David and Goliath: Reflections on Power and Helplessness

Since I’ve arrived at COP15 in Copenhagen, Denmark, I’ve faced many dual emotions of empowerment and helplessness. I have felt more important and key than ever in the highly accessible Bella Center, where the convention is taking place, where I can run into the President of the Maldives or participate in an action that directly targets key negotiators, but more helpless than ever watching the long and grueling process of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the ever-so-stubborn US stance on the issue.

Being a youth here is definitely a unique position, and has had a significant impact on the way I’ve felt throughout this conference. There are over 2,000 international youth here, 500 US, and for the first Conference of the parties, youth are being recognized as an officially constituency called “YOUNGO”. I feel that YOUNGO’s voice is being heard through vast media coverage, actions, and a very unique perspective. But at the same time it is frustrating to see youth being shutout. At Secretary of Energy Steven Chu’s US briefing yesterday only one person was allowed in to ask questions to represent each group, and judging by the fact that most people in the line were youth who had been waiting for the briefing for hours, I couldn’t help but think that it had something to do with the demographic. Also at a briefing last week the “bouncers” of the US center only seemed to be letting in older people.

I feel that I am having am immense impact here in Copenhagen and that US youth and youth as a whole are, and that people are beginning to realize that survival is not negotiable in a treaty, I also am frustrated with the lack of flexibility within each nation’s stance. It almost seems that every country has just stayed within its own expectations, with the small island states and developing countries calling for adaptation funding and a fair, ambitious, and binding treaty, and the developed countries like the United States have compromised but not enough to support the science. Throughout this second week non-government organization delegates (including myself for the Sierra Student Coalition) are being taken out of the process by being restricted from access to the Bella Center. This has given me time to see what is happening around the conference, including an immense amount of side events, exhibits, and action going on around these issues. But we can’t deny that removing legitimate organizers from an important process to make room for the hundreds of staff people that heads of staff may bring is taking the power from the people.

Sometimes it feels that no matter what we do here, no matter what anyone does anywhere, that the people in power will not listen. That no matter the bicycle critical mass happening in the streets of Copenhagen tomorrow, or the 10,000 people that marched to the Bella Center in protest on the International Day of Climate Action on the 12th, that the power will never truly be transferred. But this is our only chance.

A friend of mine here from Oregon told me that she was talking to an assistant of a negotiator about what makes the negotiators think or change their mind, and if anything we do can have an actual effect. And everytime I have seen people devoting their whole lives to this cause, everytime I have seen the face of another youth who I know if missing their finals or got into countless arguments with their parents about attending this events, I remember what she told me he said. He said that what we do is something that no one appreciates until it is gone. Imagine this movement if there weren’t crazy protests, if there weren’t 2,000 youth walking around the Bella Center asking the aging delegates “How old will you be in 2050?”, if there weren’t people risking their lives for this movement. It would be dead. We are the passion and the heart behind everything that this rush for survival is, and no matter how powerless I may feel at times in the convolusion of negotiations, or how helpless I may feel when no one listens, I know that we are the silent roar that these negotiators have yet to hear. And I know that if they had marched alongside me on the International Day of Climate Action, they would see not only other middle aged men, but rather people of every age, color, and language.

I have never felt more human than I do in this fight against climate change.