I get so sick of hearing people say that the Bali conference could have been held over the internet, and therefore it’s all a hypocrisy. How many of those people are telecommunting or conducting important business meetings over the internet? Would those same people bet their livelihood on a video conference? I highly doubt it. As a small business owner, I can tell you that face-time is critical to closing a lot of deals. Sure, there are some that can be done virtually, but the kind of emotional, high-level discussions that were on the table in Bali would have never been as effective if they had been done online. Despite where technology takes us, we are still inherently social beings and need to be around others for support and encouragement. All that hypocrisy talk is just aimed at distracting people from the real issue at hand. In the end, nobody can make anyone else believe something that they don’t want to believe.

So, in short, if you ‘sinned’ by contributing a few tons of CO2, but the end result is a global force of youth demanding change, you have come out far ahead in my book. Thank you for the inspiration and keep up the great work!