Opinion Sur Joven

Exactly twelve months ago, the special editorial I wrote on climate change said 2007 was the year the global warming issue won all media attention. It was “the year of awareness”, as I dared to describe it.

2008, which has just ended, starts a new era. The climate change media blitz, which reached its highest point when Al Gore and the IPCC scientists won the Nobel Peace Price, has now been replaced by a moderate coverage. The struggle has slowed down. Not in environmental organizations -some of which are strong in terms of resources and others in terms of their efforts-, but in governments, which are accompanied by the silence of society.

Logically, it is due to the serious global financial crisis and the subsequent uncertainty affecting the whole world. On the last issue of Opinión Sur Joven I tried to describe the relationship between the financial collapse and the fight against global warming. A couple months after that, and despite some European efforts, it seems governments and societies will devote the whole 2009 to closely-watching the economy, without realizing the environmental struggle isn’t part of the problem but of the solution.

The end of the year brought us some data that, for someone who isn’t aware of the problem, may sound encouraging: According to the World Meteorological Organization, 2008 was the coldest year since 1997, with an average global temperature of 14.3 degrees Celsius (57.7 degrees Fahrenheit). But we shouldn’t be glad or satisfied about it: 2008 was one of the 10 warmest years over the last 150.

So we shouldn’t forget that, despite some extra snowfalls here and there, the problem is yet to be solved.