Read the Washington Post catch-all on the end of talks at the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen. A startling excerpt:
In the deal, spelled out in a three-page document, each country needs only to list its current domestic pledges for emissions reductions and to promise to allow monitoring of their progress. It also outlines steps to help poor countries go green and prepare for the impact of a warming Earth.
But it sparked a rebellion among more vulnerable nations. They said they could not accept an agreement that lacked deep emissions commitments from the industrialized world.
"The science tells us we must act now, and urgently," said Ian Fry, climate-change representative for Tuvalu, which may be submerged by rising seas in a matter of decades. "To use a Biblical allusion, it looks like we're being offered 30 pieces of silver to bargain away our future. Mr. President, our future is not for sale."
The room burst into applause.
Here is the conference's official site, where I grabbed this potent image of the negotiators.
The nation of Tuvalu could be gone in a few decades? What is happening, really, to this planet? Can we do something about it? Are we willing?
* Image above from a previous post, "Anything to stay cool: Picturing a planet without us."