Earthbeat Radio

In Copenhagen, reasons for hope outweigh those for despair — if only barely.

Editorial by Earthbeat Host Mike Tidwell – printed in the Baltimore Sun, December 28, 2009

President Barack Obama’s chief science adviser, John Holdren, had this to say at the end of the rough-and-tumble climate talks in Copenhagen this month: “I think we’re winning more than we’re losing.”

Really? How? Diplomats had just failed to produce a binding treaty to control global warming in any meaningful way.

But maybe Mr. Holdren’s right. I attended the climate conference myself, representing Marylanders concerned about sea-level rise and the need for clean energy. And I think – just maybe – we did win more than we lost in Copenhagen.

First, the winning. If there were any doubts that the “climate movement” had matured into a vibrant, worldwide phenomenon, they were put to rest in Denmark. More than 100,000 activists marched through the streets of Copenhagen on Dec. 12, led by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other distinguished leaders, demanding action.

Elsewhere during the two-week conference, Buddhist monks fasted side by side with college kids from Baltimore. Danish rappers performed next to Bolivian pan pipers. In Arabic and Russian, in English and Tshiluba, the demonstrators spoke with one voice: Save the climate! There were vigils, speeches, chanting, drumming and peaceful civil disobedience almost every day, involving thousands of people, creating a buzz that drew the constant attention of more than 5,000 journalists and as many politicians. Many of us are returning home imbued with new hope, thanks to our shared experience with activists worldwide.

Also on the “winning” side, the world’s rich nations agreed to raise $100 billion in “climate aid” for poor nations already hit hard by global warming. And China reluctantly agreed to a framework allowing international monitoring of its pollution cuts. Both of these features – finance for poor countries and carbon monitoring for big polluters – need strengthening, but negotiators made genuine progress.

So, where did we lose in Copenhagen? In several serious ways. First, there was no binding treaty to turn “agreements” into concrete international law. Second, all the talking about reducing greenhouse gas pollution didn’t match the target laid out by recent scientific findings.

Officially, at least, Mr. Obama’s negotiating team was committed to stabilizing carbon pollution at 450 parts per million in the atmosphere by 2100. Unfortunately, leading scientists – including James Hansen of NASA – now say that the only safe level for carbon pollution is much lower: 350 parts per million. This new number is based on terrifying new measurements of rapid Arctic ice melt and other signs of faster-than-expected warming.

If you want to risk even deeper despair, consider this: A team of computer wizards in Copenhagen, using a program developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, added up all the greenhouse gas emission cuts “pledged” by the 193 nations attending the treaty conference. These pledges included Mr. Obama’s woefully inadequate promise that America will cut its own emissions 17 percent by 2020. When you add up all the pledges made by all the nations, the MIT program spits out this number as the carbon level worldwide by 2100: 780 ppm.

That number bakes the planet. It dooms Maryland and the rest of the world to probably 20 feet or more of sea-level rise. In this sense, it’s actually good that there was no binding treaty locking us into this doomsday scenario.

The math is simple: We need to do twice as much. When world leaders meet next December in Mexico City to again attempt a planet-saving treaty, the goal must be 350 ppm. That might require the United States to cut its current emissions in half by 2020. Can it be done? Europeans, right now, use half the fossil fuels per capita as Americans. So do the Japanese. Surely we can match them by 2020, even if it takes hard work.

But given all these high-profile setbacks in Copenhagen, are we really winning more than we’re losing? Again, I come back to the creative and ubiquitous activism on display throughout the city. And the most visible group of all, with their memorable signs and song-like chants, was an outfit called “350.org.” Launched by a small group of Americans barely a year ago, it now has a staggering international following.

Founder Bill McKibben insists that a treaty committing us to 350 ppm carbon is our only hope. But, he says, ‘ppm’ doesn’t just stand for parts per million. “It stands for a ‘people-powered movement.’”

With that sort of movement on full display in Copenhagen, I think there’s a real chance we’ll see a binding treaty – one that wins a victory for the planet – in 2010.

Mike Tidwell is director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. His e-mail is mtidwell@chesapeakeclimate.org.

Image courtesy of 350.org – This action in Istanbul, Turkey was just one of the over 5,200 events occurring on the October 24th International Day of Climate Action.

The UN Climate meeting is underway in Copenhagen. Outside, massive street demonstrations and alternative forums outside the Bella conference center focus the energy of tens of thousands of activists. Inside, developing countries push for action against the foot-dragging of the U.S. and a handful of wealthy countries.

In this special edition of Earthbeat, host Mike Tidwell reports from Denmark. We hear from representatives of the thousands of activists who have been locked out of the center. Then, the stirring words from the President of the Maldives Islands, Mohamed Nasheed and the founder of the group 350.org, Bill McKibben about the desperate need for true action on climate change.

More posts and updates will be coming, so keep tuning in right here for updates all week!

Indymedia Denmark is running a radio show daily with reports and interviews from the street in several languages, as well as a continuous loop of past content.

Image by Adam Welz for 350.org, used for media permission, all rights reserved.

The debut of the new animated film The Story of Cap and Trade. Host Daphne Wysham, who recently penned an op-ed for The Huffington Post on cap and trade, speaks to narrator Annie Leonard and and the founder of Free Range Studios, Jonah Sachs, the animator. The Story of Cap and Trade is featured in The New York Times and creating a stir in the blogosphere.

Then Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi joins us to discuss how the investment bank Goldman Sachs stands to make a killing in the carbon market. And, how activists are planning to demonstrate at the upcoming Copenhagen climate meeting. We speak to Kim Wasserman, the coordinator of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Nadine Bloch of the Mobilization for Climate Justice, and David Solnit, who helped to organize the Seattle demonstrations and is the co-author of the book The Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle.

Indonesia recently rounded up and deported international journalists and activists who were in-country to witness the massive, intentionally set, fires that are destroying the country’s tropical rainforest.

Thanks in most part to those fires, Indonesia is the world’s third largest greenhouse gas emitter standing right up with China and the U.S. Joining host Mike Tidwell to discuss the devastation to the area – and its consequences for our climate are Greenpeace forest activists Rolf Skar in San Francisco and Chiara Campione in Italy.

Then we hear about a rock that naturally traps carbon dioxide right out of the air. It’s kinda like the ‘anti-coal;’ we speak to researcher Sam Krevor of Stanford University’s Energy Resources Engineering Department.

Host Mike Tidwell then speaks directly to President Obama on how leadership could drive the United States into a clean energy future, if only he took the reins and lead the nation. Read that commentary here.

Music by Jacco Muller – Viento del Desierto. Our theme music is Baladi by Tony Anka, Bellydance Superstars vol. 2.

Image copyright John Novis for Greenpeace, all rights reserved.

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