Laura Bell and myself happened to have lunch with a delegate from Turkey. The delegate was roughly around our age and was tasked with being the environmental adviser for her country. Her particular specialty is air quality and air pollution with more of a focus on measurements and monitoring. Imagine 28 years old and being …
Category: COP 15
United Nations – Climate Change Conference – Dec 07 – Dec 18 2009
Naomi Klein on Climate Justice in Copenhagen
In the light of the current economic crisis, many developed countries are trying to get out of their prior, binding deals to reach upcoming emissions targets. Or, as Naomi Klein put it, "They want to start from zero." Much to their dismay, Klein says, "The world does not have a restart button." (I will have …
Continue reading Naomi Klein on Climate Justice in Copenhagen
Meet Your New Buddy
Yesterday I had the opportunity to ride in several electric and hybrid cars. I already wrote about how I think hybrid vehicles are good stepping stones towards more sustainable personal transportation. One of the comments one my previous post made the valid point that hybrids are not the ultimate answer. I already posted my response …
Copenhagen: What’s going on here?
Copenhagen: What’s going on here? In the English newspaper in Copenhagen, the Copenhagen Post, there is a front page story of the statue that sank and has been recovered. The statue is by Jens Galshoit, and is “an obese Lady Justice sitting on an emaciated African man.” A protest piece on temporary exhibit, whose toppling …
Message from Africa
In listening to the "Climate Justice from Copenhagen" side event, two philosophies are discussed to approach climate change challenges in countries of need. The first is one of urgency emphasizing the need to "start over" and have every nation participate in changing their future behavior to discontinue practices that contribute to global warming. The urgency …
Climate Change: A Human Rights Issue
December 10 is human rights day, thus it seemed quite fitting to attend an event that discussed how to frame climate change as a human rights issue. The predicted impacts of climate change include increased intensity and frequency of extreme climatic events, droughts, floods, ocean acidification, among others, which in turn threaten food security, limit …
Act Now?
Given that there are still some uncertainties, the question of whether we should act on climate change came up during a dinner. Instead of spending time and resources on future impacts, why not address current problems in places with famine, water shortages, and genocides? It’s a valid question and interesting point to discuss (and perhaps …
numbers of the day
i'm sick of people here giving anecdotal statements...yet they keep saying "we need numbers we need numbers." the numbers are out there. people just have to run them. every day i'm going to run numbers on something that i find would help paint a better picture of where the US is compared to the rest …
Discussion of Ken Salazar’s Talk
This afternoon I was fortunate to get into a talk by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. Secretary Salazar discussed the energy future of the U.S. and the role that public lands will play in clean energy production and carbon capture. The talk was broken up into three main parts: renewables, carbon capture, …
Welcome to Bike Town, E.U.
I had heard from friends who studied abroad in Copenhagen that traveling by bike is “the only way to see the city,” but I was totally unprepared for the number of bikes that they have here. The bike lanes are serious—clearly marked, and if a pedestrian dares to step out when the crosswalk is flashing …
Climate Blue 