A word cloud of Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s remarks to the UN Climate Change Conference (Wordle/ecopolitology.org)

Read the full article at the New York Review of Books….

Tim Flannery is a Professor at Macquarie University in Sydney and Chair of the Copenhagen Climate Council. His latest book is Now or Never: Why We Must Act Now to End Climate Change and Create a Sustainable Future. (November 2009)

What we have seen is typical old-school economics and status-quo diplomacy, a form of international negotiations not fit to tackle the huge complexity of climate change in society, and not respecting the historical responsibility of industrialised countries to finance mitigation and to provide proper adaptation support, in order to bridge the gap in capacities to mitigate emissions, accelerate the growth towards a clean economy, and to cope with the consequences of climate change, especially in developing countries.

Looking at the buzz on the ground at Bella Center, it was an insane circus: the most complex and biggest conference ever, accompanied by the biggest demonstration on climate change ever, 40,000 representatives from civil society, hundreds of side events, more than 1,500 young people attending, organised within the YOUNGOs constituency.

It also has been two weeks of battling on the ground: the COP15 clearly showed that climate governance and diplomacy often comes down to a matter of justice and trust. This became clear from the G77 that walked out from the plenary on Monday in the second week of the negotiations, and Tuvalu led two of the suspensions of the plenary session with its demands for greater emissions reductions from the large emitting countries.

The slogan of many major civil society organisations during COP15 echoed ‘climate justice’, often without explaining the often complex theoretical background behind the rationale, but clearly showing the urgent need of a debate on the moral rationale behind climate governance.

Access restrictions

In the second week of COP15, thousands of delegates and observers, having the right to access to the Bella Center, had to wait for at least 6 hours or more (some even 10 hours) outside in the cold, before getting in. They had to squeeze through the security checks, the queues in front of the registration and the cloakroom. Even the plenary room, where the official negotiations and speeches were goong on, was a no go area for most observers, showing the fear for any interventions and demonstrations initiated by civil society. Many people even came to Copenhagen with high expectations, finding themselves locked out entirely from the Bella Center due to access restrictions on the last days, showing how the logistical side of COP15 has failed.

Fortunately, the many side events in town, outside Bella Center, among those were Klimaforum, Bright Green and the Development & Climate Days, were well-visited.

‘There will be no decisions about us, without us’

COP15 saw the première of the YOUNGOs consituency, an unprecendented, though somewhat bureaucratic coalition of youth organisations, converging their voice in the official negotiations. This was a movement build upon Article 6 of the Convention of the UNFCCC, aiming for an increase in participation, education and awareness on climate change issues.

The hope of young people

The panel of four experts during the PlanetCall side event

This COP15 also showed that young people are not only the future leaders in this world – it was an impressive show of passionate and committed leaders of a movement of movements. The Young & Future Generation’s Day on the 10th of December, showed the hope and compassion that lies with young people – the premise that they can be major change in challenging the status quo and finding new innovative solutions for living together on a hot, flat and crowded planet.

WSC-SD co-organised a side event on this day together with 350.org and other NGOs, launching its eBook ‘RE:SOLUTIONS – 21 young leaders on climate change’ and debating the role of youth in increasing public leverage for effect policies, as well as the role of youth in inspiring thought-leaders with new solutions and innovations.

The day after, four young people presented their solutions for a sustainable future during a PlanetCall side event, and WSC-SD’s board member Christopher Baan handed over the first digital copy of the eBook ‘Re:solutions’ to Tim Flannery, chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council. The voice of youth was echoed in many side events, as well as in the official delegations.

As a round-up on COP15, the WSC-SD organised a side event on the 18th of December on Youth & student collaboration beyond Copenhagen, just before Obama’s (infamous) speech. The side event brought together around 30 youth NGOs and entrepreneurs, in total 60 participants sharing their ideas and concrete next steps for the youth movement to converge, to create synergies between organisations from different sectors, and to move beyond politics alone in the run-up to next COP meetings.

To here and much further

The general disappointment among NGOs and scientists over the official outcome of COP15, has not only led to public disapproval of the UN system and the effort of world leaders. It has also led to a new wave of focus on solutions and innovations, on new sources of hope. The Dutch Minister for Environment even declared the UN system not the appriopriate arena anymore, to discuss climate change measures. More and more initiatives are born out of  the wish and urge to provide solutions based on entrepreneurial actitivies.

Youth initiatives that forge entrepreneurship, such as GlobalFocus, Rework, the GHF Youth Forum, and the Youth Initiative Program, are evolving rapidly and attracting increasing amounts of young people.

Besides that, scientists are trying to draw the contours of climate governance beyond 2012, acknowledging that the world has become fundamentally more complex and more multi-layered, calling for new models of negotiation and new platforms to represent necessary voices.

All these initiatives should give us the much-needed hope, inspiration and tools to go forward and collaborate on projects that have a real impact.

It’s clear that we can’t afford to wait for politics to fail – the young generation will have to take up the challenge and responsibility to collaboratively design a bright green future. We have to do it together, and fast.

As William Gibson said: ‘The future is already here. It’s only unevenly distributed.’

Other interesting reads

Thomas Friedman: Off to the Races. NY Times

George Monbiot, the Guardian: This is bigger than climate change. It is a battle to redefine humanity

Kieran Battles, The wrong quote

Ode: the solutions we need now

Bellona: 101 solutions

Intergenerational Inquiry on Climate Solutions calls Yvo de Boer, Youth, Negotiators to testify

by Christopher Baan

Photo by Kristina Saleström

As one of the “observatories” at the COP1515 I quickly experienced the need to screen what is happening around carefully. Unfortunately a lot of the hoo-haa presented is by people who don’t really have anything proper/new to say and mainly seem interested in the attention and hearing their own voice.

The distinguished mr. de Boer is of course always to be trusted in creating relevant meetings, and as a student with a clear interest and aim at COP, I was lucky enough to be part of a presentation around universities and ESD (see previous entry) and also to stumble over the side event “Building green in Denmark”. Both these presentations, as different as they where, did come with practical examples of actions. This I like! (because it s just so many winging idealists you can take in one sitting).

Sad to say though, the building green in Denmark couldn’t deliver any new ideas apart from the “groundbreaking” stuff I have come across in my own studies and by listening to their presentation it became clear how little the self proclaimed “saviours of our time”(the architects, I m an architect student) have little or no clue to what to do with the big north-south issue we have. even in the well organized, democratically functioning north, a lot hangs on the ethical stand taken by the company and the ethics of the company, in its turn, relies on the good ethics of its employers/board (and in several example cases “green” is just an empty facade living up to its perceived trend…this infuriates me more that I could explain). The likeness of our time with the “dark” middle ages becomes more and more striking. As been stated in the ft (Dec 5th, p 13) “the period is as international in outlook, subject to multiple influences, and slippery of definition as our own”. During this time cities expanded, together with an evolving manufacturing industry supporting the creation of a new leisure class, freed by the loosened feudal rules. These guys sought to heighten their status and create an identity through the purchasing of luxury items. At the same time this was a culture that never ceased to look back to the past.

What we have today is the forced return to the past to redress the situation caused by our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents (it s a very Lutheran/Christian standpoint “he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”-Ex 34:6-7). However, another way is hard to see.

Time to reflect a little on everything that happened in Copenhagen in the last week! I left Järna and YIP a week ago:

Saturday December 12, 7am.

Together with 4 other YIP participants I got a lift with someone driving down from Stockholm. We arrived in Copenhagen just in time for the Vigil of 350.org.

Somewhere between 50.000 and 100.000 people on the street, but also knowing that people all over the world where doing the same in more then 5200 events:

Coming home that night I found my friends in Järna on the webpage of 350.org

During the entire week I had awesome accommodation in the centre, a 5 minute bus ride from Nørreport. Thanks so much to my host Nana!

Sunday December 13 – the universe conspired!

I got up a bit late, to catch up on some sleep, and then met up with the others at the Club, our location for the OASIS game on Tuesday and Wednesday. More about that later! We then went to the Bright Green business expo in the Copenhagen Forum, and got some free VIP tickets at the entrance. We only went to see a lecture by Alex Steffen from worldchanging.com. The lecture was much of what he already writes about (I actively read his inspiring blog) and some quotes from Paul Hawken, Naomi Klein and others. One thing stayed with me, in one of his last slides he said:

Most people on the planet are poor, young and ambitious.

Very inspiring, because those are the ingredients for great achievements! Nothing to loose, a life ahead, and dreams about the future.

After that I hurried to a prep-meeting of the WSCSD side event for the 18th. A quick briefing where I also met the UNFCCC YOUNGO’s and some other friends like Michaela Hogenboom (Youth Representative to the UN Commission for Sustainable Development), Christopher Baan from WSCSD and some young people from The Global Humanitarian Forum’s Youth Forum.

Had to leave quickly to the next event, the launch of a film and website of the European Environment Agency (EEA).The movie ‘one degree matters’ shows the effect of climate change and the solutions we can already see in Europe.

Bend the trend is a social movement inviting individuals to pledge a lifestyle change, such as going to work by bicycle instead of car, that will reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. In the end of this blog post I will also pledge a lifestyle change!

I met some really inspiring people, including the farmers from La Vialla, the bio-dynamic and organic farm in Toscane, Italy, where I buy my wine since I was introduced to them by a good friend of mine. Their farm was in the movie, and is one of the examples of sustainable agriculture in Europe.We got served their amazing food during the entire evening.

Monday December 14 – sailing into the future

In the morning we took of to a workshop of the Tällberg Foundation about the Rework the World 5th YES Summit.

“Rework the World is a global initiative that seeks to mobilise young people around promising sustainable ventures and help take the emerging green economy to the next level.”

We had a very inspiring meeting with them about the questions of youth at COP15, and I got inspired again for the summit. Let’s see if we can go there with YIP and WSCSD.

We then quickly went to the Klimaforum09 to a talk called “Survival Pact, not Suicide Pact: Bill McKibben and President Mohammed Nasheed of the Maldives on the global movement for 350ppm”. We waited about an hour for President Nasheed, listing to Bill McKibben preaching to the choir about the number 350. He had too, I forgive him.

According to President Nasheed the number 350 is the most important number ever. That is quite a statement, but is is certainly very important. All 6.8 billion of should know about 350ppm, but understand that it is all part of 1 universe, 1 galaxy, 1 solar systems, 1 planet, 1 atmosphere, 1 never-ending thing called LIFE.

The rest of the day I spent walking around Copenhagen, ending up at the Club for a briefing for OASIS.

Tuesday December 15 – OASIS #1

The first day of OASIS at the Club. The Club is a place for kids and youth from Copenhagen to come and spent time after school, in the afternoons and evenings. In the 80’s this place was famous for it cultural influence on Denmark’s music and cultural life. Today the building is quite old and needed some hands. The basement was under utilized and after an open space with the educators of the club, the kids, and 20 YIP participants, we started renovating the place. We emptied the basement, started desiging different corners and spots, and had great fun all around! Communcal cooking, dancing, and fighting for the few tools.

That night I heard about the exclusion of civil society from the Bella Center. Some people waited 11 hours before they got in. Where will these 15.000 people go was my first question? And why did they have to wait in the cold? We could use some extra hands!

Wednesday December 16 – OASIS #2

We continued with the renovations, and we shifted gears. Girls were painting on the sound of the Spice Girls, and the guys were hammering and sawing in the basement. I was wondering what had happened at the Bella Center and followed the People’s Assembly and police intervention via Twitter. It made me quite sad, and I thought a lot about the future of the civil movement. Can’t we think of another way of action? Demonstrations and violent interactions with the police, is that really the solution? The old news (tv, newspaper) only reported on these ‘riots’ that night, although they were relatively small.

We finished the OASIS game with an amazing result! The basement, that had been used for storage, turned into an exhibition space for art of the kids, a dark corner into a cozy lounge space, and a future washroom into a temporary girl lounge. We made tables, benches, fixed lights, cleaned storage spaces and recycled lots of materials, with no costs or external resources. Most importantly, we had a lot of fun!

In the evening I was feeling a bit down, thinking a lot about the political outcome of COP15. I was worried. I watch a documentary on National Geographic on the mysterious Colony collapse disorder (CCD) or sometimes honey bee depopulation syndrome (HBDS), and got even more worried. Climate Change is a challenge, but imagine if the bees disappear. Job of the future: Hand pollination?

Thursday December 17 – silence

In the morning I went to check out the Bella Centre. The parking lot was empty. Where did Civil Society go? I then went to the Forum, the alternative NGO venue. EMPTY. Where is everyone? Only in the Klimaforum09 I found the people I was looking for. Civil society sharing the possible solutions. Thousands of leaflets, brochures, flyers, posters with projects, initiatives, ngo’s, etc.

We then went to Christiana to visit the Climate ecovillage. What a great place! The best piece is the exit sign:

I had a great conversation with former Ashoka Fellow Edgard Gouveia, Jr., who did OASIS with us. Christiania, the best place for lunch and a genuine winter feeling!

Friday December 18 – ‘…’

The World Student Community for Sustainable Development (WSCSD) had their side-event on Youth & Student collaboration beyond Copenhagen in the Forum in the morning, and it was a great succes. Because I was not accredited I was not able to join, but I heard many positive stories! Read the news on http://cop15.wscsd.org/

Saying goodbye to fellow YIPpies, and relaxing after a full week I tried to follow the negotiations online. The hope was on Obama. It was only until the late evening that the first ‘results’ came out. I was having a wonderful supper, I could not be bothered really, but was of course very curious. Michaela Hoogenboom tweeted some updates from the Bella Center.

The Copenhagen Accord.

The blog posts have been endless. I do not need to add much. Read Bill McKibben, Jon Isham or Andrew Light or the many others.

The Awesome Outcome:

RT @christopherbaan: We, the young generation and entrepreneurs have to do it. Together. Fast. We can’t afford to wait for politics to fail.

This has been the largest connectivity in civil society in history. Environmentalism became Social Justice in Copenhagen (Naomi Klein)

They’re not done yet. Neither are we. (tcktcktck)

COP15 and the disappointing political outcome inspires me to work more and harder with civil society, youth and entrepreneurs. What if we continue living and inventing the solutions for a ambitious and inspiring green future? The time of waiting on the politics is over. Let’s work together with innovative sustainable enterprises, social entrepreneurs, civil society and youth.

Good example: Aart van Veller from wijzijnkoel.

What if we do not show up at COP16, because we are to busy working on the solution? (Thanks Nakyta for this wicked idea!)

My personal pledges for 2010:

• Maximum of 10 flights, only if related to work for civil society, and if there is no other option. (I need cheaper train tickets, anyone?)
• 95% vegetarian (5% organic, local meat & fish)
• 100% organic/bio-dynamic and fair-trade food
• Facilitating the 10X growth of the civil society movement, with youth.
• Create a climate positive international youth network festival.
• Build a wind-mill.

I am not proud of my 2009 travelling footprint, but it got me where I am now:

I am poor, young and ambitious.

(In the next blog post I will write more about my plans for 2010. I need a short break to develop some strategies.)

We do not have the fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement that millions around the world hoped the world leaders gathered here would deliver.

Despite overwhelming scientific evidence, and massive popular support from citizens in countries North and South, world leaders chose national political self-interest over the fate of future generations and failed to resolve the issues blocking the road towards a just outcome. While this deal cannot be judged as a success, it is impossible to be without hope.

This year, from a strong, but small seed of climate campaigning, a movement touching millions of people in hundreds of countries around the world has grown. Over the last two weeks while leaders were dithering an additional 5 million people joined the campaign, resulting in a total of 15 million voices calling for a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal.

More than 250 partner organisations have come together to form an unprecedented alliance under the TckTckTck banner – including development, human rights, environment, religious and youth groups, trade unions and scout groups. Over three days of global action, these partners have mobilized unprecedented numbers of people campaigning for urgent action on climate change. In Copenhagen on December 12, one hundred thousand people marched in a powerful manifestation of this unity.

And, when naysayers, fearmongers, and the business-as-usual-crowd try to usurp the issue, they will be met by a surging sea of people from all around the globe and all walks of life unified in their demand for a real deal.

The global climate movement – more diverse than ever before – stands united in the face of tonight’s disappointing news. This weekend we are mounting an unprecedented response, with joint messaging appearing on the global public websites of our partners, to ensure world leaders know we are unimpressed with their lack of real progress and failure to deliver a real deal.

We have come so far in a short space of time. Millions around the world look to the future and see hope, justice, and opportunity. It is up to each of us to make our voices heard and to get the real deal that the world needs.

The world’s leaders still have a chance to get it right. They must realize that we expect, and will not accept, anything less.

They’re not done yet. Neither are we.

Read more at TckTckTck.org…

The Bella Center may be closed, but that isn’t stopping us from hosting our UN-approved side event!

Tomorrow, 18 December from 10:00-11:30am, the World Student Community for Sustainable Development will be hosting a side event in the “Meeting Room” at the Forum Conference Center (the location where the government of Denmark has established essentially a huge overflow space for COP15).  This event is open to students, NGOs, business representatives, and members of public institutions who are registered for COP15.

This side event will engage participants unlike any other during COP15 by using a “speed-dating” format.  After a short introduction and opening talk given by Thomas Anderson, former president of Jönköping University, participants (including individuals from Sweden, Nigeria, Japan, the US, and more) will break up into groups of 6 and discuss issues of green corporate social responsibility, sustainable energy in Least Developed Countries , and the relationship between youths and education in 15 minute sessions.

Additionally, participants will be invited to propose additional discussion topics to be covered during the sessions.  The event will be a unique opportunity for representatives of diverse backgrounds to come together and interact in an informal but stimulating environment on the final day of the most talked-about conference of the year.

We invite you to join us!

Youth & student collaboration beyond Copenhagen

“Speed-dating” with youth movements, public & private sector organisations

Date & time: Friday 18th December 2009, 10.00-11.30 h

Venue: Forum, Julius Thomsens Plads 1, Copenhagen (this is the updated location)

This is an unprecedented opportunity

for your organisation to converge with others in order to strengthen your efforts.

In short

10+ youth organisations will come together to create a type of “speed-dating” event amongst the public & private sector to share best practices  (projects, solutions, innovations) on student & youth involvement in climate change. The ultimate goal is to create synergies between youth organisations, and those from the 3 different sectors.

Topics to be tentatively[1] addressed

• Building partnerships to foster start-up projects by students & youth,
• Strengthening the role of Youth with regards to climate change education, awareness and public participation (art. 6 of the Bali Action Plan),
• The future of sustainability
• Mainstreaming green CSR
• Sustainable energy in Least Developed Countries

The aim of this event

• To increase cross-sector and cross-organisational cooperation
• To identify the key steps for a truly global and interlinked youth climate movement in preparation for future COP meetings.
• To interlink youth projects and to provide a support structures for ongoing youth/ student projects & innovations.

Sign-up here

The ‘foremost knowledge of climate change’– that’s tough stuff, and high expectations for journalists.  I am a PhD candidate in ‘Climate Physics and Chemistry’ completely immersed in the climate science field, and I can avow for the intricacies, complications, and rapidly changing knowledge base.  As a scientist I am striving for myself to have this foremost knowledge, and cannot expect journalists to be the same.  If they were, they would be scientists, not journalists.  So what is the role of scientists in climate education?  What is my role, my responsibility?

In this specific topic of educating journalists as the intermediaries between the complex science and citizens, during COP15 I have been involved in an ingenious project connecting the expert scientists to the journalists reporting on COP15, hopefully allowing better informed news about climate change to be reaching the public.  The American Geophysical Union (www.agu.org) is an international Union of scientists in all disciplines related to the Earth, and just about every climate scientist is a member.  I was thrilled when an invitation to participate as a “Climate Science Expert” crossed my inbox.  A brilliant idea: real time education of journalists so that we can help them to report the true science to the public during COP15, a critical time when there will be a plethora of news reports pertaining to climate change.  Climate Science Q&A for Copenhagen (http://sites.google.com/site/agucopenhagen/home)

Through the website in an easy interface, members of the media are extended an invitation:

If you have questions about climate science during the Copenhagen negotiations (12/7-18), we hope that you will take advantage of a service that AGU is piloting during this time period.  We are sponsoring an email service in which 650 PhD-trained climate scientists have signed up to answer your questions about climate science.  The expertise of these scientists spans the spectrum of climate science, from atmospheric chemistry to oceanography to ecology to paleoclimate.

Journalists send email to a central email address.  Participating scientists sign up for 2-hour blocks to view the queue of questions, choose one that they have the expertise to answer, consult with the other scientists & research assistants as needed, send the response to the journalist, and return to the queue for more questions.  An amazing list of 650 scientists signed up to participate!  (and I was in awe of the scientist “celebrities” whose names were alongside mine, and even tried to finagle ways to be in their same time slots so that I might be able to correspond with them about something )

To see this amount of support from the scientists’ side was wonderful—we have that there in this climate science education task.  It is not just me who sees the value in outreach of our science, as easy as it can be to get holed-up in the lab and keep our noses buried in work, out of touch with the world.  There are “social” scientists among us!  And the quality of the responses I saw were good as well, both in the content, but more importantly in the ability to distill the science concepts for journalists’ understanding.

On the other side, though, the utilization of this program by journalists was lower than I would have hoped.  I saw this both from my experience during my shifts and from the organizer who cut back on the number of daily shifts because so many were not needed.  During a 2-hour shift (with only 3 shifts total throughout a day) we got only 1-3 journalist inquiries.  I am sure there were many many many more news reports than this going out internationally, with many holding false, uninformed climate science.  It is a new concept, though, and I am not sure how it was advertised to the media, so it is unclear where to put any blame.

I am curious to hear the follow-up report on the success of this project from AGU.  Mainly to see of the possibility of extending something like this beyond Copenhagen.  Wouldn’t that be wonderful?!?!  Why not?  Constantly linking science experts to those journalists which will be disseminating the information to citizens.  Those citizens who will then drive politicians, vote, make consumer choices, plant a tree.  How lovely that would be…

A couple of resources for communicating climate science which I think are particularly good.  Useful for the full out scientists among us, and also for the informed citizens (who I know you all are) who want to be able to educate those uninformed citizens.  It is your responsibility too

The Psychology of Climate Change Communication, Columbia University, 2009
http://www.cred.columbia.edu/guide/

Podcast interviews with experts in science and communication

http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/communicatingclimatechange/

Sunday saw the conclusion of a two-day event led by Yale and the University of Copenhagen which brought together students from universities around the world to discuss ways to establish schools as sustainability hubs.  Katherine Dykes, a Ph.D student in the Technology and Policy Program represented MIT’s Energy Club and Walk the Talk. The students used Saturday to discuss what programs and projects currently existed at their universities and how they could improve them.

Who was there?

Universities in attendance included Tongji University, Yale University, Brown University, The University of British Columbia, The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Hokkaido University, Bilkent University, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Uppsala, the University College  London, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Gothenberg, ETH (The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), and MIE University.

What topics did they discuss?

One of the topics that were discussed was the role of universities in their local communities.  The Brown University students noted that one of the most pressing issues regarding student involvement at their school is engaging students on campus, as student attention is largely focused off campus.  This contrasts starkly with MIT’s situation, where students are actively engaged in research, education, and other activities on campus (for the most part) but not as much off campus.  Also, RMIT students discussed the importance of an institutional framework for ensuring accountability, along with facilitating knowledge transfer and collaboration across departments.

Two common themes throughout the talks were the sustainability of food production and the concept of “opt-in/out.”  Carnegie Mellon proposed creating a dining program designed specifically to be as sustainable as possible, with materials such as compostable cups and plates (which a Green Committee would be charged with ensuring were actually composted), and requiring students to “opt-out” in their dining plans should they not wish to participate.  The University College of London proposed a student tax to fund energy-efficiency retrofits that students would have by default and would have to actively opt out of.  Multiple students proposed redesigning dining programs at their universities to encourage vegetarian options and increasing the availability of low-impact food. The Carnegie Mellon students made an interesting point about the important of pre-consumer waste along with post-consumer waste.

What’s next?

Having met and interacted, the students at these universities aim to maintain the network they have formed, and provide one another with periodic updates throughout the coming year with their implementation of their proposed plans.  These organizations will prepare for another meeting which could occur at COP16 in Mexico.

The above quote speaks to the importance of common citizens in the preservation of our planet.  Specifically Prof. VanDeveer points to citizens driving policy and treaties, quite applicable to our current goals here at COP15– especially as the final days draw near and doubt continues as to whether an international agreement will be reached.  Citizens are also vital in the preservation of our planet outside of the political region, namely in their everyday actions, habits, and responses to change.

In both of these capacities, the vital step is to have these citizens of the earth be informed and educated.  And in that lies a huge challenge, in how and by whom.

I have always been heavily involved in outreach and educational efforts regarding science and climate change understanding; much of my interaction with the youth population both in and outside of the traditional school education system.  This has brought me hope in generating new stewards of the land, classroom by classroom, student by student.  I dream of that day– when frustrations from hearing ignorant rants (by citizens, by politicians, by uninformed adults) subside because the new generation of educated youth has entered the stage.

However, I have to ask myself: is this enough?  Is this fast enough for the rapidity at which the Earth needs action?  Relative to our problems it seems too slow paced, both in terms of the number of youth being reached at a time, and also the fact that the youth must age before will have their full capacity as sustainable citizens.  Yes, we might eventually reach a critical mass of youth, Generation ‘S’ for sustainability, but will it be too late for much of the planet 10-15 years down the road by the time that generation has voting and life decision power?  In our pursuit of outreach and education, we must reach to the youth so that the day I dream of will indeed come when environmental concern is the unnoticed norm, and also reach to the current adult public so that immediate actions can be taken to preserve the Earth for the future.

Luckily, there are indeed new efforts to reach out, and put climate change education higher on the international agenda. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) and WMO (World Meteorological Organization) work together within the UN for climate knowledge, and have recently placed a focus on enhanced education and public awareness.  Their support and programs are diverse in the techniques they use and populations they target, and I commend them for this creativity as it is needed for the diverse nature of the planet’s citizens.  Some of these educational approaches include: integration of climate change education into already established educational programs and school curricula; enhancement of networking between educators to share good practices and experiences; support for teacher training; local field-based education through UNESCO’s networks both with youth and adult communities, sometimes utilizing UNESCO sites; sharing of climate change experiences, strategies, monitoring, impacts, etc. between communities; support to bridge the gap between IPCC assessment reports and services required to adapt to climate change; support to build capacities of journalists so they can serve as the knowledgeable connection to the public.  What a wonderful list!  UNESCO’s goals are far and good.  I hope that they are able to materialize into outcomes, as often these political decrees seem to blur out of tangibility.  UNESCO’s planned actions for the International Year of Biodiversity 2010 do indeed show real concrete steps in educating the public (including an IYB travelling exhibition!) suggesting we can hope for real action. (See http://portal.unesco.org/science/en/ev.php-URL_ID=7998&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html for more info on what the IYB will entail).

It is refreshing to see this public education agenda and action on the level of an international UN organization, in addition to the numerous grassroots and local-level educational efforts of which I have been a part, because there is no doubt that any effective climate change policy framework must include an educational component.  I hope that our politicians here at COP15 can agree to this at the very least, even if they are stuck on all else climate change related.

This morning Katherine Dykes of MIT attempted to register at the Bella Center.  As it turns out, registration has been completely closed to NGOs, one more restriction following a series of measures taken by the UN to limit access to the Bella Center.  As of this afternoon, even NGOs with both the primary registration complete and a secondary pass were no longer allowed inside.  You can see the video of us being kicked out of security here (Video Credit: Aaron Thom).  What confuses me is how they somehow have arrived at the logic that they should cope with “security incidents” they are linking to NGOs by restricting NGOs further.

What has been going on recently?

This morning protesters surrounded the Bella Center and were beat back by police in their attempts to enter the Center and reach the delegates. 

To be perfectly frank, being physically inside the Bella Center does not bring you any closer to being part of the negotiations.  The fact of the matter is however, that citizens have traveled from across the world with the expectation that they would be able to attend this conference that is deciding their future only to be turned away in the conference’s final moments. There chances of visiting the offices of different nations or getting any sort of chance to observe the official COP negotiations is now roughly 0.0. This conference has cost them weeks of time (longer if you include planning time), thousands of dollars, and resulted in an estimated total of 120,000 tonnes of CO₂ (I extrapolated this for the actual number of attendants based on the UNFCCC’s estimate for 15,000 attendants).  To put it in perspective, the nation of Somalia emits roughly 50,000 tonnes per year.

In order to try to make amends for some of the loss, the Danish government has moved the conference, or the NGO-portion of it at least, to the Forum conference hall (no this is not that close to the Bella Center). Here, any NGOs that decide to continue to host their booths and events may do so.  A few of us will be entering this forum tomorrow, and we’ll see how it goes.

Photo Credit: Lindsay Cray

“The alternative to success is unacceptable.  The result of this conference is essential to the survival of our civilization”

Al Gore. He has been dubbed by some as “Al Bore.” I have heard others say that he has not had anything new to say since he came out with An Inconvenient Truth.  However, when I watched this man speak on Wednesday, I could say this for him…. The man had a point.

“This is clear evidence that only wreckless fools would ignore. I feel a sense of frustration at the lack of our political systems to make bold commitments in the face of climate change.”

I will be honest, his speech was a bit choppy. There were a lot of facts and numbers that could have bored those who don’t want to listen to stats. In the end though, Gore let all that go and spoke directly and honestly. He gave his opinion as a citizen of the world, and I agree with him, one hundred percent.

“What is the alternative? Does anyone believe that a grassroots global campaign alone is sufficient  enough to solve this crisis? It is helpful. But the end result of this summit must be a binding treaty, not merely on what is convenient and easy.”

“There are some that engage in magical thinking. They believe that some new technology will appear at the last minute to save us from disaster. They use this story to lull themselves in to complacency. That is the moral equivalent of denying the existence of climate change itself.”

The former Vice President asked the global community to join him in demanding a few key results from our leaders:

a)      That ministers and heads of state to make an international decision in July of next year in Mexico, not to wait until November.

b)      Full transparency. Access to measure the progress of nations as they fulfill their legally binding commitment to the world.

c)       That these nations be held accountable for their commitments.

“This cannot wait!” He exclaims. “The impacts can seem remote but it is concrete and real, and we must deal with this now. We have 3 days. Do these people not understand that we are in danger of losing the opportunity to reclaim a climate balance that is needed to support human civilization? Who are we, as human beings?” Gore questioned.

Say what you will. Call him what you want. But if you’re not scared yet, I would suggest, that maybe you should be taking him a little more seriously.