Why South Africa should deliver that world hope

South Africa must be the luckiest country on planet during the current global financial upheavals.It is hosting the Conference of the Parties(Climate Summit 2011) in Durban,barely a year after hosting  a successful World Cup last year.Earlier this year,SA was invited to join the emerging economies club usually known as BRIC(Brazil,Russia,India and China).Well,perhaps this was an informal motive of having an African representative on board,and when it comes to Africa's voice,no one does it better than this powerful African Nation.But it goes without saying that Africa is not treated as  a continent,but as  a country.This is ridiculous.Africa is  a continent with 56 Countries and one size does not fit all;having a single mouth piece is not doing her any good.

So,the Summit will be revisiting the Kyoto protocol which was passed almost 20 years ago in Kyoto,Japan.The treaty has a commitment of wealthy countries to cut their carbon emissions by 5 per cent since the 1990s to next year.China and all developing countries were exempted from emissions reduction when the Kyoto treaty was agreed.
But the rich Nations seem adamant and are even down playing the idea that man has any effect on global warming,if at all it exists.The US of A,which is ranked second largest emitter after China(since 2007),seems already engaged in its financial woes and upcoming presidential elections,China is dodgy as usual and insisting that only rich countries should participate in the obligations.The EuroZone,the only sympathizer of the treaty so far, is anticipating a backlash since it will be charging,starting January 2012,all airlines flying into its airspace for carbon pollution.In a nutshell,many rich nations are not showing interest in holding their committing of funding the protocol's initiative(Green Climate Fund).The developed countries feel that all countries,even the poorer should be on the same footing,how this is possible is not easy to tell.But,will the buck stop with someone or will it just be another replay of the Copenhagen Summit two years ago?South Africa has a tall order;all eyes are on this country and we are hoping they will broker a deal.

That said,it is worth noting that most of the countries have been experiencing the effects of climate change.Thailand has been hit by floods since August and Kenya is currently under the same threat.While in Kenya we may start blaming the government and chanting the popular 'haki yetu' slogans,let us look at the facts.

Our natural vegetation,our forest cover was exploited and exhausted,a long time ago.We have not been very passionate about planting more trees than we cut.Without trees,flooding is inevitable,and so is air pollution.
 In a year,a tree retains 33 kg of Carbon,absorbs 20kg of dust,captures 80kg of pollutants,filters about 100,000 cubic metre of air while producing 700 kg of Oxygen.That is just ONE single tree.

Now as we cross our fingers and hope that the industrialized world will reconsider its 100 billion dollars  a year( since they are they are responsible for the bulk of warming gases produced globally) which will help poor and vulnerable countries to adopt to fiercer storms of climate changes and make transitions to cleaner energy,let us ask ourselves what we are doing to contain the matter.We should try to be as economical with energy as we can;make sure we switch off all electronics when not in use, economize water by doing  laundry less than usual,change our consumption habits and consume things that do not use a lot of energy to make etc  and hope to make a difference;The world we have in front us was made by us,and only us can mitigate the situation.