The dreadful details: a blow by blow account of how COP17 ended

by nathan thanki A week later and everyone has returned to their respective homes, readying themselves for the festive season. The mainstream media has been content with the narrative of 'it was close but we saved the regime, and eventually we'll save the world' and has moved on to supposedly bigger concerns such as the Eurozone crisis, and what the best recipe for preparing the Christmas turkey...

A new era of Carbon Colonialism

by Graham Reeder Say goodbye to equity. That was the sour taste we were left with as the COP president gavelled through 'agreement' after 'agreement' at 5am on Sunday morning. I will let others describe the scene on that night, what I want to focus on is what I see as a new step in contemporary colonialism. The UNFCCC laid out several core principles when it was first written,...

unF**C our future

-nathan thanki So while the AWG-KP plenary is suspended for Parties to get their heads together, let's have a little fun. Late one night in the first week a few of us were sitting round the table of Hippo Hide backpackers. Samuli came in shouting about final outcomes, and we decided to all write down our predictions and keep them for the final night. Well that night is now upon us friends. Here...

An appeal to sanity

by nathan thanki Yesterday, a large group of civil society--mostly youth--took the voice and anger of the street into the halls of the UN. While it could never have been a true #occupy--COP is inherently segregated into those with badges and those without; those with pink badges and those with yellow--the idea was still to say: enough is enough. You have had 20 years to negotiate a fair,...

COP-upy

by Nathan Thanki and Trudi Zundel Last week the people marched past the UNFCCC meetings with trucks, horns and speakerphones blasting political messages for the delegates inside negotiating over the future of the planet. No one inside blinked an eye. A crowd of maybe 50 people gathered by the gated walkway to see them march, and horsed policemen barred every potential entrance. We were left...