The International Youth Climate Movement takes over in Poznan, Poland.
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Too Little to Late?
I have just wrapped up two intense weeks covering the youth movement at the UN Climate Change Conference, in Poznan, Poland, (see youthclimate.org). These young people are the cream of the crop, beautiful, intelligent, dedicated and emotionally invested in Climate Change. They all seem to ‘get it’, understanding that we are talking about the survival of humanity and an estimated 50% of the world’s species if business as usual continues. There should be no debate, but for some reason the governments of the world are stalling, waiting for someone else to lead.
We are faced with less then a year to reach a comprehensive and hard hitting agreement in Copenhagen. Even if we get one, this might not cut back our GHG emissions sufficiently to alter us from our course. Please check out the Guardian article, titled ‘Too Late? Why Scientists say we should expect the worst of global warming’
So, it was with great amount of disappointment and a greater sense to act that I left Poznan today. Two weeks of negotiations and the so called ‘leaders’ of the world failed to take any concrete steps. If I examine the inaction of the governments of the world and the increasingly grim science, it is hard not to be a pessimist about my future. I feel that we are well on the road to disaster. However, when I examine the people that I work with, one can’t help but be optimistic that we will win. We have a year to build the largest global movement of social change and force our governments to do adopt serious targets about Climate Change.
In Australia Hundreds of people across the country have held protests against the Rudd government’s target of reducing carbon emissions by five to 15 per cent by 2020.
My question, what is it going to take in Canada for the population to wake up? We need a government that will first off acknowledge Climate Change, will work with a base line year of 1990 and throw the intensity based emission targets out the window. Three things that all environment critics of the prospective Coalition government and the leader of the Green Party have personally promised me they will do……
This is the issue of our generation, and how we act on it this year will change the course of the world.
Ministre Environment de Quebec
The results from a small job for the Quebec Minstry of the Environment. Minstre Line Beauchamp speaking at the UNFCCC in Poznan, Poland. Link Here
Live from Poznan
Reporting live from Poznan, Poland. Two Members of the Youth Media Team and Fired UP! Media
Poznan
Flying hi in Poznan, Poland. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the annual COP meeting is underway again. An unprecedented amount of youth from all over the world attended the 3rd annual Conference of Youth to prepare for the opening of the conference on monday. There is an energy in the air, the kind that is only created by a large group of young people all dedicated to one cause, saving the world.
The images that I capture from this event will be visible
here.
Sinter Klaas comes to the Netherlands
Sinter Klaas has arrived in Holland.
Today on the canals of Utrecht, the famous Saint sailed in on a boat from Spain, much to the glee of the assembled crowds of children. Sinter Klaas will now be in the country for 3 weeks preparing for Dec. 5. All the children of Holland will leave their shoes out for the next few weeks hoping that Sinter Klaas will leave them little treats and presents. On Dec. 5, Sinter Klaas will leave a sack of presents for all the good boys and girls. Of course, if you have been naughty you get beaten instead! Unless, you are very very bad then Zwart Piet will put you in his sack and you will have to return with them to Spain.
To me, getting sent to Spain in the middle of a Dutch winter doesn’t sound too bad. The Spanish climate is a lot nicer this time of year AND you get to spend your whole year misbehaving!
Slideshow below.
Greenland
Images from my recent assignment in Greenland.
3 Weeks to Poznan
In three weeks time I will be traveling to Poznan, Poland to cover the International Youth Delegates at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 14. This is an incredibly important conference for our world. Every country will be present to try and agree on a deal that will take us through to Copenhagen in 2009. Without a solid result in Poland, we run the risk of not having a concrete deal in Copenhagen to follow the Kyoto Protocol. More updates will come soon but for now, I leave you with some of the images from last year, COP 13, Bali.
Going Viral
A great new app from my friends at PhotoShelter. They have enabled widget sharing of galleries. This means that these images can go Viral around the internet. Below you will see 30 of Cape Farewell Youth Expedition selects. This widget allows us to share and embed this code in various places around the net to share the images. Click on the up arrow on the right and copy the code. Then you can embed it into the html of whichever blog you like.
Have Fun!
University of Prince Edward Island – Presentation
Last week I had the unique opportunity to present to the Global Issues 101 class at the University of Prince Edward Island. The presentation was about the Cape Farewell Youth Expedition and got the class thinking how youth can engage on the issue of Climate Change. It was a great chance to spread the word about the Cape Farewell Expedition and at the same time kick start some active discussion on Climate Change. Thanks to Max Hamon and UPEI for this opportunity.