theClimateers

Some initial, relatively raw thoughts of where I stand in the International Youth Climate Movement after COP-15, followed by a lil video of the head shave.

It is hard coming out of the bubble of COP-15. It is strange to not be surrounded by inspiring young activists 24/7 anymore. It is stranger to try to comprehend that Christmas is not about climate change, that friendships and school and the rest of the life I’ve been building in Berlin will still be there when I get back, and that they will not all be based around the international youth climate movement.

My understanding of time is also severely screwed up. My birthday, just 11 days ago, feels like at least a month ago, if not two. I cannot yet comprehend how I will manage time when I get back. I feel a time pressure that is perhaps even stronger than the pressure I felt during my 18-hour days in Copenhagen.

I worry I may not be as effective as I need to be while living in Berlin. In terms of my personal capacity and also the comparative potential (and need) for change, I think I’d be better suited continuing my work Stateside. I will need to do some serious reflection and strategizing on how to be more effective from Berlin.

In less than an hour, I’ve got to head down to central Copenhagen to catch my train back to Germany. I’m going to welcome the rails after the bumpy ride on the emotional rollercoaster that my time in Copenhagen turned out to be.

I go through stages of fright, in which I fear we won’t be able to make the changes we need to make in time. But then I also know we have the power and the passion to do it. And I swing back and forth, hitting all kinds of other highs and lows on the way.

But I am thankful for the opportunity to meet such committed people and to see their inspiring work. And on top of it all, these people are also just straight up awesome – even when you disregard their amazing work in the youth climate movement.

So that’s it, time to put the last pieces of stuff into my overpacked bags and get on my way. I leave with a cold head from the failure of COP-15, but with a warm heart from the relationships and new networks formed in the IYCM.

Cross-posted at It’s Getting Hot In Here

I spent months helping prepare policy briefs on adaptation, plan how the SustainUS communications team would interface with policy and actions, and set up a framework for the international youth communications and media production teams to work within at COP. My personal (unaffiliated) involvement in yesterday’s unapproved sit-in inside the Bella Center was a transition into a new activist life outside of the COP-15 conference center.

In the end, we held our sit-in for nine hours. At around 2am, we walked away voluntarily (in some senses of the word), because the UNFCCC Secretariat and the security guards communicated an ultimatum to us: if they had to physically remove us, all 300 NGO observers (reduced from 7,000 allowed in on Tuesday and Wednesday) would be banned from entry. Three hundred is a paltry sum compared to the total number of accredited NGO observers (around 20,000), but it is far better than zero.

We were concerned about the silencing of civil society voices, and considered being arrested to show this concern. However, we agreed that to silence our voices further would hurt, not help the chances for a fair, ambitious, and legally binding deal. We were holding our sit-in to share this ask, signed by over 12 million people now, with negotiators and press in the Bella Center. We were therefore not willing to further reduce the already small chances for success in achieving this real deal in Copenhagen by allowing the UNFCCC to use our sit-in as an excuse to shut out civil society completely.

Our procession out of the Bella Center was bittersweet, mostly bitter. The sit-in had been a great success in some ways: gaining tons of media attention, engendering more smiles and thumbs up than we’d seen in the last 10 days in the Bella Center combined, and giving all of us an uplifting feeling as we realized we were not only supporting something we believed in but were also concurrently supported by millions of people including friends in the youth climate movement back in the US, official country delegates, and of course John Kerry. But as we left, we knew our impact inside the Bella Center was over, and with stalled negotiations over unacceptable texts, it felt like we hadn’t achieved enough.

But today was a new day. I woke up rejuvenated after five and a half ours of sleep (I’ve been averaging around six hours/night – better than I’d expected). This movement is still growing. Although we’re closer to tripping over climate tipping points with each delay of a binding, science-based treaty, this movement is going to continue. With added urgency to mitigate climate change and added need to help affected communities adapt to changes we can no longer avoid, the undercurrent I’m feeling among (my mostly new) friends here is that it is time to bring this movement to a new level. International Youth Climate Movement version 2.0.

Today, I fasted in solidarity with three Climate Justice Fasters who are now on day 42 (!!!) of a water-only fast. This cleanse is also a symbolic clearing of my system as I prepare for a new kind of involvement in an improved movement.

Tomorrow, I will continue (that is, unless I chicken out) down this path of a symbolic restart by shaving my head with a group of other activists in front of the Bella Center. Other things shaving my head could possibly end up symbolizing include: the ugly negotiating process, the bad decisions made by negotiators, or the catastrophic changes that unabated climate change could bring about. Those are risks I’m willing to take, though, because if the shave does turn out horribly, it will be, as the Climate Justice Fast was explained to me, a form of penance for being a part of the problem and not effective enough as part of the solution til now. At the same time, though, my shaved head will provide a promise of new growth – personally, in the movement, and for the world – to help us rise up above the challenges we have created for ourselves.

Life goes on and we will not let it pass us by. We won’t just sit and wait for a fair, ambitious, and legally binding deal. We will make it happen.

Hello! I am one of about 20 youth currently in our fifth hour of a sit-in in the Bella Center at the UN Climate Change negotiations in Copenhagen. Check out our preliminary video from when we had about 50 youth – some were dragged away and one was kicked out.

At one point, someone came by and said “thank you for all that you’re doing” and I looked up and it was Senator John Kerry. I reached out my hand and said “thank YOU!” and he continued down the rest of the line of us shaking everyone’s hand.

Later, we saw Dessima Williams, the Chair of AOSIS from Grenada. She told us that in 1998 she took part in an 8-day sit-in at the Commission on Social Development to call for reductions in military spending right here in the Bella Center!

I’ll sign out for now – check It’s Getting Hot in Here for live-blogging from our awesome support crew sitting at the tables behind us!

Helicopters. Danish Police. UN Security. EVERYWHERE.

Most of the SustainUS delegation are currently inside the Bella Center, where the UN climate change negotiations, COP-15, have been taking place despite increasing limits on civil society involvement at the talks.

Outside, the Reclaim Power march reportedly has 5,000 or so marchers headed towards the Bella Center. Accredited NGOs Friends of the Earth, AVAAZ, and TckTckTck have had their accreditation suspended and were removed from the Bella Center. This may be related to a peaceful demonstration that was carried out in the Bella Center yesterday without the approval of the UNFCCC Secretariat, but the details are unclear.

Meanwhile, some folks leaving the Bella Center reportedly have been arrested pre-emptively in case they are planing to join the Reclaim Power protest. And there’s rumor that the Youth Convergence space, a workspace for accredited youth outside of the Bella Center, has been visited/raided/??? by the Danish Police. What!?

I don’t know what is going on, but this is all ridiculous.

I just wanted to blog this photo. I was sleeping in (until 8:30) for my birthday, so sadly I missed this fun SustainUS-organized event. “Don’t leave us out in the cold,” yelled US youth as delegates and others waited in security lines to get into the Bella Center. We need science-based targets – ahem 350ppm – for survival of all the world’s peoples and for a habitable planet for future generations.

Time is flying here in Copenhagen.  The question is, are we flying in a private jet or gracefully soaring like an eagle?  Are we headed towards an outcome in Copenhagen that will continue to support a dirty energy economy that pollutes greenhouse gases without thought of its grave impacts on the ecological systems and habitability of this earth or one that will give us, and future generations, a chance at a beautiful, sustainable future.

This pointed question is at the middle of today’s activities in the Bella Center. This year, global youth at the UNFCCC acquired a more formal status, that of a “constituency”.  Constituency status, initially just given to “BINGOs” (Business and Industry NGOs) and “ENGOs” (Environmental NGOs), allows NGOs falling under particular umbrellas to have greater access to the UNFCCC Secretariat by way of funneling shared issues and requests through one or two representatives or “focal points”.

To celebrate the addition of YOUNGOs to the list of constituencies to the UNFCCC, today, December 10, we’re hosting Young and Future Generations Day in cooperation with the Secretariat.  We have 1,000 youth running around the convention center with bright orange t-shirts asking negotiators, NGO leaders and press, “how old will you be in 2050″ and demanding that negotiations “don’t bracket our future”.  We’re also handing out 1,000 orange scarves to our supporters in country delegations and leading international NGOs.

I’m currently sitting in a Side Event (where NGO observers have a chance to speak on various issues related to the COP-15 negotiations) presented by SustainUS on Youth Voices on REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). The opportunity to hold events such as this forest side event with its quiet, academic tone is a necessary part of youth involvement at COP alongside our other actions.

credit: Robert vanWaarden

Sometimes our loud, media-grabbing actions such as supporting Tuvalu’s call for new, transparent discussions for a legal treaty yesterday outside of the Plenary hall or crashing an Americans for Prosperity live telecast event held outside of COP (yes, this is the one where Lord Monckton repeatedly calls us Nazis and Hitler Youth) paint youth involvement into a corner – one where it can be difficult to see our deep understanding of the climate policy and ecological science.

Yesterday, Lord Monckton called us “Hitler Youth who know nothing about climate science” but the bright minds in this forests side event, and the young people from the world over whom I’ve talked to around the entire convention center, disprove him time after time.

We are a force to be reckoned with, not just because of our numbers or our energy, but also because of our knowledge climate science and our understanding of what is at stake.  Our compassion for one another, for the small island states and the world’s poorest communities, and for future generations is overwhelming and contagious.

I’m so energized to keep working in this movement, and to keep appreciating the importance and the power of youth even as I get older.  Today is my birthday and I’m now 24.  On December 10, 2050, I’ll have just turned 65.  By that point in time, official retirement age will probably be over 70, but even it if it isn’t, I’ll probably still be hard at work managing environmental issues.

P.S. Haven’t gotten me a birthday present yet? Consider donating to my Copenhagen Fund.  A $5 donation helps me buy a meal at the Bella Center (where food is subsidized, thank goodness) or a bit of tap water in the city of Copenhagen… And hey, it’s tax deductible!

Cross posted from It’s Getting Hot in Here

As 27 of my fellow SustainUSers are in Copenhagen are attending plenary sessions and planning actions with international youth from around the world, I’m holding down the fort in Washington, DC by bridging the news from Denmark to actions at home.

A friend of mine earnestly remarked today that he thought grassroots and youth organizing for COP15 was a lost cause because the real negotiating at Copenhagen, and that legislative change in the U.S. Senate happens behind closed doors between high-level decisionmakers and powerful lobbyists; that protests, petitions, and rallies are tiny blips on the political radar. And I suppose he has a point – the COP15 outcome depends highly upon decisions of key leaders, and the deep pocketbooks of special interest groups and corporations resonate at higher decibels than kids with hand-painted banners and street actions.

But he’s wrong to conclude that it’s a waste of our time. After a brief afternoon existential crisis of the importance of our collective work, I stopped to look around at all the inspiring work coming from delegates in Copenhagen and my friends all over the country. It’s easy to become apathetic or discouraged, but it takes a lot more to keep fighting the fight.

Don’t underestimate the value of expressing your two cents to your leaders – it’s money well spent! We’ve already seen a positive change in political climate from our tireless campaigns – from Obama’s willingness to engage with youth climate leaders to the growing support for 350 ppm as our new global CO2 stabilization target – and though our gains may seem incremental, they are certainly pointing in clear direction: forward.

“I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world,” writes poet Adrienne Rich. We may not have money or extraordinary power on our side, but we have our youth, creativity, energy, enthusiasm, and dedication, and no astroturf effort can buy that kind of genuine passion. Sure, even a visible Ark on the National Mall isn’t alone going to convince my Senator to vote for the Climate Bill, but it’s the combined effect of all sorts of actions happening worldwide that show our collective force.

As youth delegate Caroline points out in her dispatch from Copenhagen, it’s important for us at home to build on the momentum from our friends in Denmark to push for domestic action.  Join a rapid response team! Call your senators to voice your support for the Climate Bill!  Talk to your friends and neighbors to raise awareness about these issues to people who might not otherwise know about them! Attend a 12/12 candlelight vigil!

Tomorrow, youth activists in Copenhagen are holding a Bed-In to commemorate the assassination of John Lennon by singing a climate-adapted version of “Give Peace a Chance.” The message? Give youth a chance.

Last summer, Louise asked me one night in the middle of a July week to write and record a rap song about 350.  After a little pestering, I complied.  I wrote, recorded, and edited the rap all together in about three hours that night.  I uploaded it, tweeted about it, and pretty soon 350 caught wind of it.

All along, I said, “This is just a demo. I’m going to re-record it with a real band. I’m going to make a music video.”  Ok, so life caught up to me (hey, I moved to from the US to Germany and started a master’s program over here…) and I just got around to the music video part after skipping the “working with good musicians” bit. After missing the October 24th Day of Action as a video premiere date, I wanted to be sure to get it out before Copenhagen.  So without further ado, the 350 Rap music video (which premiered yesterday on N30):

Dot .- (read aloud: “dot dot dash”) is my rapper moniker. Right. I don’t think I need to write anything more to explain the title of this post.

Oh, and if you like my work (heh), please consider donating $10 or $24 to my Copenhagen Fund.  My expenses ($130 train, $500 hostel, $$$ food, etc.) are adding up as I’ll be serving as “video queen” for the SustainUS delegation and I am covering several hundred dollars of equipment costs for microphones and a tripod and all that good stuff myself. I look forward to providing you with high quality video updates from the negotiations, which will almost certainly involve more interviews and less rap (but hopefully a lil bit of rap makes its way in there as well), but I also hope to have enough money to eat!