Thursday, March 4, 2010

The awakening of humanity in Copenhagen



Toomas Trapido


Copenhagen, December 2009

Globes made by the children from the whole world in subway stations, a huge globe on a town square, enthusiasm, excitement. A great number of people with different skin colours, all having a similar badge hanging on a dark red ribbon around their necks – COP 15, more known as Copenhagen Climate Conference.

The enchanting performance of Estonian musicians in a big tent in Christiania. Only sounds, no words, and yet everybody understands, and the only thing you can hear is the performers, in spite of the rather loud noise in the other end of the tent.

A march through the city, attended by 100,000 participants – people wish, call and demand for a strong and ambitious agreement to stop the climate change. Generally friendly 2m tall policemen show in a section of the street who is the master in Copenhagen. The locals are walking with their children, next to them people being arrested, cafes and shops are open, only a row of policemen standing in front of McDonald's.

Tens of thousands of people and organisations from all over the world who demonstrate through their actions and ideas that green and just world is possible, if we only want it.

President of the Republic of Maldives Mohamed Nasheed, a youthful head of state, who fought against the dictatorship in his small island state with 300,000 inhabitants, became a MP, was then thrown into prison and later won a huge victory at elections and is now a president. The highest point of his island state in the Indian Ocean is two metres above the sea level. He says they are already collecting money to buy a new homeland in case the sea should rise, but it is still possible to fight the climate change together globally and let’s really do it.

At the subway station of the Bella Center (the central venue of the negotiations) there are some climate sceptics distributing flyers titled Genocide, and later, in the afternoon, for some reason four of them are very beautifully, but somewhat sadly singing the spiritual We Shall Overcome.

At the same station tens of activists of mostly Asian origin are distributing vegetable burgers and cloth bags and spreading the message that meat eating accounts for up to half of the greenhouse gases released in the atmosphere (through forest clearing to make pastures in the Amazon region, for creating soybean and other fodder crops plantations in several regions in the tropics): the message that by reducing meat consumption each of us can do something do mitigate the climate change.

The situation is becoming more and more absurd – the official representatives of the states are not allowed into the conference centre because of some additional requirements (the author of this story, too, who was not a member of the official Estonian delegation, although an MP, is not allowed to enter the Bella Center any more because he does not have a white additional badge; such badges are distributed in extremely small amounts and chaotically), others are not allowed to go out of the Bella Center because a third group of people has started to conquer it so that all people could enter. Greenpeace activists arrive without any problems on a rented limousine with ‘Greenpeace delegation’ written on it to the dinner hosted by the Queen of Denmark, where only heads of state are invited – for some reason the Prime Minister of China has not received an invitation and this causes big annoyance.

One after another the highest - the leaders of states fly to Copenhagen; a miracle is expected from them but this does not happen. Obama arrives, representing the last straw for the hopers. The talks draw into the night. Obama and the leaders of the world gather in a small room that looks like a waiting room and it seems they, too, do not know what to do.

Obama’s team calls the leaving Prime Minister of India back from the airport. Somewhere the last decisive meeting between the representatives of some states takes place. China is represented by a second-rate official who from time to time phones somewhere and then shakes his head – no, no. Finally a not especially binding, far from ambitious text is agreed upon.

Obama announces in an improvised media room to a US TV channel (before the delegates of the UN Conference hear about it) that the agreement has been reached and flies home, because he wants to get there before the huge snowstorm that is about to reach the eastern coast of the USA at the same time as Obama’s plane.

Early morning the UN Conference adopts the decision that it will take the agreement into account or, to put it more precisely, “take note of the Copenhagen Accord of December 18, 2009”, but does not approve it. The exhausted company of delegates packs their things and starts heading back home. Christmas is ahead, at least for some of them, because people have arrived from all over the world and Christmas is not a central holiday for all of those gathered here. Copenhagen is covered with a white carpet of snow and peace has descended on the city.

The performance is over this time. But what was it, really?

Naturally there are as many stories about the Copenhagen Climate Conference as there were people, and maybe even more. But one is clear – an important change took place in Copenhagen in December 2009 and soon it will be written about in history textbooks.

First, the whole world saw in almost real time how clumsy and sometimes even embarrassing the communication between the states and the process of negotiations was. How it was in discord with the expectations of many people from the whole world. Yes, we can blame the leadership of China who until the last moment was against a clear agreement with objectives proceeding from the current scientific understanding, and who got what it wanted. But why didn’t the European Union – and why not the USA and other industrial states – take the ambitious commitment, which contrary to the general opinion would promote the development of technology and economy? No idea. The only reason I can imagine is plain simple fear. Fear of the coming of China, India and others to the world arena, fear of costs, at the same time not taking into account the profit all important technological changes have brought along.

So that if you put it dramatically, it can be said that in Copenhagen the belief into the ability of the UN in its present form to make the decisions that would improve the world came to an end. 192 states, beginning with Monaco with its 1.95 square kilometres and 33,000 people (even smaller Vatican was among the four observer states) and ending with Russia, China, India, Brazil and the USA, actually do not adequately represent the common wishes and aspirations of humankind. To be more exact – the form where the states agree upon the negotiation positions at home and do not even try to find a higher level solution suitable for everybody when they come together showed its inaptitude.

There are several working methods for progressive discussions and decision-making that are used even at the level of the European Commission and the states of the USA. The My Estonia brainstorming session last spring, where nearly 1% of the population took part in one day, was also an example of bringing out the power of collective knowledge and joint activity. The methods like open space, brainstorming session, world café, talking stick circle, looking for consensus etc all stress everyone’s equal possibility for participation, contribution, joining of personal and common interests at a higher level. Why cannot the UN use such methods of group work? I am sure it soon will.

But what was beginning in Copenhagen?

I dare to say that such a creature like global civic society, or the increasingly more unanimous humankind, moved itself for the first time. Just like a human being in the morning before waking up.

I shall illustrate my example with some numbers. The web-based movement Avaaz.org that organises global internet and also real life campaigns collected on the second last day of the conference in just one day about 14 million (!) signatures in support of a strong climate agreement. Some days before the Prime Minister of Great Britain Gordon Brown contacted them at his own initiative and it was agreed to hold a public conference call (the recording is up on Avaaz homepage), in which 3000 people participated. Brown told Avaaz very clearly not to underestimate their strength and effect on the leaders of the states, and to act quickly and decisively. Essentially, Brown asked for the support of the global movement.

The campaign called 350.org (the name comes from 350 parts per million or ppm, the level identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in the atmosphere, when that is exceeded, the climate change may get out of hand. At present the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere is about 390 ppm) on 24 October 2009 organised 5248 actions in 181 states, which is probably the largest action of civil society in the world. Actually, people themselves organised these actions, nobody told them to, 350.org just offered the idea, date and framework.

There are over 4 billion mobile phone users in the world, which at today's level of technological development means that those of the 4 billion who do not have web connection yet are just a step away from it. It means that quite soon, in one or two years, most of the people on the Earth are in one way or another connected with each other. Skype, which originated from Estonia, has about 500 million users; the number of the users of Facebook is similar to that.

All these numbers show that the humankind in practice already has the possibility to spread ideas, proposals, communicate, move money, organise, take decisions and, finally, act together in a moment.

Let us now imagine an idea that can be carried out on a personal level and attracts the attention of 100, 200, 500 million people all over the world. They join it and act. Who can stop them and how? It seems it is not possible to turn off the Internet, to turn off mobile phones. To arrest – but whom? There are no leaders and it is not possible to isolate millions of people, at least in free and democratic countries. Victor Hugo has said: “Nothing is more powerful than the idea whose time has come.” Now the time has come in the sense that there are conditions in the form of technology and organisation for putting a global idea to practice.

But what could this idea be? No one can give an exact answer to that yet. It is clear that most people in the world want an abundant planet with good living conditions whose riches (including good climate) can be shared by all. But how can this general idea be crystallised into a concrete activity? Probably we shall soon see it and also take part in its birth.

So that there will be a good climate agreement, we cannot escape that, but it will be agreed on by the people of the Earth.

P.S. In Copenhagen I made a presentation on our campaign to clean up the whole country of garbage in one day, Let’s Do It 2008. The joint action of 50,000 people to make their country better has inspired hundreds of thousands of people around the world, and this year, the states of Portugal, Slovenia and Romania and cities like New Delhi, Bangalore etc., will do it and clean up the trash. It seems that the time for the idea of the clean home planet has come. You can join at letsdoitworld.org.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Notes from Deniz - Day 10


Hello All,

Again me! Thank you very much for all the responses!

I said yesterday it is my last e-mail from Copenhagen but life is full of suprises and I am gonna write you one more e-mail from here. Basically my flight was over-booked so I am still in Copenhagen, sitting in the airport and waiting for the next flight.

There was one thing I wanted to share with you and I could not because of the pace of the meetings. This is the place I stayed in Denmark. During these days I stayed in Munksogaard ecovillage outside of Copenhagen. Unfortunately there is no photo of the place since I always left when the whether is dark and arrived when it is dark! The days are short here!

They have been great host. It is originally a co-housing project turn out to be an ecovillage. 150 adults and 100 children live together in the ecological and co-housing community. Their community is built on two fundamental values: environmental sustainability and spirit of community. If you want to have more information the web address is http://www.munkesoegaard.dk

Ok. Time to go.

I have got many request for more photos from the demonstration on Saturday. I have also heard that in media it was always shown that people breaking the windows, damaging and so. Actually I have not seen any of these. What I have seen that it is possible 100 000 people walking together peacefully and having fun! So there is one more photo from the demonstration in attachment.

With love
Deniz


Notes from Deniz - Day 9




Hello All,

Feeling completely tired, really!

I have a bad and good news, and I am gonna tell you both at the same time: I am going back to Turkey tomorrow. This means this my last daily news from Copenhagen!

Bad because it was so lovely and I was so delighted to share all this information with you! Good because I really miss Turkey, family, friends a lot and I feel tired!

Soo today, all morning council meeting, you can see the council and staff of of GEN-Europein the photo. And all afternoon different meetings within GEN and Gaia Education family. So the day of meetings, connections, information exchange and so... I have not been in Climate Bottom or Klimaforum today.

Having said that it was so wonderful to be with people I know for sometime and new people and just share and connect in a very nice place. Actually this evening has been one of the highlights of all conference!

Today, I would like to share with you about a couple; Ross and Hildur Jackson. I am very much touched by their generousity towards the ecovillage movement and even towards us today. Hildur and Ross are supporting the ecovillage/sustainability movement I do not know for how long! More than 40 years? in many different ways. They have founded the Gaia Trust, they are co-founders of the GEN, Danish Ecovillage Network and also they are in the creator team of Gaia Education and EDE trainings. You can read more about them below!

I just want to celebrate their very kind act of giving with real generousity from the bottom of their hearth. So that many people can get in touch with inspiration, knowledge and more holistic ways of living!

With gratitude
Deniz

Hildur Jackson was born in Denmark in 1942 and has been married to Ross Jackson for 40 years. She has three sons and five grandchildren. She is a lawyer, cultural sociologist, permaculture and ecovillage designer and writer. She initiated one of the three first Danish cohousings in 1970. Hildur is co-founder of Gaia Trust (www.gaia.org), the Danish National Network of Ecovillages (LOS) and the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN). Ross and Hildur have just initiated a new project: The Lavegaard project, where they will teach the EDE. She has authored several books including: Ecovillage Living: Restoring the Earth and her People (2002), co-edited with Karen Svensson; Creating Harmony: Conflict Resolution in Community (1998); and a video: Rashmi Mayur: A Man of the New Global Renaissance.

Ross Jackson, Ph.D., was born in Canada in 1938, and is Chairman/founder of Gaia Trust, Denmark (www.gaia.org). He has an educational background in physics, management, and economics, specialising in operations research. Ross was for many years a management consultant and IT systems designer, working in various branches of the business world, eventually specialising in international finance, where his foreign exchange know-how provided the financing for Gaia Trust‚s programmes to support a more sustainable and spiritual world. He now devotes more time to writing. His books to date include: And We ARE Doing It: Building an Ecovillage Future; Kali Yuga Odyssey: A Spiritual Journey; and, hot from the presses this summer, Shaker of the Speare: The Francis Bacon Story. Ross is a member of the GEN Advisory Board and is a board member of the recent Gaia Education initiative.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Notes from Deniz - Day 8




Hello All,

All morning was the council meeting again. Then we hoped to catch Vandana Shiva's talk in the Climate Bottom Meeting but unfortunately could not really make it! Again!

Today is the day of big demonstration so I went to the demonstration to walk with a big crowd of people.
I do not know how many we were to the Bella Center where the "top" meeting is happening. It was a very peaceful walk and also joyful.

I have really not a lot of words but I must tell you that I am really impressed by the peacefulness of this walk. We walked together from many different backgrounds, and countries and it was beautiful to see the power in this.

So very very tired but in a way fulfilled!

Love
Deniz

Notes from Deniz - Day 7

Hello All,

Today is the day of surprise (for me)!

All morning was the council meeting!

And the suprise was waiting for me in the tent!

I went to the tent after the council meeting and guess what I saw? Pınar and Tuna were in the tent with their group from Sweden, all visiting! Such a nice suprise. I felt so supported and lightened in a way!

Today's subject in the Climate Bottom Meeting is "Live and Learn- Education and Experimentation". Whole afternoon was allocated to talk about the EDE (Ecovillage Design Education, www.gaiaeducation.org) from all over the world and I was also in the program to make a presentation about Turkish EDEs. So, it was just perfect to see Pınar and Tuna who have been the part of EDE journey in Turkey and actively involved in different projects afterwards (Pınar and Tuna are studying in Sweden about Sustainability). It was really a great support for me to find them there.

It was also very inspiring to be on the stage with all these EDE running countries like Brazil, India, Germany, Africa, Thailand and, of course Turkey. Very rich and great to be part of this family!

So, for me, today was the day of friendship and support! When I was doing EDE in Thailand in last winter, facilitators invited a very famous buddhist spiritually engaged activist called Sulak Sivaraksa. He is also part of the Parliament of the World's Religious. He gave us a talk and then there were a question and answer session. One of the participants asked him "What is the most important thing in life?" Since he is Buddhist, I was expecting him to say "Living in the present moment" or "to be enlightened" or so. But his answer was none of these.

He said "The most important thing in life is good friends" He was talking from his heart and he really means it.

I was surprised! Never really expecting to hear this. But his words hit me. As time passes, part of me started to get convinced that really the most important thing in life may be good friends! Ecovillagers may call "good friends" as community, buddhist people would call "sangha" and similar words for many other groups.

So, in community
Deniz

PS: By the way, today's funeral was the funeral of "The Linear Thinking"

Notes from Deniz - Day 6




Hello All,

Little bit more energy today.

First of all, I would like to share with you the reason why - actually - I am in Copenhagen.

I came to Copenhagen to participate in the council meeting of GEN-Europe. When we met in Finland in July, we have decided to have our second regular meeting in December in Copenhagen so that we can also be present in the Climate meeting. The dates of the council meeting is 10-13 of December. But our council member and the organizator of Climate Bottom Meeting Troels, he asked if any of us can come early to support him. Since I do not have a regular full-time job, I kind of volunteered so how I found myself in this whole thing! Since today is 10th of December, our council meeting started this afternoon. But this does not mean that I did not follow what happened in the morning in the tent in Christiania.

So, today's topic is "Caring and Social Ecology". Many good presentations in the morning. I get to meet with Albert Bates from the Farm ecovillage from USA. Very impressive job they are doing there. Then we have had the session called "The Divine Feminine" with Sr. Joan Chittister, Benedictine Nun, Renowned Author, Prominent Voice in Interfaith Affairs & Swamini Pramananda Saraswati, Educator & Leader in pollution reduction of the Ganges River, India.

Really a touching talk from Swamini Pramananda Saraswati (you can see her in the picture). I just want to share in summary what she has shared with us. Of course it will not be the same since you really need to experience her energy as she talked. But simply what she said that, the divine feminine is inside each of us whether we have a male body or female body. And what the divine feminine represents is basically to tune in to the cosmic intelligence, cosmic oneness and act from there and nourish this intelligence inside of us. It is the very intuition which knows and does not need to think or learn. It simply knows. Divine feminine is an attitude with which we can look upon the external world. She said the divine masculine is there to protect justice, and the divine feminine is there to sustain life. She also added that "People these days so much talk about making women equal to men. If I were to be equal with men I would lose so much thanks but I am not gonna take it"

It may be a strong statement and debatable of course but I found it inspiring and interesting that a woman from India thinks that she would lose so much if she would be seen as equal to man.

Another interesting point from a different speaker, she gave a brief summary about the situation of the feminine energy in the world today and how it has been by media, cosmetic industry and so.

Then we had wonderful Buddhist monks for the "Buddhist Voices respond to Climate Change" but unfortunately I needed to leave for our council meeting.

And whole afternoon was the council meeting!

Greetings
Deniz

Notes from Deniz - Day 5




Hello All,

I feel tired and dry today but meeting is in its full speed.

So, for me, the morning started in Christiania in the Climate Bottom Meeting. Today's subject is "Democracy and Conflict Resolution" There were really very good presentations. By the way the web page of the Climate Bottom Meeting is www.climatebottom.dk . First presentation was from Wongsanit Ashram from Thailand, where I have done the 5 week EDE training in the beginning of this year. Then, the different conflict resolution tools from Damanhur Ecovillage in Italy. I have missed the big part of the Wongsanit Ashram presentation so difficult to talk about but the Damanhur presentation was fantastic.

I particularly liked the metaphor they have used to show what it is like to be in a community and the function of conflict. They have shown the picture of the stones in the river and asked "Were these stones rounded like this forever?" The answer was of course "No". So how they have end up rounded? Their answer was; by being in a community!!!:) So they drew an analogy between the stones bumping each other in the water and the conflict experienced in the community. They said; Conflicts are there to help us to round our sharp corners. I liked the analogy they used. By living in Findhorn for two years, I know that conflicts may arise in community more often than the mainstream lifestyle. Though this may not be true for everybody.

Another piece they have shared and I really enjoyed was their perception of diversity. Conflicts, of course arise because we are different. Their perception of diversity as a community is "Diversity is our richness" but in a way not something we need to tolerate, or it is good to have, or that we need to learn to be with. It is because diversity is the richness and joy of the life and so conflict is natural and an opportunity for growth if it is well managed and resolved.

I know that diversity can be challenging and can be seen something to be tolerated because we want to be inclusive. But our attitude towards diversity is very important.

One last piece about conflict which I have learn when I was in Findhorn is "Conflict is an invitation for intimacy (intimacy=into me you see)"

Then our friends from ZEGG ecovillage from Germany arrived and made their presentation and sang songs, in the picture. They also mentioned a specific tool they have invented to resolve conflict called The Forum. One of the important parts of the Forum is feedback. There is a web page about Forum if you want to learn more. The web address is: www.zegg-forum.org

I was planning to stay whole day in the Christiania but realized that Vandana Shiva will give a talk in Klimaforum so put myself together and run to Klimaforum in the city. But guess what? Her plane from Bhutan was canceled and she could not come! And she will not be in Copenhagen till tomorrow evening. Here we go! An opportunity to practice "the impermanence and change" again! Oh well I am not very good at it. And I missed the talks of the spiritual leaders in the tent!:( Anyway, it is the way it is! Hope to listen Vandana Shiva in the coming days of the meeting.

Back to tent, I found myself in the middle of a talk about "Civil Disobedience" The woman who was giving the talk shared that the 80% of all CO2 emissions are produced by 122 corporations worldwide! Only 122! And invited us all to the Big Marching on 12th of December and a big protest on 16th of December.

Last piece, the funeral of the day was "The Military Industiral Complex"

Be well
Deniz