All posts tagged Michael

This is an incomplete post salvaged from the internet archive.

-by Michael

A handful of people sat on black and maroon chairs, legs crossed, pens in hand. They were at the US side event on how the US is doing almost nothing in Africa considering they are the world’s superpower, but that almost nothing should be paid more attention to than the total lack of federal initiative domestically. Paula Dobriansky, US Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, opened the act. “We, the US, are doing lots of things to combat climate change,” she said, “in fact we are the leader, once again.” To the dissapointment of the crowd, she did not smile while she lied. “Doing lots in Africa,” she continued, “We’ve trained hundreds of thousands of teachers, given tens of thousands of girls scholarships, and distributed over two million books to children, all in Af-ree-kah.” The crowd, it so turned out, was mostly of African origin. Thus it surprised me that no one seemed to glitter at the mention of these statistics. Then Paula mentioned something that made me heart vomit with concern. “We are introducing new agricultural technologies to rural African communities,” said Paula. “Oh no!” I thought. I was afraid that by this she meant the USA was going into those communities and distributing nitrates, green revolution style high yield crops, and GMOs. But I had no time to dwell on these fears, as Paula was simply saying some impressive things before her colleagues gave the real presentations.

This is an incomplete post salvaged from the internet archive.

-by Michael

Representatives of the youth of the world kept rocking the demonstrations today, following up this morning’s sign event with an afternoon action. Three ropes were held on opposite ends by China, Brazil, the USA, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the EU. Into the middle walked one of us, posing as the COP president. She grabbed the core of the webs like a boxing referee, told us to make progress, and to be sure there was no foul play. Then, “Let the negotiations begin!” Every Party pulled in their respective directions, chanting their respective themes: “Oil, Oil!” for Saudi Arabia, “I don’t care, I’ll go it alone!” from the US, “No voluntary commitments!” coming from China, and so on. Several youth stood on the sidelines with duct tape over their mouths with the word “Youth” written on the tape. After a few minutes of shouting, the youth ripped off their tape and yelled the tug-of-war to a halt. The youth declared it was time to pull together, not apart, because they were neglecting our future in favor of their self-interests. So, hand by hand, step by step, every state came together and danced in joy together in the middle. We then sang what has become the anthem of our demonstrations:

Ooooo, it’s hot in here!

There’s too much Carbon in the atmosphere!

I said, oooo, it’s hot in here!

There’s too much Carbon in the atmosphere!

Take action, take action, and get some satisfaction!

Take action, take action, and get some satisfaction!

-by Michael

Representatives of the youth of our planet once again demonstrated on the grounds of the Gigiri Complex at this year’s COP/MOP. The youth who demonstrated were no longer allowed to do so in the main lobby, but were instead regulated to the grass near the entrance. Nevertheless, all entering delegates had the opportunity to witness us holding five signs which listed numbers descending from 5 to 0 urging the delegates to intensify their actions due to the urgency of the situation. Unfortuneately, attending today’s COP/MOP session on the Russian proposal, none of this urgency was present. The session started half an hour late, only went on for a half hour, and consisted entirely of technical problems and two readings of a report by Ghana on recommendations for how to deal with the Russian Proposal. This proposal was put forth by Russia at last years COP/MOP, and it sought to create procedures for those states which wished to become part of Annex B, and thus take upon themselves voluntary commitments, to do so. At the meeting, delegates were graced with the information that many parties thought the Proposal should be pushed aside to some working group, and maybe also to a later date. The Conference President then ended the meeting with the declaration that further decisions would have to be made at the high level sessions beginning Wedensday.

Another note on this morning’s demonstration: For the nine youth present, there were as many as ten security guards around us. Some smiled, but most bristled when us demonstrators starting singing “Ooo, it’s getting hot in here / There’s too much carbon in the atmosphere! / Take action, take action, and get some satisfaction!” We are looking forward to more actions and more substantial progress at this conference/meeting.

This is an incomplete post salvaged from the internet archive.

-by Michael

This Monday morning’s edition of ECO provides the following analysis of actions taken thus far at this Conference by the EU: “The waffling and mixed signals that characterised its performance in week one are unacceptable.” Seemingly aware of its floundering, the EU surprised everyone (or at least me) with a day long group of side events held at its pavilion. The side events all focus(ed) on research. This, of course, is not an action of any substantiality for progress in the plenaries. However, it does provide some interesting information from research projects that have been supported by the EU.
I attended a morning side event focusing on impacts on water due to climate change. It consisted of presentations from four scientists. The first of these was given on how global water cycles and their extremes will respond to future drivers of climate change. The drivers would be increasing population, water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and changing land use patterns. It was stressed that all of these drivers are very much interrelated. On the issue of consumption, it was highlighted that most of the water consumed globally is consumed by agriculture. There is a great disparity in the world in economic/physical water scarcity. The latest climate models predict that throughout this century, the areas that are dry now will keep getting drier, and the wet areas will become even more wet. For models predicting the quanitity of future rainfall, there is a much greater variability than for those models for temperature increase, which have a virtual consensus. What is sure is that there will be many more extremes in the form of floods and droughts.