Failure of the climate summit - What can I do?

When the world's leaders have failed to put together a plan, is there any hope for the rest of us?



The climate summit still lingers with its lack of promise for a brighter future. A hotter future perhaps, but not a brighter one.

The idea of a world that altogether worked together to solve the common problems of the populace is a dreamed fading away. What really happened at the summit is for the larger part of the world's population irrelevant. The main point is, that nothing productive happened, no promises were made that could not as easily be broken.



It leaves me thinking, what could I have done? I saw how thousands and thousands of peaceful protestors went on unheard, no solution found, no problem solved. It leaves me alone.



Alone, but not without the ability to do something about the global warming. The many stories that have been raining down from the news stations and radios all over the world, and all address the same problem. We consume too much energy per person in the wealthy countries.

Now, not many people are willing to make a cut in their living standards as they are currently. The living standards of the modern world have risen, not only in the west, but also in for instance China that now holds a huge middle class of several hundred million people, who all want to keep their current state of living.



Something can be done however, there are different ways to address the problem of global warming. The rather extreme, where you cut of the energy-cords to your laptop, television and radio are ideas that has home in a low tech Utopia - Not the modern world of tomorrow.



I believe that making the energy consumption of existing technologies smaller, is one realistic way to minimize the output of carbon dioxide. Doing this will allow the continuous welfare of the modern world, while adapting the welfare into a more civilized and wholesome affair, not only focusing on those who use it, but also taking into account that we will on a shared planet.



I have come across many inspiring initiatives, but one of those which caught my eyes the most, is a project called CO2 Neutral Website (click here to check out their website). They seem to have established a connection to the EU and CO2 quotas, and therefore provide a simple solution for websites to become CO2 neutral. It is pretty straight forward actually. You just pay depending on how many visitors you have, and CO2 Neutral Website will simply acquire enough CO2 quotas to CO2 neutralize your website, and clear them with the state authorities in EU.



Of course, you also get this cool badge to put on your website, so your visitors will know that your website is CO2 neutral, spreading the green wave, some might call it.



Anyway, I think there are some great initiatives out there and just hope more people will be inspired by them - and most importantly, I would of course like to see people take advantage of projects like CO2 Neutral Website, because I think we should all benefit the environment in any way we can. The personal pleasure of using CO2 neutral websites is good, but I also hope that by making an effort, others might do the same.