An Eventful End to the First Week

Don’t worry everyone, regardless of the fact that I have not posted in days, rest assured I am alive and well. Saturday was my last day at the conference, and boy, what an amazing day it was. We arrived at Bella Center bright and early hoping to get a seat a the plenary session. After finding out it had been postponed an hour, we headed in and listened for a few hours as the delegates reiterated many of the same points we have heard time and time again. We were still waiting to hear about whether or not a contact group would be created to discuss the proposals set forth by Tuvalu and discussed earlier in the week. The answer we all heard was, well, not exactly what we wanted to hear.

“I’ve been informed that a bit more time is needed and that consultations of this issue will continue into next week,” said Madame President Connie Hedegaard.

Well, perfect. It was at this point that we all continued to be a little downtrodden about the conference. How could we proceed if we couldn’t decide on how to discuss things?! In any case, what followed Hedegaard’s announcement, really cut to the core. Believe it or not, it came from Tuvalu. Tuvalu addressed the fact that their entire population is not two meters above sea level. But as Tuvalu continued, they brought into light the stance of the U.S. government and how critical it is that a climate decision be made in our own Senate.

“We can suggest that for [Obama] to honor his Nobel prize, he should address the greatest threat to humanity that we have before us, climate change, and the greatest threat to security, climate change,” Tuvalu said, with the sound attention of the entire room.

Tuvalu continued to speak about how important this decision is, but his final statement I think hit home with a lot more than just the IC students.

“As a humble servant of the government to Tuvalu, I have to make a strong plea…I woke up this morning and I was crying and that’s not an easy thing for a grown man to admit,” Tuvalu said. “The fate of my country rests in your hands.”

The room erupted in applause. For me, even though I have heard this type of information time and time again throughout my courses here, this statement was an eye opener. “The fate of my country rests in your hands.” It is an unreal idea to grasp. One of the things that the youth at the conference, since last year, have been putting forth in documents, banners, press releases, and protests is the following: Survival is not negotiable. It is the truth.

That night, while tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Copenhagen to the conference center, with rallying cries for climate action and justice, a smaller, calmer event was happening just outside the Bella Center doors. A group of us attended a candlelight vigil, a peaceful way of saying that this is important to us and hoping leaders would recognize. With candles in hand, we stood circled around a young girl speaking about how she wanted her world to survive. (This was really a day of home hitting speeches.) After she spoke, both Mary Robinson and Bill McKibben delivered their own versions as well, all powerful beyond belief. But the final speaker brought tears to my eyes. Archbishop Desmund Tutu flew from Africa to address the climate issue, urging us to chant with him, “We the world expect a real deal.”

Posted December 16, 2009 at 3:04 pm by Rebecca Webster | Share on Facebook
Categories: Ithaca College

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