Environmental Education Media Project

Attending the 15^th Convening of the Parties (COP 15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen was an extremely intense experience.  Given the ambition of gathering thousands of organizations and 10’s of thousands of individuals together, in order to collectively address human impact on the Earth’s climate, it is not surprising that the conference was confused and ended without a legally binding agreement.  Perhaps the most disturbing outcome is that somewhere along the way, the Climate and the Environment have taken second place to the politicized negotiations.  We need to put our priorities back where they should be.

Over the years as I’ve been studying what has caused ecosystem function, it has become clear that our problems are greater than simply egregious carbon emissions in the atmosphere.  Human beings have massively altered the earth over the last several thousand years.  Although our impacts are complex, described simply we have reduced biodiversity, biomass and accumulated organic matter and this has reduced gas exchange from photosynthesis, lowered nutrient cycling from decaying matter, and massively altered infiltration and retention of rainfall, changing soil moisture, relative humidity and microclimates.  All of these impacts are exacerbated by egregious emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

Although Copenhagen has not ended in an agreement I don’t consider the meeting a failure.  The inability of the politicians to reach agreement is a stimulus to find functional methods to address our problems that can be agreed to by everyone.  As I have seen and our film “Hope in a Changing Climate” has shown, there are steps that everyone can take immediately to sequester carbon, to mitigate against flooding, drought and famine and to ensure that biodiversity survives into future generations.  Copenhagen has convinced me that we cannot wait for the politicians to “get it”, we have to act immediately to restore as much of the degraded lands in the world as we can.  I think the people of the world are now far out in front of the politicians.  If the top down method is unlikely to succeed then we must act from the bottom up.  When the people show them what is possible I think … THE POLITICIANS WILL CATCH UP.

While the Copenhagen meeting was winding its confusing path toward a minimal outcome it did bring many concerned people together.  Paul Schopf, Director of the Center for Climate and Society at George Mason University and I were able to meet with Rose Mukankomeje, the Director General of the Rwanda Environment Management Agency to discuss collaboration on Research, Development and Training to be based in Rwanda.  We discussed locating a center for scientific excellence in the Rugezi Highland Wetlands to continuously monitor soil carbon flux, in the wetland peat, in biological carbon in herbaceous and woody plants in Rugezi wetlands and the Gishwati and Nyungwe Forests.   This center would be justified simply because of the urgent need for the scientific data but we also discussed using the center as the base for restoration of the degraded lands and training for the next generation of restoration experts.  Because of the unique assembly of people in Copenhagen I was also able to discuss this with Juergen Voegele, the head of Agriculture and Rural Affairs at the World Bank and with Stewart Maginnis and Bill Jackson who lead the IUCN’s Forest Restoration projects, with Kjell Aleklett who heads the global energy group at Uppsala University and with Dr. Jane Goodall, the justly famed British primatologist.

There is a growing consensus around what needs to be done and a growing impatience with the existing institutions.  When the Rugezi Wetlands releases its waters it flows into the headwaters of the White Nile and the Congo Rivers.  There is no doubt that the ecosystem health of this system is of enormous importance for Rwanda and for all of Africa.  There is also no doubt that functional systems in this region are vastly more valuable than the scant productivity that poor farmers can force from the hillsides.  The value of the ecosystem must be acknowledged and as soon as it is the people there will no longer be poor.  This is true in many parts of the world and recognizing it will ensure that the future will have wetlands, flowing rivers, grasslands, and forests.

This is the lesson that I have taken away from the Copenhagen Cop and I think it is a lesson that I hope many can learn quickly.  If we act together immediately, within just a few years we can restore this wonderful landscape to full functionality and physically demonstrate how restoration can provide tremendous benefits for the local people and everyone on Earth.  The collaboration of the partners will provide all that is needed to accomplish this and can help to lead restoration on a planetary scale.

- John D. Liu