Rising Tides, Slow Food & Global Warming

Copenhagen, Out of the Frying Pan, Part 4

Allow me to apologize for the delay in filing this report, but as we were walking back to our base in Christiania, we were blocked by shoulder to shoulder police and their vans. Christiania was again under siege, and I haven't been able to get to an internet access until now. My next report will have some general information about this amazing phenomena called "Christiania", this city within the city. Tonight, I'll play a concert there and see how things have settled since the rather large battle last night.

Yesterday... I paid a visit to the Greenpeace boat parked on the big canal in the center of town--not "The Rainbow Warrior," which is parked a bit further down-canal) but "The Arctic Sunrise." The gangplank was roped off, but a woman leaned over the railing. I asked her about arranging an interview with the skipper, or somebody in Greenpeace who could talk strategy with me. She didn't seem very motivated. Luckily a 2nd mate came over, looked at me, and exclaimed to her that he saw me last night playing guitar in a club in Christiania, and that I was very good. That seemed to do the trick, and a meeting will be set up, either by her or by the swarthy Croatian 2nd mate.

Soon I was down at the Klimaforum where a big double header speech was about to happen: Bill McKibben of 350.org and President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, the enigmatic young leader who has been at the forefront of the most visible efforts to achieve a "real" climate deal, one that would actually limit sea level rises enough to save nations like the Maldives from being submerged.

A moment before the start I saw Christian Andersen, the organizer of Klimaforum, who I wrote about earlier, who was trying to contact the G77. I asked him if the Sudanese Ambassador (the leader of G77) had finally agreed join forces with Klimaforum and its agenda. Christian said that several meetings with the ambassador had been scheduled and canceled, understandably since this action by the lesser developed countries led by the ambassador was generating a lot of attention and reactions. For example, the temporary boycott of the talks by G77 countries was one of the top stories on MSNBC.

But now Christian had a new plan--give the document to the Maldives president as he comes off the stage, when all the press will descend on him, and have the president say something about this. For Christian this will serve another purpose as well: Klimaforum wants to stage a press conference in the Bella Center in the government press room (as opposed to the NGO press room) which would generate much better results. If the Maldives president would say something positive coming off the stage when the document is thrust into his hands, Christian said that could get them their press room access.

When the speeches ended, President Nasheed descended into a swarm of boom-standed microphones, flashing lights, and demanding reporters. I watched Christian talking to his torpedo messenger, a mild-mannered looking fellow, who had the document in hand. At just the right moment he made his move, gave the document and said something to President Nasheed. The president said something positive about the idea into the cameras, and Christian was beaming a big smile.

The issue of access to the Bella Center is getting further accentuated. Now they have created new restrictions for NGO members--and, daily, more and more NGO members are losing access entirely. The scuttle is that the powers that be--the richest countries and the Copenhagen organizers--want to avoid tension and conflict within the Bella Center. There is already anger from NGOs and developing nations over "secret backroom deals" where the richest countries and the Danish leaders have been seen as making end runs around the rest of us.

This anger is of particular concern to the Danish officials who want to promote their capital by having the word "COPENHAGEN" become an iconic and generally positive word like "KYOTO." For this to happen the Conference must reach a deal and be a success, and not be derailed by riff-raff like the NGOs, or the G77 for that matter--so, therefore, the Bella Center seems to be getting a bit of cleansing of the so-called riff-raff.

Finally, about one hour before receiving an email from John Stauber, the founder of the Center for Media and Democracy alerting me to the importance of food issues in global warming solutions, I happened to be interviewing Mr. Jean-Baptiste Chavannes, a Haitian representative of La Via Campesina. Mr. Chavannes impressed me with his warm and wise explanations of how the climate crisis can be brought under control by putting an end to large agribusiness practices with its long-distance transport of food and other activities that create large amounts of greenhouse gases. He said that the food we eat can and should be produced locally and the benefits will include avoiding catastrophic climate change. Some of the statistics on this are amazing: according to GRAIN, through its reliance on fossil fuels, massive exports, market concentration, erosion of soils and expansion of plantations, today's global food system generates 44-57% of the total global green house gas emissions!

OK, I better go now and check on the State of Siege over at Christiania. Please wish me luck that my concert will even go on tonight--I just heard that during last night's battle the police encircled the club where I will be playing and arrested every person inside.

So that's all for now from Your Man In The Pan, Alex Carlin.

Alex Carlin is guest blogging from Copenhagen for the Center for Media and Democracy. He serves as a Director of The Leo J. and Celia Carlin Fund. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, he lives in Krakow, Poland. He is the organizer of 100 Miles of Mirrors and his writings include 100 Miles of Mirrors: A Simple, Feasible Plan for Averting Global Climatic Disaster, In These Times (December 1, 2009).