Thank You to Mayor Chris Taute and his wonderful family for sharing this special day with us!

Photos Strictly Copyright to V.M.Gibbs-Halls©

                                      

                                  

Thanks to what Obama has described , a “fundamental deadlock in perspectives” (read: China won’t budge!), the accord ended up in an attenuated form that even its architect conceded is “not enough” to do what needs to be done. Gone was the firm commitment to reduce global emissions 50 percent by 2050. Gone were any short-term emissions targets for 2020. Missing were the concrete commitments to “measurement, reporting, and verification” Obama wanted from China, in its place vague language about “national communications.” Perhaps most fatefully, gone was any explicit pledge to formalize the agreement as a binding treaty next year. That’s worrisome, because Copenhagen is only the first challenge in a three-part political obstacle course Obama will need to navigate to reach success on climate change. First was drawing China and India into an agreement. Next will be using the Copenhagen accord to fortify the U.S. Senate to pass a climate bill. Third will be to use that U.S. climate bill to convince UNFCCC countries to sign on to a binding legal treaty in 2010.

I’m not sure that the lack of progress toward a legally binding treaty is actually the worst thing about this. Treaties are hard. You need almost two hundred countries, you might need 67 (!) votes in the Senate, etc. You could get a lot done without a formal treaty if you had robust agreement among the major emitters (China, US, EU, India, Japan) plus a few others. The trouble is that the prospects for that don’t look very good. Nothing that’s happened over the past few months makes obtaining 60 votes in the Senate for a serious climate bill look especially likely, and the Chinese attitude at Copenhagen was very unhelpful to say the least.

The Meerkats is an extraordinarily moving, shocking and, ultimately, uplifting story of one meerkat family and their day-to-day battle for survival

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1204504/Look-Mum-Im-going-film-star.html#ixzz0aJ6tobVL

COPENHAGEN 15 - A CALL FOR A REAL DEAL FROM SOUTH AFRICA

29 people came to our Vigil at Hoekwil bringing children and grandchildren. Various people read from the AVAAZ declaration and Vernon Gibbs spoke to the group and sends this message from the people of Hoekwil -
 
"We, from Hoekwil, Western Cape, South Africa, send warm greetings to all who are gathering at Copenhagen for your crucially important Conference. We call on all nations of the world, particularly the rich, to recognise humanity's dependencey on the natural environment and therefore on the health and well-being of the planet, and to seek solutions with the utmost urgency for the Global environmental and economic systems. We therefore call for a meaningful agreement that places the well-being of people and the planet before profit."
 

A threatened plant in nature
This erica is confined to certain limited areas of the Riversdale and Albertinia districts between the Langeberg and the sea and is becoming increasingly scarce. Within this area it is found growing on sandy flats amongst the tall thatching grass, Thamnochortus insignis. It is likely that a combination of farming activities and field harvesting practices of thatch has resulted in its scarcity and classification in the Red Data book as 'Vulnerable' to extinction.

The commercial harvesting of thatch may be a threat to Erica baueri subsp.baueri. Thatch plants are encouraged to grow in a number of ways. Areas are burnt or ploughed to clear them of other, especially woody, plants. Thatch plants colonize the disturbed land forming dense stands that are easy and more economic to harvest. Another method is to brush-cut the vegetation around the thatch plants creating a dense mono-stand of these plants.