A crucial global meeting is being held from 30 November to 12 December 2023 in Dubai: the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - better known as COP28.
The question is whether the "World" will bite the bullet of global warming this time, or whether we continue on the path of further disaster.
What is quite extraordinary is that we have known what a perilous path we are on for more than 50 years, yet we have failed to take the steps needed to move off this path.
ExxonMobil presented a report in November 1965 to US President Lyndon Johnson which accurately spelt out the consequences of burning fossil fuels, but publicly denied their very accurate findings.
In the late 1970s, the department of environmental studies at the University of Cape Town was already warning of the potential consequences of burning fossil fuels
In 2006, I attended COP12 in Nairobi. South Africa had a strong delegation, including our Minister of Environment. All the forecasts we heard then are coming true now. All the warnings are being fulfilled.
In 2010, the SABC aired a four-episode documentary on global warming titled, "A Vision of Paradise". The programme's blurb went like this:
"Across the world, nature's warning is clear and unambiguous. Planet Earth is warming. Its climate is changing. The weight of swelling populations, wholesale consumerism, massive industrialisation, and the exploitation...
