An international meeting in Madrid that was supposed to finalize rules arising from the groundbreaking 2015 Paris agreement on climate change went into extra time over the weekend — two days longer than scheduled, in fact. But the delegates may as well have gone home early, given how disappointingly little was accomplished.

(…) This is not a good time for failure, yet we have it.

The Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has become the face of the next generation, and Chilean Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt, who co-chaired the conference, referred directly to the responsibility today’s leaders have to the young people of the world: “The consensus is still not there to increase ambition to the levels that we need,” she said. “The new generations expect more from us.”

Maybe that’s part of the problem, though. Climate change arising from global warming is not just something we’re foisting off on our children and grandchildren, though it is indeed that. In fact, its effects are already being felt.

The current generation also expects more from global leaders, and must insist on it. The more time we take to change how we produce and consume energy globally, the more difficult it will be — and more dreadful will be the consequences.

The protests in Madrid were energetic and clamorous, but apparently not sufficiently so to goad action.

Clearly more pressure is needed from all generations to compel political leaders to act with a sense of urgency before we become a world of boiled frogs.

— The Los Angeles Times