DEPENDING on what time you read this, I will likely be on a flight enroute to Copenhagen to cover the climate change negotiations which begin on Monday.
Already, the conference organisers have warned me in an e-mail to be mentally prepared for a long wait to collect my accreditation pass, and for numerous queues in the Danish capital, since 15,000 delegates will descend on the city and perhaps a few thousand more who are either journalists, activists or businessmen.
I don't like queues very much, but this time — I don't care. I'm going prepared for a whirlwind two weeks of developments and activities that will require a lot of grunt work but also immense emotional rewards.
Whatever the expectations, the Copenhagen climate change talks will go down in history as one of the defining moments of the 21st century, and I'm glad to be a part of it.
If you don't already know, world leaders will be negotiating a treaty under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which first began in Rio de Janiero in Brazil in 1992, and had many stops along the way.
There was the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to bind developed nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions — regarded as the main culprit for climate change — and then Bali in 2007, where they tried to involve the United States.
By the end of the two-week negotiations, the world might have a Copenhagen Protocol — and a new world order. One that will set in stone the 21st century's Green Revolution.
But to the man in the street, what do the Copenhagen talks really mean?
It's 10,000 miles from Singapore and despite the slew of media reports on the talks, it's not surprising if the average person is more concerned about Christmas shopping at the new mall 313@Somerset than what goes on in the Bella Centre in Copenhagen.
Chances are, the effects of Singapore's move to cut its emissions growth by 16 per cent below business-as-usual levels by 2020 won't be felt in the near future. This is dependent on the success of a global deal, and also, 16 per cent is not such a drastic cut that it will severely impact our way of life.
But what the talks, and Singapore's move to cut emissions, signify is that we are on a path to revolutionize our economy — a path to make it leaner and greener. It will favour the cleaner energies of tomorrow over the fossil-fuel ones of yesterday.
And Copenhagen is a turning point in that road.
I hope to bring daily updates, photos and stories of not just the serious negotiations between governments, but the quirky happenings taking place outside the conference rooms.
It is the biggest gathering of the year, bringing governments, NGOs, press, and characters from all walks of life in one place and what is discussed in the city will also likely have a relevance to what the future would be like for businesses, and even for us as consumers here in Singapore.
As I head towards the European city, though, I know there are some who are still unaware of what climate change is, those who don't really care either way, and those who are still doubting the science behind it.
People often ask my reaction to what climate sceptics say, and I always reply, that if climate change turned out to be less dangerous than we feared, we would not have lost much but the gains would be immense — a leaner global economy, a greener earth.
If we choose to do nothing, and climate change turns out to be as bad or worse than scientists predict, then we would lose much more, and it would be too late.
This is why I think Copenhagen offers hope. It offers leaders a chance to price "negative externalities" such as pollution and loss of biodiversity, which we have long excluded from our economic models. And it will open a different world of opportunity for human ingenuity.
Humanity has always managed to find innovative, imaginative ways to solve problems, and I believe that this one will not be any different.
Jessica Cheam will also be receiving her Earth Journalism Award on Dec 14 in Copenhagen. All winning stories can be read here, and you can vote for Jessica's story, Power to the People here.
Read more about the Copenhagen Climate Summit in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times in the Saturday Special section.