A Transformed Bella Center

So I am currently sitting inside the Bella Center for the first time since Monday, only it’s not the Bella Center that I remembered. Gone are the 2000 youth delegates from around the world and with them the energy that kept me going throughout long days and even longer nights.

Now the Bella Center is filled with press, diplomats, politicians, security, and party delegates that don’t even seem to care about climate change, but instead are mostly interested in being here to see the heads of states arrive and possibly meet President Obama.

Long gone are the days of energetic youth pressuring our supposed leaders for answers on what they’re doing to ameliorate anthropogenic climate change.  Instead most of us are outside at other events, actions, and protests trying to get it across to the United Nations and the world that it is simply unacceptable to shut civil society and the youth out of the negotiations that will determine our future and our chance of survival.

An interview with TreeHugger.com

Now, I am here on the inside, but thus far I have not been very successful at getting anything done.  I tried to talk to the United States delegation about the importance of youth presence and get more passes, but I was immediately shut down by the Department of State.  I can’t gain entrance to the media centre, plenaries, or any of the closed meetings.  So instead I am sitting at a desk blogging to all my fellow activists of the international youth climate movement to let you know that I stand (and fast) in solidarity with all of you and know that we are the true leaders of this world, not the people in the Bella Center who can’t seem to even acknowledge my existence, much less the need for fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty here in Copenhagen (and the rest of the world).

Keep up the good work.  I will see you on the other side.