What’s been happening in Copenhagen
December 15th, 2009
Things have been escalating this week in Copenhagen, both inside and out of the Bella Center (where COP15 is held).
After the march on Saturday, the Police have been using heavy handed tactics. Tear Gas seems to be getting thrown around like it’s going out of style! I got my first taste ever last night and I wasn’t actually protesting – don’t recommend the stuff. Allegedly, people had thrown bottles outside of Christiana – the rest of us were inside at an event and the police decided to storm it and start throwing the gas around. That shit hurts and I wasn’t even in the middle of it! I was told the grade of tear gas they use in Denmark is the same grade as the Israeli Defence Force. Excellent.
That is the most police vans I have ever seen in one place. There must have been around 50 of them, each carrying 12 police officers. To me there was no riot in Christiania though, just a lot of gas getting thrown around…
Due to the police having new powers to arrest people they “think” might commit a crime in the near future, they’ve gone around today arresting the people they think are the leaders of tomorrow’s march on the Bella Center. It’s kinda like the Minority Report, without all the gadgets and clever stuff.. and Tom Cruise too – but that’s not a bad thing…
The biggest Rock Star over at Klimaforum the last few days has been Mohamed Nasheed, the President of the Maldives. He is the first and only leader to take serious action and commit the Maldives to being carbon nuetral within a decade. A great speaker too.
They also had the “Angry Mermaid” award over at Klimaforum today, which was a people’s vote award for the company that had done the most to undermine progress at the talks and continue to pollute. Monsanto won – top work boys!
Inside COP15, at the Bella Center, some interesting twists have occurred too. Firstly, there was a deadlock and talks were stopped all yesterday. It seems that developed countries are sidelining the rest of the delegates so they can pursue their own agendas, causing friction.
After today, all NGO’s (Non Governmental Organisations) are banned from the COP15 conference, citing overcrowding as the official reason. So, now all we have are leaders and Fossil Fuel Lobbyists floating around that place – how the hell are we going to get a good deal out of this?!
India water pollution
December 15th, 2009
Thanks to Troy for this one!
Giant iceberg heard towards Australia
December 14th, 2009
Why we marched in Copenhagen
December 13th, 2009
Yesterday, over 100 000 people marched from Copenhagen City Square to the Bella Center, where the COP15 Climate Summit was being held. There were also marches and vigils held all around the world, and in most places the numbers of people that showed exceeded expectations. The world wants the right decisions made at COP15.
Someone asked me on the way home, why were we there? The aim of the march was to show the leaders currently negotiating our futures that we want strong action on Climate Change. This was a collaboration of a load of groups, so it had to be a simple message.
There were some things I was there for personally too. I wanted to see the march push for NO Carbon Trading (or Cap & Trade), in the negotiations. The leaders can set all the reduction levels they want, but if they plan to meet those by putting a price on the air we breathe and trading it on the market, reductions will not happen.
There were nearly 1000 arrests yesterday, which sounds like a lot, but there were always going to be a lot with the system of policing adopted for this march. In November, the Danish Government had passed a law giving the Police the power to make a “Pre-emptive arrest”, which means they can arrest someone they think might commit a crime and hold them for 12 hours. I spoke to a German bloke today who had been arrested; apparently someone near him had thrown a cup at the police, so they rounded up everyone in the area and locked them up for 8 hours. He didn’t even see anything get thrown. I imagine a lot of the arrests happened this way – you could see the Police were on edge as you walked past them yesterday, due to the amount of people.
Apparently there was violence, but I saw none of that. I didn’t see any windows get smashed, no cars get overturned, McDonalds were still able to serve their crappy burgers without interruption. I walked up and down the line a couple of times and all I saw was a peaceful march.
A lot of people were congratulating the youngsters for showing up. I think the older generations need a big pat on the back too! Maybe because I fall into that category, but it’s worth pointing out that young students can be idealistic – then they grow up to run the companies they protested against! If you’re over 30 and you still showed up to that march yesterday, you deserve a hand because you haven’t compromised your ideals as you grow old, have children, earn money, buy a house etc. The kids deserve a big pat on the back too, you’ve shown you’re not the X-Box playing layabouts they said you were – I just thought it was unfair the oldies didn’t get any credit; they probably won’t even be here to witness Climate Change and they still showed up 
You can view the Flickr photos of the day here
There will be more marches throughout the week, I hope they’re all as peaceful as yesterday’s. I really hope the right deals come out of this conference, more than anything.
Copenhagen and Captain Snooze
December 11th, 2009
Bloody hell my new room mate can snore his ass off! I tried to find some ear plugs today, but had no luck. He just got in from a 26 hour flight from Brazil yesterday, so I’m hoping he was tired and giving him the benefit of the doubt. If he snores again tonight, I’m asking for a transfer to another room; I need sleep! Snoring is the sort of thing where you can make someone else’s life complete hell and be totally oblivious to it. I think there’s a Climate Change metaphor there somewhere…
Today I saw a load of talks on agriculture and how it is affected by Climate Change. From GM crops in India, Indigenous farmers in Peru and Organic Urban Farmers in Cuba. See below for more info. I also took another wander down to Christiana for some of that cheap veggo food. I do wonder what living in that town would actually be like? They do have their own brand of Beer, so that’s a good start…
Over at the Bella Center, or COP15 joint, the EU have been offering a deal of 10 million Euros in funding for the third world, in order to adapt to Climate Change. 60% of that will come from the UK, France & Germany. This does put to bed that whole conpsiracy theory of “a massive transfer of wealth from the developed to the developing world” though, considering the Banks just got 400 million pounds in the UK alone last year – which was a massive transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich, via cuts to public services. I didn’t see your ass complaining then, Lord Monkton?!
I digress. Tomorrow is the main Flood for Climate Justice march. A passive march, not a riot, let’s be clear, that’s not my thing. I’ll be updating regularly on Twitter, so be sure to follow if you’re interested.
Franny Armstrong of Age Of Stupid fame, has her own 20 min nightly show; called the Stupid Show, live from the Copenhagen COP15. Be sure to keep an eye on it, for a laugh.
GMO Crops are not AOK
December 11th, 2009
I saw a talk from several people on GM crops today, including the physicist Vandana Shiva, who I recognised from the doco called The Corporation. The session was covering the problems with GM crops.
I don’t know anyone who thinks GM crops are a good idea, but I didn’t realise how bad they were. Apart from all the health risks – they have actually failed on all their promises – the yield is not better than standard crops, soil is being irreparably damaged by them, they don’t need any less pesticide than normal crops and they are not drought resistant. The amount of Nitrogen based pesticides makes them even worse for the environment, so why do we have them?
Monsanto, if you haven’t heard of them, own 95% of all GMO crops produced. They are a very powerful and influential company, with members even sitting on the board of the EU. With this power they manage to convince governments and regulators that their crops will make a difference. All scientific research has proven otherwise.
The real problem here, is that by moderately altering the gene of a plant, (sometimes they don’t even change it at all), it allows people to own it, through intellactual property rights. This gives a company the right to own life. When the seeds from their crops blow over to other farmers yards and began to grow, Monsanto have been able to sue them for theft. They are also working on a “terminator crop”, which dies after one harvest, so farmers have to keep coming back to them.
I’ve seen various indigenous farmers talk today, from Peru to India to Cuba. They all say the same thing – the best seeds are ones that have been passed around by farmers for generations. Organic farming has come a long way since we started using oil based pesticides and it could be the real solution to Climate Change.
The Cubans grow food in their cities
December 11th, 2009
Today I saw a presentation by some Cubans about how they’ve managed to grow most of their produce in the inner cities.
This has been achieved over the last 20 years and has come about as a result of necessity. In the late 80’s, Socialism fell around the world and Cuba lost 80% of their trade. They weren’t oil rich either, so transportation had become extremely expensive.
They decided to start using abondoned plots in the inner cities to grow their food. 75% of Cubans live in urban areas, so this meant the food could be transported easily. This has been a team effort – in Cuba Scientists, Farmers, Extenionors and Producers all work together to grow food and new ideas are shared around. There are 270 different specialists in growing seeds, working to better the harvest each time. Three times a year, experts come to each farm to inspect and share new knowledge.
Being so close to where people live, pesticides were not an option, so all food is grown organically. As a result, species of birds and insects have increased and soil has improved. There have also been more trees planted in Cuba in recent years, giving them protection from Hurricanes.
Cubans expect to be completely self sufficient for food by 2015. I’m sure this wouldn’t be possible in all cities, but there are definitely some where this could be applied.
Get up. Stand up. Sat 12th December
December 11th, 2009
The COP15 summit is actually going OK, depending on who you talk to! All the developing & developed countries are putting offers on the table. The problem is, the offers are too little and the methods to achieve them are the wrong ones, like Carbon Trading.
It isn’t that Politicians don’t want to make bigger deals. Currrently, the only voice they hear is that of the Fossil Fuel Lobbyists floating around the Bella Center; who are paid to look after their own interests. Tomorrow there is a day of action around the world, where people are holding civilised marches and vigils. This will be the most important day to act on Climate Change – to show them the public do support strong action. Take it from Gordon Brown:
Now is the time to make a difference, here is a list of what’s happening:
Copenhagen
In Copenhagen there will be the Flood For Climate Justice, starting at 10am at Klimaforum
http://www.copenhagenflood.org/
There will also be the Global Day Of Action, starting at 1pm in Central Copenhagen and heading to the Bella Center
http://12dec09.dk/content/english
Australia
After the new opposition leader opposed the Climate Change bill 2 weeks ago, we look like a nation of Climate naysayers at Copenhagen. Tomorrow is the day to prove them wrong.
http://www.walkagainstwarming.org/
United Kingdom
A lot of people in the UK have headed to Copenhagen themselves, but you can still get down to the Climate Camp in Trafalgar Square, where protestors have occupied it since December the 5th!
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/actions/copenhagen-2009/cop15-out
Also, there are over 200 Vigils in the UK on the 12th. Take a look at this page and check on the map
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/real_deal_hosts/
Canada
There are different events spread all over Canada on Friday the 11th and Sat the 12th. Check here for more info
http://www.globalclimatecampaign.org/index.php?cmd=Main.ShowCountry&id=11&lang=en#country11
For a full list of what’s happening in your country, check the list on the left of this page:
http://www.globalclimatecampaign.org/index.php?lang=e
The Avaaz “vigils for a real deal” are going on all over the world too:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/real_deal_hosts/
Twitter stuff
- Haha, 80's dating video montage: http://youtu.be/0bomkgXeDkE! #wtf 5 days ago
- Team America - still funny as fark! 1 week ago
- @MrChuckD My favourite's still - "Bill Withers - live at Carnegie Hall" - that album never dates :) 1 week ago
- Dabs & Myla artwork and interview. Cool stuff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDQC4WM8cgw&feature=player_embedded#! #art 1 week ago
- Had I seen this before the election, I may have voted for the #sexparty - funny shit http://youtu.be/tdEVVW_ahnE 1 week ago
- More updates...