Blog Action Day - Climate Change

As part of a worthy effort, this post is dedicated to the important issue of climate change. Today is Blog Action Day, a day when bloggers unite and blog about a single topic.  This year's topic is climate change.

I have spent the last 2 months in Indonesia.  I've seen how beautiful the country is, from the orange orangutans to the lush forests.  Indonesia, however, is also one of the leading countries in deforestation.  And according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, deforestation accounts for 20% of the world's global warming pollution.  Indonesia has recognized this problem and is willing to combat this issue.  "The Bali Roadmap"  was laid out at the end of 2007 and the countries who participated recognized climate change and were willing, in the next 2 years, to lay out a plan to help reduce global  warming.  It's been two years since then and deforestation is still a huge problem here in Indonsia.  More action needs to be taken.  Incentives need to be given to the people in the surrounding communities to stop cutting down trees.  Deforestation emits CO2, but it also destroys natural habitats for hundreds of animals as well. 

We need to constantly pressure and remind our governments and media outlets that climate change is a serious problem and that by ignoring it or putting it on our "To Do List"  will not be enough.  Action and global agreements need to happen.