ICE CREAM! ICE CREAM! ICE…melting…cream….climate…melting…..change…wait, what is going on?
Ok, so this morning I was hungry (you know, like I always am) and came across this tasty gem in my Twitter feed (a shout out to our friends at NowThis).
It seems one of my favorite ice cream makers, Ben & Jerry’s, has been doing a whole lot more than making delicious frozen treats, they have been working hard to change the world for the better.
To help people understand the dangers of climate change they have made a new flavor: Save Our Swirled.
So you don’t strain your eyes, the flavor is described as: Raspberry Ice Cream with Marshmallow & Raspberry Swirls & Dark & White Fudge Ice Cream Cones. Sufficiently hungry? Me too, but let’s focus a little longer on the message of the ice cream.
As you can see from Ben & Jerry’s video above climate change poses a huge risk to our planet. Look what happens when ice cream is subjected to just a 2 degree change. Now imagine that with our planet- ice cream soup is tasty, polar ice cap soup not so much. (Particularly when it’s cities drowning rather than tasty fudge cones).
So Ben & Jerry’s has it right and they are giving people a way to take action.
This news coming across my Twitter feed felt particularly poignant today. French Environment Minister Segolene Royal told French publication Le Monde that “The UN negotiations are totally inadequate for the climate emergency we are facing.” She added, “In private everybody is saying it ... but the weight of the process means it is carrying on as if there was no problem.”
This is bad news, particularly coming from a Minister of the government hosting the crucial climate change conference, known as COP21, in December of this year in Paris. It also comes in stark contrast to comments made last week by the person presiding over the talks, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, that a deal was in reach. Fabius did add there there were remaining hurdles, but his comments were seen as much more optimistic.
To me, this says that there is a need for collective action. These historic climate change talks must produce a workable, tangible, and enforceable global agreement to fight climate change, or the whole planet will look like ice cream soup. It will take the voices of all global citizens to push governments past the remaining hurdles in the climate negotiations to make sure we save the world we live in.
I’ll be taking action with Ben & Jerry’s, will you?
While you decide….excuse me while I go track down some delicious looking Save Our Swirled. I just hope ice cream soup is the only melty soup in my future.