Dr. Ricky Rood's Climate Change Blog

Update from Copenhagen

Posted by: Dr. Ricky Rood, 11:44 AM GMT on December 11, 2009

Update from Copenhagen

There's nothing new from me here, but I wanted to give some specific links to the blogs from our delegation in Copenhagen. Some are leaving today, a few more are coming. The meeting is half over.

I've been looking at the coverage on the newspapers' web sites. With the exception of the Washington Post and the New York Times coverage of COP15 seems to have dropped off the front page. I can't figure out the Wall Street Journal, as it keeps redirecting me to the European edition.

If you are paying attention to the news, then you know there were some big protests urging the "leaders" to act more definitively.

Protest links:

March on Copenhagen

Demonstration and Candlelight Vigil

50,000 Protesters Expected

Global Climate Day from the Detroit Free Press

Population and Climate Change

IPCC Press Briefing and Climategate

IPCC Press Briefing

Climategate: Not IPCC

Finance:

Breaking the Funding Deadlock

Financing the Beast

There's a LOT more there, and I just don't have the ability to list them all. Just started at the top and worked backwards.

And I know no one starts here and then goes to Jeff, but I was completely unaware of this paper. The Arctic Dipole

And my current entry.

Copenhagen: What’s going on here?

In the English newspaper in Copenhagen, the Copenhagen Post, there is a front page story of the statue that sank and has been recovered. The statue is by Jens Galshoit, and is “an obese Lady Justice sitting on an emaciated African man.” A protest piece on temporary exhibit, whose toppling and sinking was a seeming act of vandalism. That is one of the themes here, protest, advocacy, and social justice.

Out in front of the discussions are the issues of justice. Sometimes it is social justice, but more often it is a matter of economic, financial, and ethical justice. As is recognized by most, the developed nations have largely used and benefited from the use of fossil fuels – they are rich. In many cases developing and poorer nations suffer the consequences. The consequences come in two sorts: 1) Those associated with the impacts of climate change, and 2) Those associated with the possibility of retarding economic development in order to mitigate climate change. Many of the words I hear from the official plenary sessions are just how little has been done on issues of carbon dioxide emission reduction and on addressing these issues of justice and fairness in the duration of the Kyoto Protocol.

The meeting has formal sessions discussing issues of policy and science informing policy. Much of the activity, however, is on the floor of the events and side shows that are outside of the official meeting rooms. There are people protesting and advocating specific many positions. This morning I saw signs talking about how carbon offsets are a false solution … something I agree with. There are people dressed up like aliens looking for the absent climate leaders. There is a vocal group advocating vegetarianism and how being vegetarian would have vast changes on the environment.

There is a lot in interest in the Michigan Delegation in finance and the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). One of most informative discussions I have had was with an employee of the Global Environment Facility , which is an organization that helps to take current development programs and provide the incremental financing for those programs to also address climate change. Since my life seems a long quest of reducing ignorance, this organization has been around since 1991. They have been addressing adaptation to climate change since the Kyoto Protocol was implemented; they work with the countries that ratified the Protocol. So this organization is doing things. I love to find these organizations that push on, trying to do smart things, despite all of the turmoil and the rhetoric that goes on about global warming.

Speaking of the rhetoric, I have heard remarkably little about the emails of climategate. This seems to be an issue of, primarily, the U.S. It has riled up U.S. politicians, and in particular Congressman Sensenbrenner has called for action to not allow certain U.S. scientists to participate in future IPCC assessment activities. This is the sort of overt politicization that occurs in the U.S. which, ultimately, serves to politicize both scientists and science. It’s an escalation. What is, perhaps, a more consequential result of climategate in the U.S. will be any investigation that occurs due to perceived violations of the Freedom of Information Act. (this article again).

I think it is safe to say that this does not really impact the conference as a whole. It creates anxiety amongst those directly involved with the IPCC and some of the government agencies. It creates an extra level of people who have to deal with the turmoil, but there are others who carry on with the work. It is the type of wasted aggravation that contributed to my leaving the U.S. government.

Enough for now. Given the immense size of this meeting, the scores of nations, it is an amazingly well run meeting. I sit amongst the 100s of computers that have been set up for the participants. There are signs all over the city directing people to the right trains and buses. Haven’t found where I can buy the COP scarf. Every one searches for their platform, to say what they feel they need to say.

r

If you want to see the statue mentioned above click here

And here is

Faceted Search of Blogs at climateknowledge.org

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52. atmoaggie 4:36 PM GMT on December 13, 2009
Quoting JFLORIDA: I am anxious to see the Pacific Cyclone data from recent years incorporated into studies. Problem is, our observational data is useless before satellites for TC numbers and intensity. Before the Dvorak method, peak recorded TC intensity commonly coincided with landfall, thanks to ships appropriately avoiding the eye and eyewall at sea. Thus, true peak intensities were certainly missed in most cases. Now, we know very well that peak intensity occurs at sea in nearly all TCs, worldwide. Very tough to effectively compare TC data before and after satellites... Member Since: August 16, 2007 Posts: 6 Comments: 12461

53. coiltesla3 5:39 PM GMT on December 13, 2009
Quoting cyclonebuster: I give FOX NEWS an "F" in their answers on the test missing 1,3,5,6,10. This Shocks the Concious! I assume there are laws against intentional propaganda dissemination - when will it stop?! At minimum, the name "NEWS" must be removed from FOX Member Since: November 25, 2007 Posts: 0 Comments: 0

55. presslord 7:03 PM GMT on December 13, 2009
I assume there are laws against intentional propaganda dissemination Of course there aren't...Who would actually believe that?!?!?! There is, however, on most TV sets with which I'm familiar, a function which enables the user to change the channel setting...or turn the device off... Member Since: August 13, 2007 Posts: 0 Comments: 10377

56. martinitony 7:40 PM GMT on December 13, 2009
Quoting JFLORIDA: As an artist and knowing something of GW and the perspective it was created from I dont care for the statue. Its offensive probably racist and provides no constructive direction. What do you think the artist was hoping to convey with the statue? Member Since: July 29, 2009 Posts: 0 Comments: 928

59. martinitony 8:16 PM GMT on December 13, 2009
Quoting JFLORIDA: He was hoping to stand for Africa and the impoverished. But unfortunately the use of the emaciated male form, the female form, the races and the overweight metaphor are counter productive. They are the wrong negatives for reasons many in the art community miss but shouldn't. Additionally Any agreement in Copenhagen will benefit the worlds poor - just by the establishment of a world body looking at climate extremes and how they affect peoples. Not to mention disaster and displacement funds. And also to appeal to nationalism and chauvinism in the way that statue is appealing to the micro geopolitical disasters in tribal, militant and dictatorial leadership, that are Africa's PROBLEM. ( there is actually plenty of AID - food and water now to solve hunger and thirst - its just logistics) So thank you - lol - you made me like it even less. And bottom line the people that want to appreciate it are not the ones it needs to convince. So the intended audience is wrong too. I think you are missing the most important point. We, the people of the west,have a magnificent view of our sense of justice. Lady justice holds the scales and she is statuesque. The third world view is that our justice is onerous to the third world. We have become fat and bloated because of our gluttonous behavior and it is all at the expense of the third world. Note that lady justice is not blind in the statue but appears to just have bad vision. The artist mocks our view of ourselves. I don't see the race or sex thing as important to the art. This view that the third world has of us is their justification for asking us to now make things right by subsidizing their economies. It's actually a pretty decent piece ofd art in that hundreds of years from now it will say something about the history of our time and the emotions of the peoples. All in my opinion FWIW. I don't like it either, but I think that the artist would approve of that. Member Since: July 29, 2009 Posts: 0 Comments: 928

61. biff4ugo 3:58 PM GMT on December 14, 2009
Oneclimate.net was going on about a developing nations walkout related to the two track system. What was that all about? Can anyone help me with 2 questions? 1. The hole in the ozone layer seems to be shrinking (yea). Will the increased ozone, increase temperature and if so, how much? 2. If the high pressure over the arctic slows the polar jet and decreases exchange with the tropics, why doesn't that help to cool the arctic back down? Is that linked to a slowing of the Gulfstream that would also help cool the arctic back to "normal"? Member Since: December 28, 2006 Posts: 107 Comments: 1181

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