COP26- Some striking moments
Now that COP26 is in full swing, here is a round up of some of the talks and displays that have been presented thus far.
Rates of extinction
To truly show the impact of climate change, the National Museum of Scotland has issued a display called the ‘Extinction bell’. As the name suggests the bell will toll at a random 150-200 times to represent the number of individual species that have become extinct in a single day. With such an impactful display, it allows us to reflect about what we are doing to our planet and how it affects the other lifeforms that we share it with. It is estimated that the extinction rate is over 1,000 times higher than the natural rate. Unlike past rates of mass extinction caused by natural disasters or asteroid strikes this is caused entirely by us.
Representing the Arctic in climate change
It is a well known fact that The Arctic and it’s indigenous communities are under massive threat of Climate change. On the 2nd of November panelists from museums in Canada, Finland, Greenland, Norway, Lapland, Sweden, the UK, and the US will discuss how climate change will hinder these indigenous communities and what preventable measures we must take to ensure as little damage is caused as possible.
Will coal go extinct?
Seventy-seven countries signed The Global Coal to Clean Power pledge on Thursday. The countries who signed promised to curb coal power and so phase it out of energy grids. The goal in mind is to see renewable and cleaner energy be more accessible to more people.
This comes after Britain, the EU and the US pledged a large sum of $8.5 billion to help South Africa transition away from coal as a source of power. South Africa emitted 7.60 tonnes of CO2 per capita in 2020, being the worlds 12th largest emitter of the greenhouse gas.
Although it was certainly disappointing to see larger countries jump the chance to back this pledge, it is worth noting that this marks what could be a global effort at leaving coal in the past and entering a more sustainable future.