Messages from the Pale Blue Dot

Paris Knowledge Bridge: Unpacking International Climate Governance

Video: The History of Climate Governance (#1 of 4)

Here is the first of our four videos, "The History of Climate Governance". This is the link to the annotated version, which can be used in high schools and universities to help students understand what is at stake in Paris for COP21. It has links embedded in the video to primary documents, reports and academic papers to assist in its use as a teaching tool.

Efforts to address climate change have a long history. To understand the future of climate change governance, as we look to Paris in December 2015, we need to understand the history. (For an in-depth look at the negotiations to the new agreement (2011-2015), see video four).

Learning objectives

By the end of this video you will:

• be able to state some of the key events in the 25 year history of international climate governance;
  understand the key issues during the negotiations leading to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol;
• understand key terms in global environmental governance, such as ratification, entry into force and governance, and know how these terms apply to climate governance; and
• be able to identify some of the major players in international climate governance, such as civil society and key states.

 

Video 1: The History of Climate Governance from IISD Reporting Services / ENV on Vimeo.

IISD Launches Biodiversity Policy & Practice Knowledgebase to Track Key UN and Intergovernmental Activities

NAGOYA, Japan—October 29, 2010—As the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) takes place in this central Japanese city, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) launched a unique knowledge management project that tracks United Nations and intergovernmental action on ways to nurture biodiversity all over the world, including in developing countries where resources remain scarce to protect the planet.

The online knowledgebase, Biodiversity Policy & Practice, will support international efforts to promote biodiversity through the sharing of knowledge and lessons learned by policy makers, practitioners, and other key opinion shapers.

The online service is the latest tool for these audiences from IISD Reporting Services, building on its’ outstanding achievements in the development of peer-to-peer networks and hubs, including the well-respected www.Climate-L.org.

“For more than two decades, IISD has played a key role in providing information and knowledge products and building virtual communities of practice for environment and sustainable development policymakers and practitioners. This initiative will assist the international community to coordinate their work to preserve biological diversity,” said Langston James "Kimo" Goree VI, director of IISD Reporting Services.

All news articles on Biodiversity Policy & Practice are researched and produced by IISD Reporting Services’ thematic experts, resulting in original content. Information on activities is provided in cooperation with UN system agencies, funds and programs through the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) Secretariat.

Features of the Biodiversity Policy & Practice website include:

· A knowledgebase of summaries of activities (publications, meetings, statements or projects) by a range of actors, with the option to search by several categories (region, actor, action, issue and implementation mechanism);

· An archive of all posts on the site, organized by date;

· A clickable world map to view the latest biodiversity policy news by region (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America & Caribbean, Near East, North America, and South West Pacific);

· A link to subscribe to BIODIVERSITY-L, a moderated community announcement list for policy-makers and practitioners involved with biodiversity policy;

· A link to the most recent “Biodiversity Update,” a periodic feed of recent posts to the Biodiversity Policy & Practice knowledgebase;

· A calendar of upcoming intergovernmental events related to international biodiversity policy;

· A link to our Biodiversity iCalendar, which automatically updates your own calendar program with upcoming biodiversity events; and

· A link to IISD Reporting Services’ RSS feed.

Please visit Biodiversity Policy & Practice at http://biodiversity-l.iisd.org. Please also visit the Earth Negotiations Bulletin coverage of CBD COP 10 at http://www.iisd.ca/biodiv/cop10/.

Start-up funding for Phase I of Biodiversity Policy & Practice has been provided by the

Global Environment Facility, the world’s largest public funder of global environmental issues and the longstanding financial mechanism of the CBD.

For further information on this initiative, or to provide us with information about your biodiversity-related activity, please contact Faye Leone, Content Editor, at [email protected].

Please also contact IISD Media and Communications Officer Nona Pelletier for more information at +1 (204) 962-1303 or [email protected].

George Carlin - Over and Out

George Carlin wrote and performed his own obituary, Modern Man, in which he summed himself up in about three and half minutes.

"I’m a modern man, a man for the millennium. Digital and smoke free. A diversified multi-cultural, post-modern deconstruction that is anatomically and ecologically incorrect. I’ve been up linked and downloaded, I’ve been inputted and outsourced, I know the upside of downsizing, I know the downside of upgrading. I’m a high-tech low-life. A cutting edge, state-of-the-art bi-coastal multi-tasker and I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond!

I’m new wave, but I’m old school and my inner child is outward bound. I’m a hot-wired, heat seeking, warm-hearted cool customer, voice activated and bio-degradable. I interface with my database, my database is in cyberspace, so I’m interactive, I’m hyperactive and from time to time I’m radioactive.

Behind the eight ball, ahead of the curve, ridin the wave, dodgin the bullet and pushin the envelope. I’m on-point, on-task, on-message and off drugs. I’ve got no need for coke and speed. I've got no urge to binge and purge. I’m in-the-moment, on-the-edge, over-the-top and under-the-radar. A high-concept, low-profile, medium-range ballistic missionary. A street-wise smart bomb. A top-gun bottom feeder. I wear power ties, I tell power lies, I take power naps and run victory laps. I’m a totally ongoing big-foot, slam-dunk, rainmaker with a pro-active outreach. A raging workaholic. A working rageaholic. Out of rehab and in denial!

I’ve got a personal trainer, a personal shopper, a personal assistant and a personal agenda. You can’t shut me up. You can’t dumb me down because I’m tireless and I’m wireless, I’m an alpha male on beta-blockers.

I’m a non-believer and an over-achiever, laid-back but fashion-forward. Up-front, down-home, low-rent, high-maintenance. Super-sized, long-lasting, high-definition, fast-acting, oven-ready and built-to-last! I’m a hands-on, foot-loose, knee-jerk head case pretty maturely post-traumatic and I’ve got a love-child that sends me hate mail.

But, I’m feeling, I’m caring, I’m healing, I’m sharing-- a supportive, bonding, nurturing primary care-giver. My output is down, but my income is up. I took a short position on the long bond and my revenue stream has its own cash-flow. I read junk mail, I eat junk food, I buy junk bonds and I watch trash sports! I’m gender specific, capital intensive, user-friendly and lactose intolerant.

I like rough sex. I like tough love. I use the “F” word in my emails and the software on my hard-drive is hardcore--no soft porn.

I bought a microwave at a mini-mall; I bought a mini-van at a mega-store. I eat fast-food in the slow lane. I’m toll-free, bite-sized, ready-to-wear and I come in all sizes. A fully-equipped, factory-authorized, hospital-tested, clinically-proven, scientifically- formulated medical miracle. I’ve been pre-wash, pre-cooked, pre-heated, pre-screened, pre-approved, pre-packaged, post-dated, freeze-dried, double-wrapped, vacuum-packed and, I have an unlimited broadband capacity.

I’m a rude dude, but I’m the real deal. Lean and mean! Cocked, locked and ready-to-rock. Rough, tough and hard to bluff. I take it slow, I go with the flow, I ride with the tide. I’ve got glide in my stride. Drivin and movin, sailin and spinin, jiving and groovin, wailin and winnin. I don’t snooze, so I don’t lose. I keep the pedal to the metal and the rubber on the road. I party hearty and lunch time is crunch time. I’m hangin in, there ain’t no doubt and I’m hangin tough, over and out!"

The last time I saw George was at the Beacon Theatre about two years ago, on the dress rehearsal night before his live HBO special. He was my favorite comedian from his early performances on the Mike Douglas and Ed Sullivan shows until his death today.

Click on the YouTube video and spend a few minutes with this incredible guy, whose life-force and acerbic wit were always a personal inspiration. 

United Nations Climate Change Conference Opens in Bali

On Saturday, 1 December, after stops in Frankfurt, Dubai and Bangkok, I landed in Bali for a two-week stay during the United Nations Climate Change Conference. There are seventeen of us on the ground, with another seven people around the planet providing translations (Tunis, Tokyo and Buenos Aires), editing (Buenos Aires and New York), desktop publishing (New York), operations management (New Jersey) and accounting (Winnipeg.) We'll be producing one website, one blog, a daily 2000-word report on the negotiations in English, French, Spanish and Japanese, a daily four-six page report in English and on the web on the side events, plus special coverage of two events over this coming weekend. Big production! Content is flying around the planet at various stages in the production, originating here in Nusa Dua, out for translation in Africa, South America and Asia, over to New York for final desktopping, then up to Winnipeg on the Canadian prairies for upload to our lists and website.

The first few days have been busy setting up our huge office, making sure everyone has arrived safely, getting accredited and our traditional team dinner.

But, this morning the meeting opened to overflow crowds.

Without a doubt, Australia stole the show today, announcing that the new government would ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Howard Bamsey, on the left, looks pretty giddy about the whole thing.

Still rushing a bit, getting our institutional blog off the ground today. Our online coverage is at http://www.iisd.ca/climate/cop13/ and the new blog should be at http://www.iisdrs.org

Although we haven't worked out the details, we will be providing content to several blogs, including Alexia Park's Votelink blog More on all this later, when we get ready to turn our new IISD Reporting Services blog "live" (our CNAME change for domain mapping is still working its way through the DNS servers.)