show for political gain and COP26 is no different than COP1, other than social media has developed massively over the years and, after twenty six years, the politicians are more exposed to charges of hypocrisy than ever.
While families are wondering whether they will be able to pay their monthly electricity bills, they are unlikely to be taken in by thirteen days of talks from their leaders and certainly won’t believe the declarations made at the end of it. Meanwhile, the assumption, happily, is that the world will survive, at least for another year, and COP 27 is already being organised at its next location, Egypt.