Dispatches D5: Endgame

Ahead of the Copenhagen conference on climate change dispatches_endgame is devoted to the environment: the follies that brought us to this brink, the small steps we can take in the attempt to mitigate disaster and the adaptions that we need to make in order to continue as a global society dependent on our natural resources. Climate change will find us whether we are in first world Arizona or third world Bangladesh. Alan Weisman pens the title piece after leaving his native, parched home state for the damper and more secure tracts of New England. In our First World comfort zone the battle for water, geography and topography is winning over technology. Seven thousand miles away in Bangladesh the battle is already lost and the nation must adapt to its new environment; it is too late for mitigation. Small inroads of change are being made with mixed success through regulation and legislation. California state s groundbreaking law, AB32, targeting lower carbon emissions is heralded but the regulating of the fishing industry has been largely unsuccessful at a time when rampant over fishing is leading to the disappearance of many species.