Posted November 21, 2012 by Shefali Sharma The biggest threat
for agriculture at the 18th Conference of Parties (COP) of the
UNFCCC is the certain likelihood (oxymoron intended) of “non-
decisions” for setting ambitious emissions reduction targets for
the post-2012 period, when the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment
period expires. Bill McKibben’s widely circulated article Global
Warming's Terrifying New Math tells us in starkly clear terms
what we need to do to set things right: We have five times as
much oil and coal and gas on the books as climate scientists
think is safe to burn. We'd have to keep 80 percent of those
reserves locked away underground to avoid that fate. Before we
knew those numbers, our fate had been likely. Now, barring some
massive intervention, it seems certain. McKibben lays out in
simple terms what we policy advocates and scientists have failed
to do thus far: convince the average citizen in the
industrialized world why immediate, ambitious and drastic cuts
in our fossil fuel use is nec