theClimateers

UN negotiators from Annex I (developed) countries have been working to push through text on Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) by the end of the Bonn negotiations on Friday, June 11. The draft text, however, creates several loopholes that allow developed countries to effectively hide emissions from land use as if they do not exist.

By forcing through the text without removing these loopholes, developed countries would be allowed to emit millions of tons of new carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions without accounting for them. This would lead to a major deviation from emissions reductions demanded by science and would have catastrophic consequences for developing countries and future generations.

International youth observers at the UN conference responded to the threat of the text being finalized with these disastrous loopholes by launching a campaign to alert negotiators to the irresponsibility and unacceptability of such a decision for young and future generations.

Danny (UKYCC) Hiding from the LULUCF Emissions Accountant

To begin the campaign on Tuesday morning, we greeted negotiators arriving for the day with a hide-and-seek game between youth dressed up as greenhouse gas emissions and inept emissions accountants unable to find them for lack of trying. The 12 of us dressed up as tonnes of greenhouse gases and hid behind trees and camoflauged themselves with twigs outside the conference center as negotiators arrived. Meanwhile, two fumbling accountants attempted half-heartedly to find and enter the hidden emissions into the books while engaging delegates to explain their inability to find the emissions, often in plain sight, given the problematic rules in the current text that make accounting voluntary.

Hannah (UKYCC), not very good at accounting for emissions

In the afternoon, we followed up with two more actions. First, we asked delegates to throw small balls, each labeled as a tonne of CO2, through a LULUCF loophole to “make them magically disappear”. Balls that made it through the loophole were met with boos. We, representing the youth and future generations, then had the burden of dealing with them, sometimes throwing them back with demands that every emission should be counted. Also in the afternoon, we hid small sheets of paper that said “Congratulations! You’ve just found one ton of hidden LULUCF emissions. Please bring it back to the 350.org/SustainUS booth so that it may be accounted for,” all around the conference center.

Delegates throw emissions through LULUCF loophole to be dealt with by young and future generations

On Wednesday, several youth carried a giant cardboard cut-out of a chainsaw through the Maritim Hotel, where the conference is taking place. With “LULUCF Logging Loopholes” written on it, the chainsaw represented a tool for deforestation without accountability for the emissions generated by it.

These logging loopholes in the negotiating text would allow developed countries to hide emissions so that they can pretend they are not there. But at the end of the day, these emissions from land use and forestry are still real greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere, and they need to be counted and reduced to help ensure a safe climate for today’s youth and for our children and grandchildren.

On the last weekend of February, a friend of mine tipped me off to a video competition put on by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, YouTube, and Sony. The task was to create a three-minute video about one day in the life of someone who gives back to his/her community. In about 48 hours, I got in touch with Daniel Boese, a friend, climate activist and journalist in Berlin, talked to him about a community solar project he’s currently working on, filmed him working on that project, and cut this video together to submit it by February 28.

The video is now up for the Project Report Community Award. Please take a look at it below and click the Project Report Thumbs Up that pops up over the bottom of the video to vote for the video.

The community solar project that Daniel is currently starting demonstrates the “Get to Work” attitude that 350.org has been promoting as the movement’s motto for 2010. We need to work on all fronts to curb global climate change, and we mustn’t overlook what we can do in our own neighborhoods.

As Daniel says:

“What I like about the project also is that it makes sense in both a local and a global context. You’re doing something that’s interesting for your community, my community here, and it directly relates to THE global problem of the 21st Century of climate change. Because in the end, this is about fighting climate change.

2009 was kind of the year where the climate change movement around the globe came together and tried to put a lot of pressure on politicians, with very mixed results. And I think with things like the solar project we’re trying to do here, there’s a possibility of the movement around the world to just start being the change and start doing the change, what is necessary.

The size of the challenge is much bigger than just putting up a couple solar panels. But this not something you can just do overnight. There’s no one who has a master plan. So you definitely, you need a conversation, you need people to try out things, you just need to get going. That’s what I think. You need to get the conversation going, you need to try. This is one experiment of seeing how the community reacts to this. And hopefully, it’s a starting point to go further. That’s my big hope.”

For more ideas on how you can take action at home, check out this recent post on the the 350.org blog!

Today, I had a debrief with SustainUS to reflect on personal and organizational experiences in Copenhagen. At one point, I was asked why I went to Copenhagen and if I had specific goals for my involvement there.

I was able to answer the question, but not as eloquently as I would have liked. It is often easier for me to answer questions by telling someone else’s story. During the debrief I was also asked why the China-US Youth Forum on Climate Change that SustainUS helped organize was a highlight of my time in Copenhagen; I couldn’t find the words to explain why or how the event moved me, so I said, “watch the film I put together.” Sometimes I find that even someone else’s creation conveys my feelings better than I can: just this morning, I told friends on Facebook that this video from the UK youth explains my experience in Copenhagen better than I’ve been able to so far.

But my friend Morgan’s post on It’s Getting Hot in Here today reminded me of the importance of being able to tell my own story (and not just through video, though I find that method important in its own right). Ironically, this concept of sharing our personal stories – between US and Chinese youth and then back to our home communities about the power of doing so – is probably what made the China-US Youth Forum so special to me.

So while I take some time to find the words to tell my story, my question to you is, what is your story? Why are you involved? When did it all start? What drives you? What initially sparked you and what renews your spirit in the movement? Why are you a climateer?

Many of us who were at the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen from December 7-19 went through a period of hibernation in week following the conference. I, for one, slept for more than 32 hours in the 48 hours that began at 12:00 p.m. on December 20th. I’d been burning the midnight oil for fifteen straight days at that point, constantly jumping from one task to the next throughout the 18-hour workdays. It was actually no great hardship to sustain such working hours during the conference; the bubble that we lived in – that of the UN conference and, more so, that of our own international youth climate movement within the conference – was teeming with energy. We fed off the energy, passion, intellect and creativity of one another to make up for lack of sleep or caloric intake.

Youth Energy Reverb during COP Prep

This is nothing new. Our movement and social movements in general have acquired great strength from the way inspiration bounces around from activist to activist, sparking or re-igniting motivation. But to experience this at COP-15 in a tiny microcosm of the greater movement was eye-opening for me, particularly in the final hours as we walked away from the negotiations without the fair, ambitious, and legally binding treaty that we’d been pushing so hard for.

A fitting and galvanizing quotation just came through on my Twitterfeed: “Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged people who kept on working.”

While I believe it to be true that we can trudge through the lowest of lows and achieve great highs, I know it is a difficult task. Some of the farewell conversations I had with brilliant, effective young activists in Copenhagen were filled with a such a preponderance of negative emotion that, at least in the initial shock of the blow taken at the end of the negotiations, these new friends seemed to be leaving with a debilitating sense of defeat.

We are all working hard for a sustainable future, but how do we move forward using our own energy sustainably? How do we make sure we aren’t losing power as people fall out of the movement as they become too tired or too discouraged?

In the wake of COP-15, there are many facets of the international climate movement that need to be re-examined, strengthened or freshly innovated, and many great ideas have already been put forth. As we power back on after Copenhagen, let us take this opportunity to consider not just how to grow this movement but how to do so healthfully. The strategy to cultivate a healthy movement will provide the foundation for our strategies to deliver what the world needs on the US Senate floor, in Mexico City, and on the ground in communities around the world.

Generally in my blogs, I throw a set of bullet-points in right about here with my thoughts on the next steps. To be honest, I’m still a little lost and I don’t have a strong background in organizational psychology to make up for it. So let’s make a deal: I put in my 2 cents and you respond with some more ideas in the comments. Consider this a brainstorming session about some things we might want to reflect on as we burst into 2010.

1. Let’s be vocal in giving one another encouragement. The day-in-day-out fight for climate justice has its darker days (and not just in Copenhagen in December!). We not only need to highlight positivity through messaging around solutions and encouraging our leaders who are taking the right steps as Phil Aroneanu and Meg Boyle suggested, but we also must remember to share heartening words with each other. Look at the hundreds who came out of the woodwork to voice their support of the youth sit-in at the Bella Center on December 16. Showing one another that kind of love on a regular basis, after triumphs of all sizes, lifts the souls of the participants and organizers of each action. This indeed lifts the collective soul of the movement.
2. Let’s continue to recognize that everyone in the movement, whether they’ve attended one local 350.org action or three COPs, is an important player. Not everyone in the climate movement can dedicate his/her whole life to climate work. Not everyone concerned by climate change is even part of the climate movement (yet). These current and future members of the movement, however, should not just be numbers to be counted on one-off days of action, online petitions, or small fundraising drives. Our movement relies on our energy and inclusiveness; our work is not for minority rights but for the rights of all people and all life on this planet. We need to reach out, embrace the fresh ideas and engage the capacity of everyone who shares our concern for the climate.
3. Let’s remember to take care of ourselves. As COP15 prep ramped up this fall, I found myself shedding other commitments and hobbies and putting most of the rest of my life on hold until January. With the urgency of the need for global action on climate change weighing over us, it is easy to feel like climate work must always take priority. But hey, there’s still going to be work to be done after Mexico City, no matter how great the outcome. Diversity of interests and activities is healthy, and healthy members make a healthy movement. Plus, participating in other activities and taking up new hobbies opens us up to new networks (see “future members” referenced in 2). Win-win… and third win.

After writing it all out, all of these things strike me as fairly obvious, but clearly sometimes I forget to take note of them. If that’s the case for you, I hope these points were welcome reminders; if not, I hope to read your ideas on how to foster a healthy movement in 2010 in the comments.

Whew, I will be posting a real blog shortly, but check it out, guys, I got some competition busting into the female climate rapper scene.

I found this video at the Dance for the Climate website. Essentially, you get a bunch of people together, coordinate a dance, and film it.

Check out the video with 12,000 Belgians asking us to GET MOVING.

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.