Alex Carlin's News Articles

Copenhagen, Out of the Frying Pan, Pt. 7 On my way to the final day of the COP15 Conference I stopped off at an exhibit called the Climate Maze. If you ever wanted to get lost in a labyrinth of hedges this is pretty close, but the walls are covered with pieces of canvas, each piece having one person's signature--multitudes of missives were delivered from every region of the globe. The signers all urge this Conference to get it done and "Seal the Deal." Sean Fields, who was caretaking the labyrinth, told me it was produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Copenhagen, Out of the Frying Pan, Pt. 5

I walked into the Klimaforum hall and saw a group of newly arrived Bolivians organizing themselves near the entrance. I had just read some great quotes from South American leaders--Venezuela's Hugo Chavez saying if the climate crisis was a banking problem it would be already solved, and Bolivia's Evo Morales calling "shame" on America, as he compared the 687 billion dollar defense budget of the U.S. to the 10 billion America is offering to finance the third world climate budget being negotiated now at the Conference.

Copenhagen Out of the Frying Pan, Part 3
Walking to the starting point of the demonstration and march we felt lucky that for the 12th of December it was a pretty nice day. It seems quite important now to show big numbers on the streets and exert some of that "people power" that we will need to break the inertia on global climate action. Walking over the giant canal on an arching bridge we can see the big Greenpeace ship sitting right there--what a great parking place--those guys really must have some good juice in this city to get that!