An introduction and some initial COP 20 thoughts

My name is Henry Cannon, I am 18 years old and live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I enjoy outdoor activities such as hiking, biking and kayaking. I worked in a bike shop as a bike mechanic over the past summer. Before I worked with bikes I worked in a solar panel factory every summer and sometimes during the school year, assembling solar panels for the company TenKsolar.  

The reasons I am going to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) are numerous, though the primary reason is to refine my understanding of climate change issues and what is being done on the global level to combat their causes and effects. The topic of climate change has seemingly always been present in my life. Having worked in solar I greatly appreciate the energy potential of alternative energy sources, and the jobs they create. Another reason I decided to attend the COP conference is that Minnesota is in the top five of states predicted to be most significantly impacted by climate change. Minnesota is at the crossroads of three natural biomes and in recent years has seen these biomes recede and change shape due to temperature and weather conditions never before seen in the state. I have watched first hand as weather conditions in my state have become more random and unpredictable. Temperatures across the state have risen by one degree Fahrenheit in the south to two degrees Fahrenheit in the north in the past thirty years. When you see the results of a global problem in your own backyard you're driven to fight the problem through whatever means available. I am counting on the COP conference to give me the knowledge and tools required to begin to implement positive change in my home state and the world as a whole. For far too long we have been neglecting our duty to preserve and protect the only spaceship we have, planet Earth.