Fourteen days to seal history's judgement on this generation

This link takes you to the Guardian's climate change conference editorial calling on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen to take decisive action. In an unprecedented step of speaking with one voice, the editorial appeared in 56 newspapers in 45 countries.

Image: Iceberg spotted from a New Zealand shore for the first time in living memory (November 06)

Climate change goes on the backburner

Hopes of a legally binding treaty at the Copenhagen summit next month have gone up in a puff of smoke. Key negotiators say that a global treaty to fight climate change will be postponed by at least six months, possibly a year or more. Now it seems the best hope is for a politically binding agreement that has all the elements of the final deal, including specific targets and timetables for greenhouse gas emissions cuts.

In the meantime, New Zealand has been called out by British correspondent Fred Pearce. Writing in the Guardian Weekly he says: "New Zealand was a friend to Middle Earth, but it's no friend to the Earth". In a no-punches-pulled article he describes the "greenhouse wash" that followed the promises made by countries 12 years ago when the Kyoto protocol was signed, identifying those that failed to deliver. After lining up the worst offenders he says: "But my prize for the most shameless two fingers to the global community goes to New Zealand, a country that sells itself around the world as clean and green." He might have added that New Zealand is one of the countries that is not sending its Head of State to Copenhagen to sit alongside others including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Brazilian President Lula Inacio da Silva. You can read Pearce's article here.

Images: Milford Sound, New Zealand; detail of Rachel Whiteread's Embankment (2005), Turbine Hall installation at the Tate Modern (the Tate Modern is an influential backer of  the 10:10 campaign)

Harbingers

Following our post on John Reynolds' environmentally savvy work Snow Tussock and an earlier post on the 10:10 campaign to slash carbon emissions by 10% during the year 2010, here are two striking images -  one of an iceberg spotted from a New Zealand shore for the first time in living memory (November 06) and the second of the recent dust haze that turned the Sydney sky red in September 09. 

Tate Modern backs move to fight global warming

A coalition of British scientists, companies, celebrities and organisations spanning the cultural and political spectrum have committed to slashing carbon emissions as part of a campaign to tackle global warming by reducing their carbon footprints by 10% during the year 2010. The coalition aims to bolster grassroots support for tough action against global warming ahead of the key summit in Copenhagen in December, which is being staged to broker a successor to the Kyoto protocol.

The 10:10 campaign was launched last week at the Tate Modern where four vast oil-fired generators once churned out greenhouse gases. As well as hosting the event, the Tate was amongst the first to sign up to the 10:10 campaign, which is backed by public figures ranging from the climate change expert Lord Stern to some of Britain's leading arts personalities including Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Ian McEwen, Gillian Wearing and Franny Armstrong, the film-maker behind the climate change movie The Age of Stupid.

Image: Tate Modern, Bankside, London