Delaying and de-compromising
Posted on 14. Dec, 2009 by Ole Seidenberg in Germany | View Comments
Demonstrations in Copenhagen were rather peaceful
It’s been a far too wonderful weekend in Copenhagen. As my girlfriend has been visiting, I have naturally not got as much into the aggressive protesting mood I should have been in. The sun was shining, there were a couple of thousand colorfully dressed up people out there on the streets, some nice announcements.. and that’s about everything that I really remember.
Media – how could we expect otherwise – covered those few that were arrested rather than reporting on the generally peaceful atmosphere in Copenhagen. What was missing however was the feeling of absolute urgency. These days are so filled with creative ideas – on and offline – that you somehow feel overwhelmed by them, not ready to digest them to the degree they would deserve it.
Just today, the start of the second week, was another evidence of how little time we, the trackers, actually have to do what we came to do here: tracking!
I was arriving at about 9.00 am at the Bella Center – and found a queue that was longer than the Annex of the negotiation text (and that means quite something :). I actually had to leave so that I could have another streaming with the ARD – or more precisely – with eins.extra Digital at 11 am. So I did and went to the Huset, our place for bloggers, aka Freshair Center.
There, we witnessed more strange things happening during this eventful day: The YesMen apparently have spread some really nice hoax of popular News Websites (among them the Wallstreet Journal, the New York Times and the Official COP15 Website!) with really similar URLs – sometimes hiding them behind shortened URLs like bit.ly and some media apparently picked it up.
Moreover, the G77 once more left the negotiations, reinforcing their call for a continued debate about the Kyoto Protocol rather just a single LCA track. It becomes clearer and clearer that there won’t be a bad compromise at the end of this confrence – it will rather fail completely. And to be quite frank: In case the European Union doesn’t move forward and put some serious money on the table, I don’t want this to be some kind of hypocrisy deal. Meanwhile, demonstrations continued in the city center of Copenhagen, where activists drew away the big CO2 Balloon that had been attached to the stones on the ground… I guess, they had their reason as well.
It’s been a very active day. And yet, I feel a bit paralyzed and don’t really know how to act, how to move forward from here. Well, Angela Merkel is coming soon, Norbert Roettgen even sooner. It’s time to prepare for those that have the power to implement. Let’s go from here. And try to keep up the good spirits, even though we don’t know what to measure them against. Tomorrow, at least, we got the so called “secondary badges” – we will be in – and be part of the “exclusive” group of those few being able to access the conference these days.
How flexible is the truth?
Posted on 11. Dec, 2009 by Ole Seidenberg in Germany, bits | View Comments
It’s been another day of blogging, lobbying, meeting, eating, greeting, heating and finally: weeping. Yes, honestly: Last night, I have been close to tears. Not tears of regret, not tears of sadness, but those that you press out of your ears, when you are in anger. I had got my stuff done, gave another two radio interviews, another streaming to German TV, made many phone and skype talls and tried to organise things back home in Berlin, being – quite frankly – too far away to keep an oversight about all those things happening at the same time.
It had happened: Tuvalu had come out as the first country belonging to the SIDS (Small Island and Developing States) that would no longer just sit in the plenary and listen to the words of delegates reiterating what they have said over and over again in the past couple of years during all those different intercessionals, COPs, meetings, informals and even more informal informals. Tuvalu stood up, raised its voice and demanded a legally binding treaty – or an interruption of the talks if that was not even considered.
It had been an amazing and eventful day. I came out of the Bella Center, exhausted, but happy. And ran straight into a girl with a huge sign hanging around her neck: “You want a future for this earth? Go nuclear!”. I couldn’t believe my eyes, but thought it actually was a joke, an ironic gesture to lampoon Climatesceptics. But, I was proven wrong: Indeed, she was serious about this. And not only this. She also mentioned all the other typical wannabe arguments of Sceptics… oh gosh, while writing this, I can already anticipate all those possible comments below this blog that I actually don’t want to give the room to.
But on the other hand, it just strikes me 1) how many of these guys still exist and really believe they have a point and 2) how tempting it can be for someone being inside this process for half a year now to at least try to convince them that they are on the wrong track.
Just today, there was another chance to do so… on Facebook, another channel that invites people to comment, well – that’s the good and the bad side of Social Media at the same time, I guess. It took me about 1,5 hours to deliberately answer comments of a friend of friend, who questioned science due to the “Climategate-Scandal” and hence also questioned our ambitions to mobilise people back home to push their respective governments to cut carbon emissions in a more ambitious manner.
Not only would CO2 not be dangerous for us, not only would global warming not be made by humans, but even better than that: Supposedly, there was a huge conspiracy behind all this, trying to force poor countries into even more poverty by making them cut CO2 that they so urgently need to survive (develop, that is).
I have no words for this. I have tried, but I cannot be appreciative of this. I do welcome other viewpoints and constructive criticism. But the way they argue reminds me of all the other conspiracy theories. Those around September 11th, those around cigarettes not causing cancer. It scares me. It scares me that it is actually possible to get attention with this. And above all, it worries me that I have been drawn into wasting my time on this.
I will therefore not go into the details once more. I will not try to disprove anyone here. I will just leave this post as it stands – a personal note about personal feelings that touched my heart and mind when being confronted with this weird species of deniers.
EUROPE CAN SAVE COPENHAGEN — CALL YOUR LEADER
Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by Joshua Wiese in E.U., France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, bits | View Comments
Find the number to call your head of government, using the drop down box, below. Most offices are open 8.30am-5pm. Call and ask for one of your leader’s climate staff. Beneath the box are some suggestions for what to say, as well as a comments form where you can share details of your call with other Avaaz members!
Talking points for EU calls
1. The Copenhagen talks risk collapsing already. European leaders must do all you can to rescue a real deal. Become active dealmakers. Rebuild trust with poorer countries by offering fairer and more ambitious proposals.
2. Offer real money for climate finance this week. Say specifically how much the EU will contribute by 2020. Identify new funding sources like aviation and shipping revenues. Increase the global figure to a more credible €135bn — on top of aid promises already made.
3. Strengthen Europe’s emission targets, making real cuts of 30%-40%, and stop relying on loopholes, offsets and accounting tricks. To be fit for the future, Europe needs transformative investment in low-carbon recovery. Otherwise we will fall behind.
People are lined up inside the COP making calls. If you’re out there online, join in.
