The Wave ~ London

I was in London on Saturday for The Wave, the annual rally organised by the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition. The message is simple, a demand for action by the UK to prevent global warming exceeding +2C from pre-industrial, a threshold (somewhat arbitrarily) agreed to represent dangerous climate change.

On the one hand the seriousness of the threat can not be exaggerated – life and death for millions if not billions of people, however there still persists a resolute degree of optimism. I am left wondering how far along the current trajectory we are able to travel before any rational thinker abandons optimism? Doctors after all tend not to remain optimistic in the face of terminal diagnosis. There comes a point as a ship starts taking on water when people do run for the lifeboats.

This year’s rally was especially important as it comes just days ahead of the climate change conference in Copenhagen. This was described by the rally organisers as nothing less than the last chance to save the world. Ed Miliband said on the radio today that global emissions have to peak by 2020 before declining. Copenhagen has to deliver a pathway to this or it has failed. Perhaps optimism can be checked against achievements over the next few weeks.

My photos from the event can be seen on Flickr here.