Tag: climate change

Thoughts while sitting in a very empty chamber

COA Admin December 18, 2009 2 Comments
by Ken Cline Walking the halls of the Bella Center this morning it was eerily quiet. There were no bright-colored shirts, chanting youth, polar bears or walking trees. The energetic, chaotic, raw emotion of democracy was gone. Everything was neat and orderly and very, very surreal.  Several of the NGO booths at the expo area had stark black and white signs that said, “Civil Society has been...

The Importance of Civil Society’s Presence at COP

COA Admin December 17, 2009 0 Comments
by Noah Hodgetts For added context to my previous blog post. It is vital that non-governmental organizations representing civil society ranging from College of the Atlantic and the  Climate Action Network (CAN) to the Indigenous Peoples  are involved in the process for several reasons. The most important reason is to hold countries accountable and to push them to make bolder pledges. Civil...

The Frustration Grows!

COA Admin December 17, 2009 0 Comments
by Noah Hodgetts I'm going on three days straight sitting here in the hostel largely because I have been sick, but also because I have no place better to be considering that almost all NGOs have been shut out of the Bella  Center since Tuesday. NGOs have been forced to follow conference proceedings from satellite locations unable to show their presence and voice their opinions in official COP...

A Day to Remember

COA Admin December 16, 2009 1 Comment
by Taj Schottland It was a day to be on the streets. NGO access to the Bella Center had become extremely restricted. I managed to get in during the morning using one of the coveted “secondary badges.” But once inside I was dismayed to find nearly all meetings closed to observers (and as I write this I’ve heard they have now completely banned all observers from even entering the building). I...

Leadership can reverse climate change

COA Admin December 16, 2009 2 Comments
  by Brooke Welty '11 and Doreen Stabinsky, COA faculty member originally published in the Bangor Daily News Negotiators and ministers from every country in the world are here in Copenhagen trying to form a global agreement to solve the climate crisis. Each of them is asking one question: What will President Barack Obama say when he arrives on Thursday? We are here too, as part of a...