My latest post on the THINK platform. Would you believe that pollution in Reykjavík has exceeded health safety levels 15 times in the last 24 hours?
No doubt I am like most THINKers, keeping a close watch on the proceedings in Copenhagen. It’s hard to know what to say about it until something definitive is reported – as yet, I find the news from the conference rather limited, focusing on the big issues like the walkout by the developing countries and the organizational fiasco, and heavy on the commentary without any concrete news. Which I figure must either mean that a) there is too much to report and they just can’t get their head around it, or b) there is not much to report, yet.
That said, the Icelandic Ministry of the Environment DID report something concrete today, namely that it has reached an agreement with the Council of the European Union for a, quote “joint fulfillment agreement with the EU for the emission reduction commitments that the EU and Iceland may undertake in the framework of a future international climate agreement,” unquote.
Wading through the Institutionalese, I gather this means that Iceland will be under the EU umbrella when it comes to carbon emissions, both in terms of reductions AND the cap-and-trade agreements.
IT’S TURNED A BIT COOLER, BUT THE SMOG PERSISTS
And it’s mainly because all these people are driving around with studded tires on their cars because they’re still back in the dark ages when we actually used to have snow and ice on the roads in the winter, as opposed to now when we only have those conditions maybe three days a year [here in the capital at least]. Bah. And the rest of us have to stay away from major traffic arteries and some are having respiration problems, and even YT can feel a definite and unpleasant irritation in the throat. This is supposed to persist for the next few days, after which you can start calling me Alda Asphaltlung. Right now a somewhat cool 2°C [37F] as compared to the last few days at least, sunrise was at 11.15, sunset at 15.29.
