Someone Else Thinks Beyond Kyoto

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Someone Else Thinks Beyond Kyoto

18 May 2006 'Kyoto and Beyond: a Global Strategy' Conference, Commonwealth Club, London

Contributions were made by distinguished speakers: Tom Spencer (Institute of Environmental Security); Sir Crispin Tickell (former UK permanent representative at the UN); Andrew Simms (Policy Director, New Economics Foundation); Elliot Morley MP (former Minister of State for Climate Change & Environment); Lord Redesdale (Vice-chair Parliamentary Group on Climate Change); Ritu Kumar (Director of TERI-Europe); John Gummer MP (former Secretary of State for Environment); and Aubrey Meyer (Director of Global Commons Institute).

Key points included the following. The arguments on climate change are not now technological but political, with the US administration doing all it can to avoid the evidence for it until time runs out. There are a number of tipping points into irreversible climate change, which will shortly be examined in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's fourth report. CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere are now higher than they have been for the last 650,000 years! No solution to stabilising CO2 concentrations is possible without contraction and convergence in some form.

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the Challenge of Reason

Send the signal to the top of the table.

In the civic dialog surrounding leadership for Christchurch being largely mediated by the hard copy editors of the forth estate, new media; the internet, is the natural vehicle for independent thinking, participation and coordination. (ie: see http://canterburyissues.org.nz/)

The 2007 local body elections Christchurch will 'mandate' a direction for the cities foreseable future from the collective fog of signals it sends in electing the head of the Council table.

Such is your mayoral vote. Your vote for reason is a vote for rating equity, for affordable and accessable services and for intergenerational equity; [and more].

If you wish to cast a vote that will deliver beyond 'business as usual' outcomes then consider;

The writer's 30 years of examination of our drug laws has evolved into a comprehensive, long-term effort to bring about meaningful reform of drug policy on many levels. The principal objectives of this effort are:

reductions in crime and public disorder; improvement of the public health; better protection of children; and wiser use of scarce public resources.

Are these worthy aspirations? Worthy of the future Mayor of Christchurch?

It was these very aspirations that sent Seattle drug policy law proponent Roger Goodman of the King County Bar Association to the Washington State Senate. Seattle, Our Sister City, is away ahead of us here in Canterbury, (despite Mayor Moore's 'Time to Talk').

I see my symbolic stand for Mayor as raising awareness of the uncivil consequences of drug prohibition and all that represents.

Send YOUR signal to the top of the table.

Vote Blair4Mayor.comraising awareness of the consequences of drug prohibition and just about everything else others are either (a) intellectualy bereft or (b) compromised by affiliation to discuss.

Time to Talk, Time to Vote.....

Blair Anderson, on the hustings 'canvassing for opinion'

Tuesday, April 29, 2008