Mainstream media focuses on Black-Bloc, march in Copenhagen really about healing the people's broken hearts

Copenhagen demonstrators push negotiators to act

by Keith Schneider, Grist, December 12, 2009

COPENHAGEN -- Great social movements are about the intelligence and vision of individuals, and the compelling strength of crowds. Both have been in abundance throughout the first week of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and especially on Saturday.
Jennifer Prediger
Wearing polar bear costumes, red suits and dark glasses, black jeans and matching black tee-shirts, and carrying a multitude of colorful signs aimed at speeding the pace of negotiations and results -- “Bla, Bla, Bla. Act Now,” “There Is No Planet B,” “The World Wants A Real Deal” -- tens of thousands of people crowded into Parliament Square for a rally this afternoon, and thousands more joined them for a 4-mile march to the Bella Center to present negotiators with demands as potent as their numbers.

The swelling crowd, variously estimated by the police and organizers, as measuring between 60,000 and 100,000, was peaceful, insistent, and cold. Temperatures were just above Fahrenheit freezing, and a wind tugged at upturned collars. Those in attendance wore pins and badges and carried banners indicating they came from all over the world.

Ride From Australia
One demonstrator, Kim Nuygen, said he took 16 months to bike here from Australia. Most of those who attended today were young. A trio from Paris said they’d come to organize a film festival that next week features former Vice President Al Gore. A group of students from the University of Michigan said they wanted to see how theories of dispute resolution, climate science, and chemical engineering actually worked when subject to the vagaries of political ideology and social differences. Their conclusion: It ain’t pretty.

“I’d like to think that something good will come out of the next week,” said Aubrey Parker, a University of Michigan student who was raised in the Traverse City region. “But I’m a little pessimistic. There’s a lot of bureaucracy. A lot of countries have come here with plans that are not progressive enough.”

Marcia Lee, a 27-year-old graduate student in dispute resolution from Marquette University, in Wisconsin, said,  “I really wanted to see how negotiations work on the international scale. I just wanted to gather people’s stories and learn and understand what really breaks peoples hearts. If we can reach that heart level it is possible to start the conversation of how to heal that broken heart.”

When pressed about what she meant, Lee said:  “There are four elements that everybody needs: The need to love and to be loved. The need to belong, and to be of use. If we can reach people at that level then a lot of things that separate us are changed. There is a lot of overlap to being human.”

More Around The World
The Global Day of Action here coincided with thousands of other gatherings of climate activists around the world. Five thousand people demonstrated in New Delhi. Paris decorated its North Station yesterday and dispatched the Climate Express, which carried hundreds of people to join demonstrators in Copenhagen.

Tweets from Melbourne reported the demonstration for climate action numbered 50,000 participants.

The purpose of the Copenhagen rally, march, and the candlelight vigil that ended the day was to amplify that essential sense that young people brought here, the idea that there must be a better way, and to provide mass to the individual voices of concern that have made the planet’s changing climate the signature issue of this generation. Speakers at the large and noisy rally pointed out time and again there is a vast difference in perception and language between those marching today, and those inside the Bella Center, where negotiators from 192 nations are racing a December 18 deadline to reach agreement.

The Heart vs. The Numbers
Inside, for the most part, the ornate language of diplomacy joins with complex science to set an often confusing table for talking about numbers. There are differing views among delegates about how much carbon should be removed from the emissions of industrial and non-industrial nations; 20 percent? 40 percent? 0 percent? And when: 10 years? 25 years? 50 years? How much should be invested to do that: $10 billion annually; $195 billion annually within a decade? How many acres of forest need to be preserved? How should uses of land change? And can the world hold the level of warming to 2 degrees Celsius, an increased viewed by many here as manageable, or will the climate shift be 4 degrees or more by late in the century, a level thought to be a threat to the species?

Outside, in the streets of Copenhagen, the words and phrases shouted through loudspeakers and in the mix of song and music carried in the wind was of people facing urgent consequences of climate change, and calls for an end to delay.

A woman from Ghana opened the rally with a story of how her village, economically robust at the start of the decade, and easily able to feed itself, had been under siege in recent years by killing floods that gave rise to plagues of mosquitoes. The two growing seasons that used to exist have been cut in half to an uncertain one.

After the floods came droughts and then floods and erosion and an end to bountiful harvests. Sickness has brought unexpected deaths. She blamed the fluky weather and its sober consequences on climate change. Not once did she use a number to describe the compelling misfortune of her family and her village.

Vigil and a Plea Heard Globally
The plaintive and plain spoken messages seem to be heard inside the Bella Center. The march today concluded there with a vigil. Sails that demonstrators carried from Parliament Square were ceremoniously handed to Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the conference’s organizer.

Early in the week, Tuvalu, the tiny Pacific Island nation of 12,000 residents, three of whom are here as climate negotiators, raised its voice to insist on faster action on climate that was legally binding for all nations. The proceedings slowed considerably, but did not stop, as the issue was elevated by a nation that lies four feet above sea level and understands that its fate will be determined by what happens in Copenhagen.

Indeed, the competition is fierce between developing nations that are the first to confront the immediacy of climate change, and the industrial nations that have varying levels of conviction about the consequences. Negotiators found a way later in the week to work through Tuvalu’s concern, at least temporarily, and draft texts of a final agreement were circulated on Friday that were greeted favorably by many nations.

Environment ministers are arriving this weekend to carry the negotiations closer to a final agreement next
week, and the UNFCC is telling NGO representatives that a number of heads of state are planning to arrive in Copenhagen days earlier than planned.

That is an indication of the anticipation building here that something worthwhile will come out of these two weeks in December.  The Bella Center itself has gotten so jammed that its capacity of 15,000 people is close to being exceeded. The UNFCCC yesterday alerted participants that it will initiate a new system of issuing what it called “secondary cards” to keep the packed center from becoming too full. The new badging requirement will take effect on Tuesday.

“Fate of My Country”
As demonstrators and negotiators converged at the Bella Center at the march’s end today, the text was made public of a dramatic statement in the plenary session late in the week by one of Tuvalu’s diplomats. Circulated by NGO groups and read on hundreds of Blackberrys and IPhones, the clear-headed plea for action by one man from a little-known nation reflected the will of many of those who’ve come to Copenhagen.

“This is not just an issue of Tuvalu,” he said. “Millions of people around the world are affected. Over the last few days I’ve received calls from all over the world offering faith and hope that we can reach a conclusion on this issue.

“Madame President, this is not a media trip for me. I have refused to take media calls on this issue. As a humble servant of the government of Tuvalu, I have to make a strong appeal to you that we consider this matter properly.

“I woke this morning. I was crying. That’s not easy for a grown man to admit. The fate of my country rests in your hands.”

Link:  http://www.grist.org/article/big-copenhagen-climate-demonstration-noisy-colorful-insistent-pushes-negoti/

Seth Borenstein in Copenhagen: The push for 350: Contradictions and carbon levels

The push for 350: Contradictions and carbon levels

AP – Danish riot police checks the handcuffs of a demonstrator before leading him into a police bus in the …

by SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer – Sunday, December 13, 2009, 4:29 p.m. ET

 

COPENHAGEN – As police cracked down on climate protesters, church bells tolled 350 times Sunday to impress on the U.N. global warming conference a number that is gaining a following, but is also awash in contradictions.

Conference negotiators went behind closed doors in talks to pin down an elusive new pact on climate, talks in which the figure 350 looms as a goal for true believers, but one that appears impossible based on progress so far.

It refers to 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the highest concentration that some leading scientists say the world can handle without sparking dangerous climate effects.

"It's the most important number in the world," said Bill McKibben, founder of the environmental activist group 350.org. "It's the line between habitability on this planet and a really, really desolate future."

Not everyone buys into that. But an entire environmental group has sprung up around the number, pushing 350 as a goal, sporting it on T-shirts and flags waved by throngs of protesters that marched to the conference center over the weekend. About 100 nations at the U.N. climate summit have signed on to the idea of heading for 350.

Actually, the world has lived with more than 350 for a while.

The last time the Earth had 350 ppm of carbon dioxide in the air was a generation ago, in the fall of 1989. This year CO2 pushed over the 390 level. When scientists started measuring carbon dioxide in 1958 it was 315.

Since the atmosphere passed the 350 level, ice sheets have been melting and other dramatic changes have been happening. Prominent scientists — notably NASA's James Hansen, one of the earliest to warn about global warming, and Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — have said 350 is the only safe level of carbon dioxide in the air.

Still, many economists, political leaders, and even some scientists believe that the worst effects of global warming can be avoided even with less stringent actions.

But there is general agreement among negotiators and climate scientists that continued global warming will lead to dramatic changes that mean more widespread drought in some regions, greater flooding along coastlines, stronger storms and the loss of species.

On Sunday, hundreds of churches around the world had signed up to ring bells at 3:50 p.m. in their respective time zones.

"It was an incredibly powerful moment and to know that there are bells ringing all over Europe, up to Greenland, down into the south Pacific and every corner of the planet," McKibben said moments after the bells stopped ringing in Copenhagen.

As they tolled, more than 40 government environment chiefs and other high-level negotiators were meeting at the Danish Foreign Ministry. They were trying to bridge the gap between their positions in informal talks before the second and last week of negotiations gets under way. The week will end with the arrival of President Barack Obama and more than 100 other national leaders for the final hours of negotiation.

Sharp divisions remain between rich and poor countries on greenhouse emissions cuts and financing for developing nations to deal with climate change and shift to cleaner energy.

"I think there was recognition around the table of the urgency of what we need to achieve in the coming days," Britain's Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said after Sunday's talks. "I think there needs to be more movement from everyone, more imagination, and I think we will all be striving for that."

Australia's Climate Change Minister Penny Wong also said a lot of work remains to be done.

"It's going to be tough to get an agreement by Friday but that's what we have to do," she told a news conference.

According to participants, the closed-door consultations focused on about a half-dozen plans on financing for poor countries to deal with climate change. One joint proposal by Mexico and Norway calls for a "Green Fund" for climate financing, starting with $10 billion a year in 2013, and increasing to $30 billion to $40 billion a year by 2020

Separately, a proposal aimed at saving the world's tropical forests suffered a setback Sunday, when negotiators ditched plans for faster action on the problem because of concerns that rich countries aren't willing to finance the plan. A deal on deforestation — a sizable global warming factor — is considered a key component of the larger pact.

For a second day in a row, police cracked down on climate activists marching through the Danish capital. More than 200 were detained as police stopped an unauthorized demonstration headed toward the city's harbor and carried out a security check of some of the participants.

Meanwhile, nearly all of the 1,000 detained on Saturday — from Europe, Africa, Asia, and the U.S — were released without charges. Thirteen of them were arraigned in court and faced preliminary charges of assaulting police or were let off with a warning for wearing masks, which are outlawed during demonstrations in Denmark, or carrying box-cutters or other sharp objects.

Reducing carbon dioxide levels to 350 would mean reversing the trend of the past couple of centuries. Carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for as long as 100 years. And the emissions cuts currently being pledged by developed countries, including the United States and European nations, are aimed at having CO2 levels peak at around 450, not 350, in coming decades.

And even that may not be possible. Some economists say the world should plan to stop at 550.

Economist Henry Jacoby, co-director of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, has said that even 450 is "totally impossible, there's no way we can do that."

To get down to 350, civilization has to remove massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the skies, something talked about but not yet achieved. Trees and oceans suck CO2 from the atmosphere, but that process is overwhelmed by emissions from burning coal and oil. McKibben said it would probably take 40 years to get down to 350 even if emissions stopped today.

"It may be on the edge of impossible," he said Sunday. "We could do it. At the moment, there's no sign that we are going to do it."
 
MIT management professor John Sterman said scientifically 350 makes sense, even if economically it seem unreachable.

"We ought to have a goal of 350 and realize we're already above that," Sterman said.
___
Link:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/climate

Black-bloc anarchists in Copenhagen (video) -- who are these people!?! Part I

VIDEO BELOW SHOWS THE PEACEFUL MARCHERS, THEN A CONTINGENT OF THE BLACK BLOC.  JOURNALIST SAYS AFTER THE ARRESTS, THE MARCH BECAME PEACEFUL AGAIN


Link to YouTube video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBpS0QtXHYM
From EarthKeepers:  "Environmental reporter, Olivia Zaleski, and filmmakers, Gabriel London and Peter Buntaine, report as violence erupts during an otherwise peaceful protest at the United Nations Climate Summit in Copenhagen. An unidentified anarchist group of several hundred--most covering their faces with ski masks and hoods--began to converge, shooting explosives at nearby buildings and police. One homemade cannon launched cobblestones over the crowd, breaking the window of a nearby police van."

UPDATE:  After watching this video several times, it finally penetrated that these young fools were using "cobblestones" as projectiles.  There is a shot of one on the the sidewalk.  These things are deadly.  

Dear Readers,

Yesterday, Saturday, December 12, 2009, some 30,000 to 100,000 people marched peacefully in the center of Copenhagen.

Well, almost all of them, anyway.

Many years ago, I lived in Europe (1977-1986:  two years in Greece and seven years in Holland).  I was born and raised in a very small town in deep southern Illinois, so obviously 9 years in Europe were an eye-opener.

In the States (at least before the Cheney/Bush years), my generation didn't think all that much about anarchy. Times were reasonably good.  The middle class was strong.

But Europe has always been different.  There has always been a radical, albeit small, undercurrent of anarchism going back more than a hundred years.

I can't go into a history lesson of the 19th and 20th centuries, so let's just look briefly at one of the latest incarnations of this undercurrent -- the Black-Bloc, self-professed anarchists, intent upon uprooting capitalism, and overturning the "system."

[I have to admit that I have never understood what they meant to replace the "system" with, once it had been overturned.]

I do have some sympathy for radicalized youth in Europe.  I grew up in a place so small that you could walk out to the countryside in 5 or 10 minutes from almost anywhere in town, and it was the largest town in the county.  Now, I live in Brazil, and in an area where it is still possibly to throw out your arms and stretch.

Europe, on the other hand, is cramped.  It lacks adventure, space to create new things, to stick your elbows out.  I felt sorry for the young Dutch -- everything in Holland was already done, organized, arranged, efficient (mostly).  I was back there for a visit in 1996, and it had only gotten more crowded, but worse, it had become very commercial.  Germany can't be much better.  If you want to stretch out your arms in Scandinavia, you have to move up to the Arctic Circle (they give you wonderful tax breaks for living up there).

So, in spite of wonderful national health care systems, great public schools, a highly literate population, and an incredible standard of living (that would make most Americans keel over if they knew about it), the youth are dissatisfied.

I am not excusing them -- I'm just trying to give a little background.

These radical groups were very, very much a tiny minority at the march in Copenhagen, yesterday, but the press being what it is (oops! capitalist, thus need to make money), the reports of violence during the march were blown way out of proportion.

Press reports said there were 700 to 900 marchers arrested.  By all accounts, almost all of those arrested were marching legally and peacefully. (The fact that innocent, legally marching citizens were arrested has disturbed quite a few people.)

In Part II, I will post up some videos, photos, and links with more information about the Black Bloc.  For now, it is time to rest my sorry eyes a bit.

Tenney