When most people think of COP15, they think about the negotiations. Well, the negotiations are really only a part of what is going on in Copenhagen this week. In addition to the negotiations, NGOs and national delegations have booths and give briefings and events known as "side events." Most are educational in nature - briefings on specific issue areas, groups showing what they're doing to help climate change, universities explaining their research, companies promoting their technology, etc. It's almost like a technical conference alongside the negotiations.
The US has a booth, the "US Center" where they hold talks from Administration officials, researchers, and others on what the US is doing to study and combat climate change. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was there this morning, fresh off her press conference announcing the GHG Endangerment Finding, and Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero and Assistant Secretary of Energy for International Policy David Sandalow gave briefings this afternoon. Several cabinet secretaries are scheduled to speak there when they arrive later this week and early next week.
Outside the US Center (photo taken Dec. 7)
The booth also features NOAA's "Science on a Sphere" demo. It is a sphere on which can be projected all sorts of geospatial data, so you can see how a particular phenomenon occurs across the Earth over time. There are images of weather, ocean temperatures, airplane flights, and even plate tectonics.
NOAA's Science on a Sphere - Projected future ocean temperatures (photo taken Dec. 7)
Science on a Sphere - Worldwide Airline Flights (photo taken Dec. 7)
Of course, some of the activist groups are more creative with their events, making them more like "side shows" than "side events." Some are from groups participating in the COP, and some are from outside who do them in the street outside the Bella Center. Here are some photos:
The "Fossil of the Day" award show, where they ridicule countries'
proposals or actions as inadequate to address climate change
A group of young musicians outside the Bella Center (photo taken Dec. 7)
A melting ice sculpture, courtesy of Friends of the Earth (photo taken Dec. 7)
Posted By: Thomas Lee @ 10:37 PM |