Q. Is this your first experience at an international conference of this nature? Like many academics I go to international conferences occasionally, though I’ve never been to a COP. I was just in Copenhagen in August, actually, for the first World Congress in Environmental History. Denmark is my favourite country in the world after Canada, […]
Chris Benjamin
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The People Won’t Stop
A few old lessons I’ve re-learned from the Copenhagen climate conference so far: -The rich and the poor resent each other. They don’t trust each other. -Assembly and free speech are no long accepted human rights in the corridors of power. Our so-called democratic leaders would rather crack the whip than listen to millions of […]
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VIDEO: NGO Smackdown at COP15
“I couldn’t get in today even though I have all the right badges,” Emily Rideout tells me. “It’s total BS.” She confirms reports that NGO workers have been mostly shut out of today’s negotiations and plenaries in Copenhagen. UN climate chief Yvo de Boer is claiming responsibility for booking more than 46,000 people into the […]
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Real Negotiations Begin in Copenhagen
Everyone’s going gaga over the arrival in Copenhagen of the Prince of Wales, who is really the Prince of England, who really has no power except the influence media and celebrity worship afford him. Yep, things keep getting weirder in Copenhagen, or maybe we’re just better equipped to witness the weirdness and paying more attention […]
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Canada’s Copenhagen Backslide
Pembina Institute’s Matthew Bramley After getting called out by the Yes Men mega-pranksters, it seemed Canada had hit rock bottom in Copenhagen. Not so. Late yesterday afternoon CBC got its publicly funded paws on a draft presentation by Environment Minister Jim Prentice. “It proposes regulations for greenhouse gas emissions for the oil and gas and […]
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Yes Men prank Canada
They had me going for a couple minutes. I got a press release this morning that was supposedly from Environment Canada, but it was a fake. It was convincing in its tone, but its content was too good to be true. The press release announced a new Canadian climate agenda with reductions targets of 40 […]
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Q&A with Kings County Activist in Copenhagen, Thea Whitman
Canadian Youth Delegation members Kimia Ghomeshi, Toronto; Caroline Lee of Fredericton; and Thea Whitman, Kings County Kings County’s Thea Whitman is one of 30 members of the Canadian Youth Delegation in Copenhagen. The group has garnered a lot of attention for its creative direct actions at the conference and drawing attention to Canada’s failure on climate change action. Whitman graciously provided detailed answers (with links!) to my questions. Q. What is the Canadian Youth Delegation’s role in Copenhagen, and how does direct action affect things there? The Canadian Youth Delegation is a group of around 30 young Canadians from across
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The Fossil’s Revenge
On Day 5 of Cop15 in Copenhagen, here are some of the most interesting developments emerging: Small Island States Want MoreTuvalu stopped the show on Tuesday when it demanded a legally binding agreement for everyone. The very rich countries and very poor countries were divided. The big poor countries like India, China, and Indonesia were opposed, and probably appalled. Yesterday, Tuvalu teamed up with the Alliance of Small Island States to release a proposal for a two-protocol, legally binding outcome. That proposal would amend and extend Kyoto until 2017 (it is currently set to expire in 2012). At the same
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Q&A: Sierra Club’s Emily Rideout at the Copenhagen summit
Emily Rideout inside the Copenhagen talks Emily Rideout, who is representing Sierra Club Atlantic in Copenhagen, graciously provided detailed answers to my questions on her experience there, and what she is witnessing from inside the conference: Q. Is this your first experience at an international conference of this nature? A: No, I represented Sierra Club […]
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Copenhagen Cops crack down
My friend Brad Axmith, a Canadian who has been living in Copenhagen for a number of years, wrote me this week. He calls himself a centrist and a “concerned bystander trying to take note of the changes being instituted in my children’s land of birth.” He is also a scholar with an astute eye for […]
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Halifax Geared Up
Halifax’s environmental community has its eyes firmly on Copenhagen, where 15,000 representatives from 192 countries have gathered to negotiate the world’s response to climate change. Those who stayed home are finding other ways to make their voices heard, in a two-week series of protests, vigils, and workshops. The Ecology Action Centre and Sierra Club teamed […]
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May’s Day in Copenhagen
Elizabeth May will fly to Copenhagen tomorrow, and she knows what to expect. “I haven’t attended every climate change conference but I’ve attended quite a few,” she tells me. “They are always very intense.” As Green Party of Canada leader, May has access to all negotiations and plenaries, though the plenary rooms are often too […]