It’s getting hotter in here…

Pre-Copenhagen negotiations have been going in in Barcelona this week, and things aren’t going well.   Earlier this week, a group of African nations walked out of the negotiations to protest the unwillingness of richer nations to make real cuts to their emissions to avoid climate change.  The African countries were making the point that they will disproportionately pay the price for unchecked climate change, and that developed countries have a legal and moral responsibility to take decisive measures to stop the impending climate disaster.  Eventually, a compromise was reached that allowed negotiations to continue but by the end of the week Yvo de Boer, UN’s top climate official, announced that too little progress has been made to for a treaty to be signed at the summit in Copenhagen next month, and it may take another year to reach a binding agreement.   CBC news reports that “Countries most vulnerable to climate change said Friday they were incensed that rich nations were rethinking the timetable for concluding a global treaty that would hold them to legally binding targets for cutting emissions.”

For a detailed analysis of the Barcelona talks, check out Bloomberg.com’s update and the Huffington Post’s blog from Barcelona.

The only comfort I can find at this point is that negotiations will continue, rather than ending with an inadequate agreement in December.  But scientists are warning that the longer we remain in the danger zone—above 350—the more likely that we will see disastrous and irreversible climate impacts.

In the meantime, I’m going to take some comfort in the smell of pumpkin muffins baking in my oven.  The recipe that I used is from recipeZaar.com, but I made a few changes (wholewheat flour and bran rather than white, and half orange juice/half buttermilk, and a lot more spice).  I’ll work on posting a page with my changes and a picture of the muffins.

Hope you have some comfort food in your day, too!