Samden gathered his papers, stuffed them into a backpack and, with the briefest of nods to an acquaintance, skirted the quickly coalescing lines for the buffet and walked rapidly out of the lofty conference hall. He backed out his motorcycle and manoeuvred it with some difficulty through the honking masses of SUVs heading out of the hotel grounds. Climate change! They could take their climate change and stuff it, all the way to Kyoto, Bali and Copenhagen. Hot air inside and outside, it was all a farce. He gritted his teeth at the thought of having to write an editorial for the Herald, and cursed himself for volunteering in the first place.
The city's traffic absorbed him all the way home. But as soon as he walked into the relative peace of the ground-floor flat he shared with his wife and daughter, frustration overwhelmed him. He couldn't quite understand why the conference had bothered him so, in the final analysis. It wasn't the enormity of the task of dealing with climate change. He was familiar enough with the problems and the solutions, and the two-day regional meet had done a good job filling in the gaps. But nothing could mask the emptiness of the speeches from those who mattered the most – the empty, cynical exhortations by talking heads who did not even understand what climate change was, did not really care, and prided themselves on riding the 'green wave'. Yes, it was this that had maddened him.
Dinner with Tsering and his five-year-old daughter soothed Samden. His wife good-humouredly teased him, suggesting he channel his frustration into his editorial, as Dechen clamoured for his attention. He was happy to be distracted, but later he excused himself and went into their bedroom. He opened his laptop and began to type rapidly.
In my heart of hearts, I know we're not going to make it through unscathed. We will talk and talk and talk, even as carbon levels and temperatures go up, the poles dissolve, the glaciers melt, islands are submerged, and hundreds upon thousands of our co-species upon this marvel of a planet, as well as our less fortunate fellow humans, are washed away by climate change. We will talk and tinker, tinker and talk, and find that we have not done nearly enough to deal with the consequences of the carbon economy that has driven us to this point. However many conferences we confer at, publications we publish, and initiatives we initiate, we will never quite strike at the heart of what needs to be done to deflect our course from that unwittingly chosen by our ancestors.