Welcome to the Climate Action Chat Blog, Fall 2023

Welcome to the Climate Action Chat Blog, developed and maintained by Gregg Walker, Professor of Communication at Oregon State University. Students in COMM 114 and COMM 440/540 can earn bonus points by particiating in this Blog during Fall term 2023. Students are encouraged to provide comments, questions, and resources in response to Blog posts (not this one, though).

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Notes from COP 27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt...08 November

 The 27th annual meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 27) of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) began on Sunday 06 November. Sunday consisted of opening Plenary sessions, with country delegations and coalitions presenting statements.  These opening plenaries do not really set the negotiation agenda.  Instead, they highlight issues that country delegations want to address.  For example, a high priority issue for many developing countries is "loss and damage."  This issue includes discussions of the creation of an international mechanism for loss and damage (a kind of international "FEMA" or emergency management agency) and the finance needed for the international loss and damage authority.  The "high level segment" began yesterday, on the 07 November.  Over 100 Heads of State are at COP 27 (e.f., Presidents and Prime Ministers), with each person speaking at the high level event.  The urgency of the climate crisis is a ...
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Climate change sources and articles

I will admit that I am a news fanatic.  I begin most days by reading articles featured on a variety of news organization websites.  Concerning the climate crisis - I find articles in The Guardian to be particularly informative.  Here is an interesting story from The Guardian about COP 27 in Sharm El Sheikh:  https://www.theguardian.com/en vironment/2022/nov/11/like-veg as-but-worse-bemusement-week- one-cop27-sharm-el-sheikh?CMP= Share_iOSApp_Other I also read articles on the BBC website.  This article is about the goal of keeping the increase in global temperature at or below 1.5 degrees Celsius.  As I read this article, I reflected back to a conversation I had with a Chilean negotiator on a UNFCCC bus in 2018 (COP 24 in Katowice, Poland).  I asked about the 1.5 degree goal.  He told me that, off the record, most negotiators knew that would never be achieved - most hoped that the temperature rise could be kept under 2 degrees.   https:...
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Should the Climate Crisis be a non-partisan issue?

 When I attend UN climate meetings, people from other countries often ask me why the climate crisis is a partisan issue (i.e., "blue" versus "red') in the United States.  The issue has not politicized in most countries the way it has in the US.  For example, I travel to Denmark annually and have noticed that while Danes are divided on some issues (such as immigration), they are generally united across party lines about the climate crisis (they were also united regarding Covid 19).  Ironically, the first candidate for President of the US who voiced concerns about climate change and global warming in a national campaign speech was the late Senator John McCain of Arizona - a Republican.  President George H. W. Bush, a Republican, signed the international agreement that created the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992.  Senate ratification of the UNFCCC was supported widely in 1992, by both Republicans and Democrats.  Yet the only ...
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