COP-21 Accords And Near Term Human Extinction and Cusco, Peru: Ancient History and Today

COP-21 Accords and Near Term Human Extinction

The effect of the voluntary climate change Accords adopted by 195 nations at the 21st Conference of the Parties, commonly known as the COP-21, is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Those Accords, found on the United Nations website, have been severely criticized due to the time for compliance and the lack of enforcement provisions, among other issues. A summary of the Accords was published in the New York Times on December 13, 2015.

In the opinion of Dr. Guy McPherson, a Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources, Evolutionary Biology and Conservation Biology from the University of Arizona, the Accords are smoke and mirrors, will have no effect on climate change and could well cause increase in carbon emissions. He agrees with James Hansen, the former NASA scientist who also criticized the Accords. Hansen is quoted in the December 12, 2015, issue of as saying the intention to reach a new global deal on cutting carbon emissions beyond 2020, is no action, just promises.

Professor McPherson is the author, along with Carolyn Baker, of Extinction Dialogues: How To Live With Death In Mind, both of whom were guests on Radio Curious in September 2015.

McPherson believes the way to respond to the peril of the climate crisis is for each person to go inward and consider who we are, reach out to our relatives and friends and foster the personal connections that are important to us before it is too late.

Guy McPherson and I visited by phone from his home in rural New Mexico on December 13, 2015, and began our conversation when I asked him for his thought about the COP-21 Accords.

Cusco, Peru: Ancient History and Today

Peru is a county about which I’ve been curious for over 60 years, beginning when I first learned of the Inca Empire. Ten years later the Peace Corps sent me to Peru as volunteer for two years in 1964.

Peru’s current societies are windows into a world in which many Andean people live in the three adjoining countries of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. The complex societies which flourished in this region, centuries before the Inca Empire was destroyed by the Spanish invaders in the 16th century are still very much a part of the lives of people whose homes and communities are located high in the Andes between 10,000 and 14,000 feet above sea level. Many still enjoy and celebrate the traditions rooted in the ancient cultures of their land.

When Radio Curious visited Peru and Bolivia in the fall of 2015 we engaged in several conversations about ancient and current times in Peru. Edith Zapata, an independent licensed Peruvian tour guide, based in Cusco, Peru, is our guest in this program.

Edith Zapata and I visited in the court yard of a somewhat noisy guest hostal in Cusco, Peru, on November 10, 2015. We began our conversation with her description of the geological history of the Cusco Valley, and moved forward in time to how some of the current leaders of the Catholic Church and some of the people of the greater Cusco area related to each other.

You may contact Edith Zapata by email at [email protected]. The movie she recommends is “In Search of Happyness,” starring Will Smith.

This interview was recorded in Cusco, Peru, on November 10, 2015.

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