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.
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.
