This multimedia piece looks at the growth of this movement throughout 2009. Take a moment and watch hundreds of those around the world taking action and inspiring others in the fight for climate justice.

All images (unless provided by 350.org) ©Robert van Waarden
Music: Open Road Kisses by The Small Affairs.

The morning that followed
Our message was echoed.
A failure! A failure!
My heart in despair.

The science lost, funding tossed,
No commitment in sight.
A stench of injustice,
The result: A failed plight.

“What more did you expect?”
Accusing voices chimed,
“Your efforts are a waste
Of carbon, cash and time”.

Is it a failure?
Were we mistaken?
How will we remember
Copenhagen?

How will we remember
Copenhagen?

I will remember the:

Forming of three fifty
In hundreds of states.
The Hundred thousand
Who marched till late.
Millions worldwide that stood,
And more that signed
In protest for the rights
For all Human Kind.

I will remember the:

Largest mobilisation
In world’s history.
Working in unity.
Despite culture or country.
Rising above divisions
In the “social order”;
Be religion, gender
Or a political border.

I will remember the:

Youth in the negotiations
Who brought heart and tears.
A champion for the voices,
The leaders needed to hear.
The Indigenous people
In the justice fight,
For our Mother’s Land to
Which we have equal right.

I will remember the:

Largest gathering
Of Heads in one room.
Of countries pleading,
To save them from doom.
Prayer to protect nations.
Have you seen such heart?
In a Global affair, it
Is a hopeful start.

But a start is all it is.

Do not ignore the Truth.
Two degrees is death to
Africa, the islands,
And our generation.
In our success there still
Remains a challenge,
A long way to go, it
Needs our dedication

It will take:

One goal.
Seven continents.
A hundred paths.
Thousands of leaders.
Millions of voices and
Billions of hearts.
To arrive at our
Destination.

Many may call this vision naive.
But perhaps naivety is all we have?
As long as there is love in the world,
We are on the right track.

Where there is love,
There is hope.
Where there is hope,
There is inspiration.
Where there is inspiration,
There is change.
And if there is change,
We can stop climate change.

This morning I spent some time reflecting on the most memorable moments of the past decade. My own roots as a climate activist began at age 20 when I had the privilege of attending a Student Climate Summit in the Hague in November 2000. Since that time the youth climate movement has grown from a small but dedicated group scattered across a few college campuses to a bona-fide movement of millions worldwide now shaping the agenda of global politics.

Posted in Act Locally, Copenhagen 2009, Direct Action, global warming, green for all, Impacted Communities, Montreal 2005, News and Media, Oct 24, Poland Climate Talks, Power Shift 2009, Poznan 2008, Youth Leaders ]]> http://youthclimate.org/top-10-youth-climate-moments-of-the-%e2%80%9900s-31511/feed/ 0 http://youthclimate.org/2009-the-year-of-climate-change-30968/ http://youthclimate.org/2009-the-year-of-climate-change-30968/#comments Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:06:55 +0000 Graham_Land http://www.greenfudge.org/?p=3301

Post by Daniel Vockins from the UK Delegation

Walking through the halls at the UN Climate Negotiations in Poznan earlier this month, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were at the heart of the struggle to defeat dangerous climate change. Top-level ministers from every government in the world met to forge a global agreement, the contents of which will decide how the latter half of this century plays out. But in truth, the real decisions are not made at the UN.

Woven through the endless meetings, lobbying sessions, cocktail parties and plenaries was a palpable sense that we will pass the critical 2 degrees tipping point which puts us into ‘dangerous’ levels of warming. Negotiators repeated ad nauseam the party line about how CO2 concentrations of 450 parts per million will stave off the worst impacts of climate change, whilst being briefed behind closed doors about exactly how out of date this target is. Corner negotiators with questions like these and they will often admit as much. It’s exasperating to watch, because we know that the time left to act is running out.

Is there an end to this? Not within the conference halls. Negotiators appear to have little freedom to negotiate freely. One NGO put it to me that up to 90% of their platform is pre-determined before they even step on the plane. With special interests, short-termist electoral cycles and near instantaneous judgement by stock market edict, it is easy to see why governments act in this way. Operating within such rigid parameters, they are essentially players in a game. The small slice of autonomy granted to negotiators offers precious little potential for a breakthrough, and is certainly not enough to secure a deal which takes the latest scientific discoveries seriously.

So, what do we need now? Firstly, to recognise that we are a long way from where we need to be and second, to understand that our power lies in the ability to make a just agreement possible. Negotiators are not principally champions of humanity or social justice. They’re playing a game, according to the rules they’re given. Their capacity to act is limited by what is politically acceptable.

Nonetheless, politicians as individuals want to act on this – nobody who has seen the true scale of this problem couldn’t. But at the moment, taking meaningful action necessitates defying the negotiating position set by domestic governments, which means losing your job. By Copenhagen next year, where the final treaty will be agreed, the playing field must look substantially different. In essence, the ground rules must be that taking strong action on climate change is the only way a treaty can be signed because the public will accept nothing less.

To drive this point home, just a few weeks ago Climate Change and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband called for a “popular mobilisation” to make it possible for the process to move forward, whilst Al Gore has said publicly that he “can’t understand why there aren’t rings of young people blocking bulldozers and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants.” We should think seriously about this call to action – it comes from a place of real desperation and an awareness of the limitations of a politics not yet built to deal with a problem like climate change.

Having watched the negotiations for two weeks, I can tell you that if the situation continues as it is currently, we will fail to halt runaway climate change. Poznan achieved astonishingly little but few were surprised. In the 48 weeks remaining before Copenhagen we must substantially alter the context of the debate to make it impossible not to act. Many more campaigns like those that forced through the Climate Act in the UK will be needed and on a far bigger scale. We should not underestimate the scale of this challenge, but I take considerable comfort in that the fact that we, not the politicians in Poznan, are the ones with the power of change at this moment. The next year is the most important in human history.

It’s up to us to determine how it plays out.

Posted in Copenhagen 2009, Dirty Energy, Poznan 2008, United Nations, Visioning, Youth Leaders