It’s Getting Hot In Here

An international group of young climate advocates on the stairs of German Bundestag in Berlin. This post's author is showing the middle * in the word "F***ING"

I type these lines in early August, on the eve of the UN intersessional climate talks in Bonn, Germany. I am few hundred miles away from Bonn at the moment, staying late into the night at the climate action center in Berlin. The space is shared by the twenty young organisers from Avaaz and 350.org coming from 15 different countries of the world. One hundred twenty days separate us from the biggest and the most important political meeting in history of humanity. Bigger than the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 and arguably more important than the Yalta Conference in 1945, it will be a test of humankind’s readiness to leave its short-sightedness, selfishness, nationalism, and greed behind, and unite itself, for the first time ever, to prevent a planetary catastrophe and together build a happier, more sustainable world. The meeting is, of course, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change also known as the Conference of Parties (to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC) or simply COP-15 as it is usually referred to by politicians, activists, scientists and lobbyists from around the world.

Continue reading ‘Survival is not negotiable!’

A month of intense preparations, coalition-building, establishing new contacts, involving new activists from several different countries, and solving logistic problems culminated yesterday in a Manifestation Against Climate Change in Lund (Scania, Sweden), where about 150 people gathered under the grey sky on a windy Stortorget square. It was quite a big number of participants for this university city, especially considering the “red day” in the calendar (a religious holiday, when the most shops are closed and so there’re much less shoppers strolling in the city center than on a usual weekend) and despite the cold, windy and rainy weather.

Continue reading ‘Climate Manifestation in Lund: it’s getting cold in here!’

(written by Nori for this blog specially and published by Oleg according to the Nori’s wish)
esperantigo de “A message from Japan”
日本語 “A message from Japan”

Dear all!

I send a message from the country, where the Kyoto Protocol was born.

As you already know, climate change is a very important issue, which we, humankind, must seriously think about, starting immediately. In a very short run in the mankind’s history we destroyed a lot of things just for our comfort. The result being a situation in which our generations to follow won’t be able to live in peace. We absolutely must not make them victims of our idleness.

The problem of the planet is a problem of the world. To solve the problem it’s necessary that all peoples, all countries of the world work together. Only a part of the world isn’t enough. For this goal one needs to discuss the issue with the entire world. If the common language of the conference was English, then the discussion would go in favor of the English-speaking countries. It’s a great irony, that one must discuss these matters in the language of the United States, which refused the protocol and keeps on emitting a huge quantites of carbon dioxide.

The Kyoto Protocol is only the first step to solve the problem. We, especially a young generation, are capable to be a great force to improve the situation and save the planet. Go forward!

Sincerely,

Nori (SAITO Yoshinori)
Continue reading ‘A message from Japan’