Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/tag/climate-change/page/3/)
I found Lord Christopher Monckton sitting all alone at the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) booth in Cancunmesse on Thursday afternoon. Lord Monckton is one of the better-known climate change deniers (or skeptics; take your pick of terms) and achieved notoriety in Copenhagen by calling a group of young activists “Hitler Youth.” He spoke in St. Continue Reading
While waiting for a side event to start on Wednesday, I sat down next to Dr. Irma Allen, delegate and negotiator from Swaziland. A native Texan, Dr. Allen has headed Swaziland’s Environmental Authority (their equivalent of the EPA) for many years. We talked about development.
350 parts per million carbon dioxide: anything more is unacceptable according to 350.org and a myriad of other stakeholders because of the likelihood of ecological and socioeconomic catastrophes and the risks of runaway climate change. Yet humanity continues to engage in a w Continue Reading
The 10-mile shuttle bus ride from the hotel zone to Cancunmesse, the gateway venue for COP16, took two hours and 25 minutes Monday morning. We left around 8:30am and wound our slow way through the stop-and-go rush hour traffic punctuated by police checkpoints until finally arriving around 11. Continue Reading
The largest hall at Cancunmesse is dominated by three of COP16’s major players: the United States, Mexico, and the European Union. Each has several hundred feet of floor space and each has done mildly spectacular things with it. The U.S. Continue Reading
Sunday began the journey of the University of Minnesota delegation at the UNFCCC COP 16. Our group consists of a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students of a range of interests including law, ecology, political science, and civil engineering. We are led by Minnesota Senator Ellen Anderson and Representative Kate Knuth. Our delegation will be observing of Continue Reading
The road to COP16 was a slow one this morning. We had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery as lanes were reduced to allow Mexican President Felipe Calderón and his entourage to travel to Moon Palace for the Opening of COP16. The Opening Ceremony and Plenary Sessions were scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Continue Reading
On the taxi ride to the airport Saturday in the cold Twin Cities pre-dawn, I struck up a conversation with the driver, a pleasant Ethiopian gentleman. I said I was going to the United Nations climate change conference in Cancun. Continue Reading
The conference is centrally located in Cancun, Mexico. Official conference buses pick COP16 participants up along 8 routes transporting them to the Moon Palace and Cancunmesse where the conference and official side events will take place.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change recognizes that the climate system is a shared resource whose stability can be affected in part by anthropocentric emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The UNFCCC was formed in 1994 in recognition of the need for nations to address global warming.