MQ

Stunning fact:  Oceans are not yet on the agenda for Copenhagen (at least they weren’t on Oct 1.09).  I notice quite a bit of web traffic on the need for ocean acidification to be front and centre during the Copenhagen discussions.

This was a break-out session that ended the day on Thursday.  Was slightly disrupted by the power going off in the Hyatt for a couple of hours.  A message?

The session was chaired by Pete Grannis, Commissioner of the NY State Dept of Environmental Conservation and moderated by Jim Ayers, VP of the Pacific Region of Oceana.  The line-up was:  Governor Gwendolyn Garcia of Cebu, Philippines; John Ginivan ED for Planning and Community Development, Victoria, Australia; Dr. Tony Haymet, Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, California; Bart van Bolhuis, Consult General of Netherlands in LA; and Dr. Dessima Williams, Ambassador of Grenada to the UN.

Highlights:

Because there was no power, there was also thankfully no powerpoints.  But Tony Haymet from Scripps was inventive – he drew 3 graphs on 81/2×11 paper to explain 3 sets of data:  CO2 (up 39%);  Ocean Acidity (up 30%); and Sea Level Rise (1.2m rise by 2100).   Powerful message.

Cebu in the Philippines has a great program – the government provides paper, pencils and books for students – in return the students are each requested to plant 10 trees.  3million trees have been planted so far!

Advice from the Netherlands:  build with nature, live with water;  national policy and inter-regional cooperation essential; and sea level rise needs to be high on the global agenda – a cross-cutting issue.

Next and last blog coming up about the Governors’ Global Climate Summit 2.