Copenhagen Day 1: Setting the stage to keep hopes high

[1]

After a bizarre night of disjointed dreams about deforestation and the complexity of racial dynamics in the climate change debate, I dragged myself out of bed at 3AM U.S. time for the day’s start in Copenhagen.

So here’s a feel for antics and advocacy from Greenpeace and WWF on day one: a drum circle [2] (VIDEO) with chants urging leaders to lead outside and inflatable arches forcing delegates to choose [3] whether to walk through the global warming arch or to commit to a fair, ambitious and binding global deal.

By the time I made it to the plenary I was turned away with hundreds of others for having a backpack (my mobile media studio) and being “ticketless” – apparently in addition to the NGO registration bag you need to sleuth out a ticket. Everyone looked groggy and disoriented, and thus far nothing but people reporting in evidence. In 15 minutes, the plenary began with a welcoming address from the Prime Minister of Denmark.

The opening plenary was fairly subdued and pro forma from what I heard. I went to the NGO strategy session instead where there was a lot of talk about right-wing deniers and their campaign to refocus the media on alleged uncertainty in the science of climate change.

I then stopped into a Google-sponsored booth where you can get a powerful tour of worldwide deforestation [4].

I also attended part of an event featuring Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen (Denmark), former President Jose Maria Figueres (Costa Rica), Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai, Wang Guangtao (Chairman of the Environment Committee for the Chinese Congress), David Blood (Al Gore’s partner in Generation Investment Partners), and Kumi Naidoo (the new Executive Director of Greenpeace International) amongst others. The panel began with a TckTckTck-themed video produced by Citizens Global Studio [5]. Had to run off for a strategy session but when I left the trend was towards fighting for a Fair, Ambitious and Binding treaty.

At the International Climate Action Network, we decided to award the “Fossil of the Day” [6] to Industrialized Countries for lacking ambition when it comes to targets for reducing global warming pollution.

At the U.S. Climate Action Network I noted again the tension for U.S. NGOs between trying to reinforce the idea of progress being made in the U.S. (e.g., today’s announced endangerment finding by the EPA [7] that they will be regulating coal plants, the $87 billion [8] in green recovery dollars, the bill that passed the House [9], etc.) so as to avoid having us obstruct yet again, and the need to speak the truth about our continued delays.

Day one… setting the stage with people fighting to keep hopes high.