Saturday, December 19, 2009

Fresh Air Center @ COP15

The climate negotiations are all but over and we don't have the Fair, Ambitious and Legally binding deal that millions of people worldwide have demanded. But it is impossible to be without hope as our movement has come so far in this short space of time…

Head of States and other World Leaders still have the chance to get this right, but the time is ticking just like the Tcktcktck movement.

At the Climate Change Conference, most NGO's were denied access to the Bella Center but the Fresh Air Center which was started from the very beginning of the summit has acted as base-camp for many media people and NGOs, accredited and unaccredited alike. Situated about a few kilometers from the Bella Center in Copenhagen, the Fresh Air Center is part of Tcktcktck, a global campaign platform designed to bring climate justice organizations together in solidarity. This center acts as the main news hub so that the rest of the world can be connected and informed of the negations' in real time.

I was very happy to be part of the Vancouver crew represented at the Fresh Air Center. Countless numbers of Vancouver people have worked on the Tcktcktck campaign and with other climate justice organizations, so it is really no surprise of their strong presence at the conference. I was star-struck when I was introduced to the Mayor of Vancouver; Mayor Gregor Robertson by my photo-blogger buddy, Kris Krug here in Copenhagen where he is set to attend the Copenhagen Climate Summit for Mayors.

Many other celebrities keeps showing up at the Fresh Air Center day-in, day-out and always get introduced. What did I do to deserve all that, Kris? Daryl Hannah from the following movies, Splash, Wall Street, Roxanne and Kill Bill [1 & 2] showed up on Wednesday night and Steve Rio [main tech-support man from the Tcktcktck campaign] introduced me once again. It been my first time meeting a great movie star like her; I had some funny feelings in my stomach before approaching her. I didn't forget to carry my Ghana flag for the photo-shoot with her. Darryl has a biodiesel El Camino and is well-known climate justice activist.

That same night, Kumi Naidoo from Green Peace Organization took the podium at the Fresh Air Center where he explained his letter for Barack Obama as he made his way to Copenhagen from the White House yesterday. He's a great orator and I like his charisma. He was the one who got me tweeting this phrase at the conference; "We want a Fair, Ambitious and legally binding deal"& "No Deal is a Bad Deal"… I didn't wait for him to finish his talk before I approached him. His name "Kumi" sounded Ghanaian so I asked; if he's got a Ghanaian origin which he responded in the negative but rather linked his name to a Ghanaian sport legend back in the days. He's a South African by birth but had to live in exile in the United Kingdom for a year.

Next was Naomi Klein, a Canadian journalist and Author of "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" and other great books. She also contributed to the writing of the Going Rouge: an American Nightmare book.

Negotiations are ongoing and even though, I am still optimistic of a real deal coming out of the talks, my hopes seems to be fading away gradually. Well, I am keeping my fingers crossed till the last minute.

Bill McKibben writes on the outcome of the "Deal" that the US, China, India and South Africa struck last night.

No comments: