Typhoon Haiyan and the Warsaw U.N. talks

As the sea level rises, Pacific coastal nations like the Philippines, Vietnam, and Bangladesh will experience more disasters from surges resulting from storms.  An article in New York Times entitled “South Florida Faces Ominous Prospects from Rising Waters,” (Nov. 1, 2013) is evidence that developed countries are also in trouble.

Currently U.N. delegates are meeting in Warsaw to discuss ways to strengthen the Kyoto Protocol, an earlier effort to slow the growth of greenhouse gas emissions.  The new standards would take effect in 2020.

Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated much of the Philippines, has given urgency to the talks.  Reaching agreement is not easy.  What should rich countries do to reduce greenhouse gasses?  How much money should they set aside to help poorer nations cope with climate change?  What about developing but still poor countries like India?

I don’t know what will come out of the Warsaw talks, but I will predict that 100 years from now, the humans left on this planet will not be talking about the Affordable Care website or the Kardashians or the Syrian civil war.  They will be wondering why an article about the climate talks in Warsaw were relegated to page 13 in the nation’s premier newspaper, and why the House of Representatives included over a hundred Republicans who thought climate change was a myth.