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 This Sunday I attended a most beautiful ceremony at The Church of our Lady in Copenhagen. This church, which was originally built in the 12th C., has been burned down or destroyed 5 times in its history. But, the Danes continue to rebuild it as a testament to faith it self. When the English ships blew the bell tower off the church with their mighty cannons in 1807, they opened the doors again in 1821. And as the Queen of Denmark walked proudly by me singing with the congregation, I felt proud of my Danish heritage.
The capacity crowd was treated to music from 3 choirs; Church on the Rock, Aavaat, Greenlandic Choir and the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir. The procession of global leaders from around the world including Archbishop Desmond Tutu were followed by citizens from the far ends of the globe carrying three symbols of Climate Change: Glacier stones from Greenland, dried up maize from Africa, and bleached chorals from the Pacific Ocean. It was a grand opening that highlighted the growing concern for the reality of Climate Change…
What most moved me was the sermon of Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and I would like to share some of the highlights of his talk. His talk was entitled “Love casts out fear”, and he said that our “confidence and fearlessness is built by seeing love at work through us.” He went on to say,” “We cannot show the proper kind of love for our fellow humans unless we also work at keeping the earth as a place that is a secure home for all people and for future generations… At the present moment we are faced with the consequences of generations of failure to love the earth as we should. We are also faced with the choices that might make those consequences less destructive than they would otherwise be.”
“Each of us as an individual, each international business concern, each national government, all of us have choices. We are not doomed to carry on in a downward spiral of the greedy, addictive, loveless behavior that has helped to bring us to this point. Yet, it seems that fear still rules our heats and imaginations. We have not yet been able to embrace the cost of the decisions we know we must make. We are afraid because we don’t know how we can survive without the comforts of our existing life style. We are afraid that new policies will be unpopular with the national electorate. We are afraid that younger and more vigorous economies will take advantage of us. Or we are afraid that older historically dominant economies will use the excuse of ecological responsible to deny us our right to proper and just development. There is in a word no shortage of excellent excuses for turning away from decisions that will mean real change. But, at least let us be honest about where they come from — not necessarily irrational fear, not even necessarily purely selfish fear, but fear all the same. So long as that dominates our calculations we are stepping back from love. Love for the Creation itself… Love for one another and for the generations still unborn who need us to do whatever we can to guarantee a stable, productive and balanced world to live in.”
“Love casts out fear. The truth is that what is most likely to get us to take the right decisions for our global future is love. The temptation is to underline fear so as to dissuade one another of the urgency of the situation. Things are so bad, so threatening, that we have to do something and indeed there are moments when we might think, rather bitterly, that the human race is not frightened enough by the prospect of what it has served up for itself, but this is to drive out one sickness by another. That kind of fear can simply paralyze us as we all know. It can make us feel that the problem is too great and we may as well pull up the bed covers and wait for disaster. What’s more it can tempt us into simply blaming one another or waiting for someone else to make the first move, because we don’t trust them. We need more than that to make life-giving change to happen. And that is what we are here to say today…”
The Archbishop completed his sermon by asking us two questions: first, “how do we show we love God’s creation and secondly how can we learn to trust one another within a world with limited resources. There can be no trust without justice, knowing that my neighbor is there for me when I face insecurity or risk. How can we build international institutions that make sure the resources get to where they are needed? That for example green taxes will deliver more security for the disadvantaged and transitions and economic patterns will not weigh most heavily on those least equipped to cope. Love casts out fear. He concluded by saying, “Don’t be afraid. Act for the sake of love.”
In the end we followed the Queen and procession out of the church, lit candles in hand, hope in our hearts and urgency to act in our minds.
 Saturday Climate Demonstrations
An estimated crowd of over 100,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of Copenhagen on Saturday, the largest gathering in this city since the end of WW2. South African Spiritual leader, Desmond Tutu inspired the crowd with a call to the rich nations to pay their debt saying, if you are able to bail out the banks, surly you can spend a few billions to stop climate change. “Wake up rich countries! We, the world expect a real deal.” He then handed UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer the countdown to CO2penhagen petition with 500,000 signatures.
Yvo de Boer responded by saying, “I’ve just come from the Bella Center and they’re always talking about the financial crisis. But this is a moral crisis, which could result in a global climate crisis. The demonstrators then began a 3-hour march to the center where a candle light vigil was held.
Arrests
Unfortunately the mostly peaceful march was disrupted when a small group of people dressed in black, called Never Trust a Cop, started digging up cobblestones and throwing them at the stock exchange along the route. Approximately a 1000 people were arrested as the large police force encircled both offenders and innocent bystanders, arresting them under a new law, which allows them to arrest anyone suspicious and hold them for up to 12 hours. May innocent people had to sit on the frozen ground with their hands bound behind them for 3-4 hours. On Sunday another 230 people were arrested when they tried to block the harbor here.
Heads of State Arrive Tomorrow
Tomorrow 110 heads of state arrive tomorrow to begin the final negotiations on and the draft of a global climate change treaty. The big question is will it be a political nonbinding treaty, as the richer, more powerful nations want or will there be a legally binding treaty as the majority of the poorer more impacted nations want?
Further complicating matters is the issue of climate debt and reparation by the industrialized countries towards the poorer nations. Indian environmentalist Sunita Narain states that “industrialized countries are responsible for over 70% of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere since the start of the industrial revolution, they have incurred a debt that must be repaid!” This topic make it even more difficult to leave Copenhagen with a legally binding treaty.
 Most people in the US don’t really think about where their food comes. The average distance the food in our super markets travels is 1,500 miles and the stores maintain an inventory of 2-3 days for normal times. During the past decade our food system has grown increasingly fragile due primarily to the affects of climate change and peak oil. During the latter part of the 20th century world hunger and malnutrition had been decreasing, but since the mid nineties it is on the rise again. Currently it is estimated that a billion children go to bed hungry every night.
Between 2006-08 food prices soared with wheat, rice and soybean prices tripling. The current recession has temporally brought prices down, but here in Copenhagen you can really feel the impact of the falling value of the dollar. Food price increases in the past have been caused by isolated events with production returning to previous levels or increasing. The current situation is the product of long-term trends, which will continue to limit food and increase demand. These trends include loss of topsoil, desertification, water depletion, soil nutrient depletion and erosion. The miracle of GMO seeds is also proving to be a threat to the future of food by reducing biodiversity, creating super weeds and bugs, decreasing soil capacity, and presenting yet unknown threats to animal and human health. Lab tests on rats have shown serious damage to digestive systems and cancers.
While this has been happening the global demand for food has been increasing. World population is increasing by 79 million annually. The profitable bio fuel market is taking land away from food production. While the US is experiencing an explosion of obesity, a large percentage of global populations are facing starvation and malnutrition. The growing demand for meat is also threatening food availability as it takes about 10 pounds of grain and enormous amounts of water to produce 1 pound of meat. Also, factory farming of livestock produces about 40% of the greenhouse gases.
Another disturbing trend of the many countries that can no longer feed their people is the acquisition of farmland in other countries. According to World Watch Institute:
• Libya plans to farm wheat on 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) in Ukraine
• South Korea signed deals to grow wheat on 690,000 hectares in Sudan
• Chinese firm secured 2.8 million hectares in Democratic Republic of the Congo for palm oil
• In all, some 50 large agreements worth $20-30 billion are being pursued
These land shopping trends portend a major threat to global security and international cooperation, especially since the acquisitions are often made in already impoverished countries. Further exasperating the situation is the idea that some of the countries plan to bring in foreign farm laborers.
Historically food scarcity has led to the collapse of civilizations like the Mayan, Sumerian, and numerous other early civilizations. What can we do to avert a collapse of our earth systems and protect life on this planet? Of course there are not guarantees, but there are a few things that would help.
- Eat and grow locally produced organic food.
- Ask yourself what are the food dollars I am spending supporting?
- Reduce your intake of meat.
- Write your political leaders and support small farmers instead of large agribusiness. Ask them to stop farm subsidies that are mono-crops and petro chemical intensive.
- Compost
- Spend time in nature and reconnect with the natural system of mother earth. She is talking – we are not listening.
- Make a list for yourself of how you can support food security.
Food and water security is one of our biggest threats to civilization. We can turn things around. All it really takes in a shift in consciousness. It all starts with you and I communicating, educating ourselves and acting on behalf of future generations…
Tibet
Global warming has had a devastating impact on Tibet which will have huge consequences for the fresh water supply in most of Asia, a representative from the Tibet exile government warns. Tibet has the worlds third largest ice mass in the form of the many glaciers and is the world’s largest fresh water reservoir. Many of the large Asian rivers come from Tibet. Rising temperatures in Tibet will make a huge impact on billions of Asian’s who need access to clean drinking water. The organization “Third Pole” in Copenhagen is pushing forward an agreement to secure the Tibeten plateau. Its not just Tibetan glaciers that climate changes affecting, it is also upsetting the monsoon weather system. The Chinese have begun to tap more water from the Tibetan rivers with massive tunnels redirecting the water to China to compensate for their own diminishing water supply.
 Pacific Island states
The Island state Kirbati, risks being swallowed up by the ocean and the people are speaking out. Many of the Pacific Ocean island states face enormous risk of not existing in 90 years. The Kirbati states are asking that an ambitious plan be put forth to reduce CO2 emissions. They cannot withstand more extreme weather and water levels rising more than 80 cm more according to the UN climate panel.
They are asking. along with other 40 countries in the Alliance of small island states (AOSIS) that are vulnerable to climate changes that the global emission of CO2 be topped in 2015 so that the temperature does not rise more than 1.5 degrees centigrade rather than the 2 degrees currently proposed.
Thailand
Part of Thailand’s main rice growing region is under severe economic and environmental threat from climate change which must be addressed by world leaders at a UN summit, Greenpeace said Monday. A study by the activist group revealed the dangers faced by the Bangpakong River Basin, which supports around 1.25 million people who rely heavily on the region’s fertile soils for crops, especially rice, fruit and fishing. The study was released days before Bangkok holds another major meeting on climate change.
The 7,900 square-kilometre (3050 square mile) area in eastern Thailand is “one of the most productive river basins the world” and a prominent source of jasmine rice, Greenpeace Southeast Asia campaign manager Tara Buakamsri said. But the basin, which empties into the Gulf of Thailand, “is threatened with severe economic and environmental impacts due to flooding, drought, saltwater intrusion and coastal erosion caused by climate change”, Greenpeace said. “Local rural communities stand to suffer most from climate change impacts,” said Ply Pirom, a campaigner for the group, adding that the “worst impacts are yet to come”….
 Ecological Debt is a huge topic here in Copenhagen. One that may end up derailing the entire process of finding common ground for a comprehensive, global and legally binding agreement. It is a cruel fact that 20% of the world’s population in the industrialized world is responsible for 75% of the pollution, which unfortunately is mostly impacting people from the poorer countries. For instance Africa, with a billion people only puts out 4% of the CO2, but the impact of climate change on the region has been devastating.
The people in the developing countries are making their voices heard here at the UN conference. What is most annoying to them is watching the Western capitalist system trying to make this into another profit making scheme where money can be made from polluting. The concept of Carbon trading is that you grant property rights to polluters for polluting the air. In other words you put making money before saving the planet. This is what is called a market-based solution. The World Bank estimates that it would take approximately 100 billion dollars a year to clean up the problem and 200-600 billion to go beyond maintenance and leapfrog the process. What are the industrialized countries bringing to the table? 10 billion!
Another interesting thing to consider about these so called developing countries is that they are some of the most resource rich parts of the planet with an abundance of oil, diamonds, metals, hard woods and all the things we use in our consumer products. Ever wonder how our stuff got on their land and yet they owe the industrial nations enormous debt, on which most can’t even afford to pay the interest.
They think that it is pretty arrogant of us in the West to tell them what needs to be done to save the planet since we are the people who trashed it in the first place. Their position is that the Global North owes the South for using their resources and damaging their land. This is what they refer to when they talk about ecological debt. It is where climate change becoming a new ideology with its own economy. If you add in years of colonization, slavery, sweat-shops, sex trade and many other forms of oppression you begin to understand how they might come to that conclusion. As Percy Makombe, from the NGO Economic Justice in South Africa said today, “how can you take out people’s eyes and then assault them for their blindness.”
As I have said before these people are not looking for charity, although most of us would be hard pressed to live a day in their shoes. They want reparation for the damage that we have done, they want a fair process that respects localized economies and they want us to share the technology we have developed to help them reduce their own carbon footprint. Is that really too much to ask? The market is not going to solve the new crisis. It is what has been behind the consumption machine that is threatening our very survival. Look at what it did for Wall Street and the US economy.
The gloves are off! After several days of very cordial and positive talks things began to break down here in Copenhagen. The poor countries and island states in the Pacific are expressing their displeasure with a document leaked to the press that appears to be an affront to the openness and transparency that is supposed to be part of the protocol of COP15, the UN Climate Conference.
The report in question was a memo from Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen, which states that the intention of Great Britain, Denmark and the US is to go for a political agreement rather than a legally binding one. It further suggested targets that would allow the three countries to pollute twice as much as the poorer emerging countries. The parties to the agreement are trying to put a positive spin on it. Obama spoksperson, Todd Stern said this afternoon, that the US agrees with the Danish Prime Minister, that a few months ago it was clear that it would be impossible to obtain a judicial binding agreement in Copenhagen. “ The last thing we want is that this political agreement, will replace a Judicial agreement. That’s not what this is about. I cannot say what our deadline is, but it has to be soon.” Stern said.
 But, people have begun to loose patience as the climate change toll increases. A new German report states that more than 600,000 people have died because of extreme weather since 1990, as a result of tropical storms, floods, hurricanes, massive rainfall and drought. No less than 11,000 extreme weather conditions are the cause of the loss of these lives according to the German climate organization Germanwatch. The cost is estimated at 1,600 billion US Dollars. Hardest hit are Bangladesh, Burma and Honduras.
A big question here is, have we in the western world an economic debt to the poor countries because of the climate changes? The poorer countries feel that our continued consumer lifestyle is the cause of the devastation that they are experiencing. Do we have a moral debt to support these people who are not asking for charity, but for support in reducing their own pollution and upgrading to advanced technologies that will benefit the whole process? The amounts they are asking for seem paltry when compared to the Wall Street bailout…
Great powers flow into us as we empty ourselves of our false concepts and attachments and these powers could help is in every way to
heal and transform our degraded inner and outer worlds.
Andrew Harvey
 Today I attended an interfaith gathering of Spiritual Leaders from around the world, organized by the Global Peace Initiative of Women. To look around the room and see leading edge Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, TM, and Sufi leaders was a most hopeful experience. So many of our wars, conflicts and misunderstandings become embedded in religious ideology, and watching these ideologically diverse leaders quest for a common ground gave me hope.
Sr. Joan Chittister, a Benedictine Nun, renowned author and prominent voice in the interfaith movement believes that, spiritual leaders need to lead the challenge to reverse the unexamined social assumptions that justify our acting as though it was God’s gift that we should have dominion over nature. She challenged the Western theological mind that has led to a religious failure to protect the animals, environment and all life on the planet. Sr. Chittister questioned “ How is it that the world is filled with church goers and yet this devastation goes on?”
At its heart she feels that this goes back to the Creation story and the hierarchal superiority and domination that is embedded in religion. The creation story that has been used to secure power over the earth is anthropomorphic, that man has dominion over nature with the right and responsibility to exploit it. Joan talked about another creation story in Genesis that has been overlooked. In this story, the process of naming the animals leads to building relationship, companionship and compassion with all. This leaves us as a cultivator and caretaker of life. There is no sexism in this model. The more we open our heart to others, the more sacred all life becomes. Joan said “we have as much at stake as any politician. We must change our story and focus on the relationship story.”
Andrew Harvey, mystical scholar, novelist, spiritual teacher and architect of Sacred Activism, also spoke. He said that there is a “bankruptcy of all visions of reality that are not grounded in oneness and that our deepest commitment should be to stop focusing on our differences.” Fundamental to dealing with climate change and all the other problems currently facing humankind, we must begin to experience the entire universe as a sacred unfolding. We can get in touch with the stillness, peace, power and sacred passion of the whole universe and create a Divine human being. It is essential that we allow our own heart to break open to discover the creative force of creation itself.
When we have an environmental problem it soon becomes a social issue. Location of polluting industries, disposal of toxic waste, and resulting health risks are all environmental and social issues. Social justice issues are spiritual and moral issues. These leaders believe it is critical to our society and climate change to develop the practice of compassion, of seeing ourselves as part of the sacred whole and of being of service to the spirit that moves in all things. Remember, Climate Change is not a spectator Sport. You are involved whether you want to be or not. Blessings from Copenhagen, Michael
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes,
but in seeing with new eyes.
Marcel Proust
 spiritual leaders in Copenhagen
 The climate change conference in Copenhagen started with a strong spoken commitment to clinch an ambitious international climate change deal and an unprecedented sense of urgency to act.
Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen announced that 110 heads of state and government will attend the conference at its conclusion. This leaves 8 days for the ministers and worker bees to draft comprehensive and acceptable legislation for the world leaders to sign. While there are still many discrepancies between what the richer nations responsible for the bulk of pollution and the poorer ones that are the most impacted, the atmosphere here at the opening is positive and upbeat. There is no question here that climate change is real and it is not going away!
The Prime Minister pointed to the fact that climate change knows no borders. “It does not discriminate, it affects us all,” he said. “And we are here today because we are all committed to take action. That is our common point of departure – the magnitude of the challenge before us is to translate this political will into a strong political approach,” he added.
The urgency to act was underscored by Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who told the conference that global emissions would need to peak by 2015 for the world to stay below a two degrees Celsius temperature rise. “The costs of responding to climate change will become progressively higher as time goes on, therefore we must take action now,” he said.
“We have reached the deadline and there is no going back”, said newly elected COP President and Danish COP 15 Minister Connie Hedegaard. “Copenhagen will be the city of the three C’s: ‘Cooperation’, Commitment’ and ‘Consensus’. Now is the time to capture the moment and conclude a truly ambitious global deal. This is our chance. If we miss this opportunity, we will not get a better one,” she said. Could it be that the commitment to clean air, water and the preservation of our forests and all life will be a common goal of this conference?
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said there was unprecedented political momentum for a deal. “World leaders are calling for an agreement that offers serious emission limitation goals and that captures the provision of significant financial and technological support to developing countries,” he said. “At the same time, Copenhagen will only be a success if it delivers significant and immediate action that begins the day the conference ends.”
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an aggregate emission reduction by industrialized countries of between minus 25% and 40% over 1990 levels would be required by 2020 in order to stave off the worst effects of climate change, with global emissions falling by at least 50% by 2050. Even under this scenario, there would be an only a 50% chance of avoiding the most catastrophic consequences.
While ambitions are high and much is at stake, there are still huge gaps in perception of what would make constitute a successful agreement. I will continue to bring you daily updates from Copenhagen. I ask you to please take some action today that will make a difference, no matter how large or small. You make a difference.
The US government said Monday it would start to regulate carbon dioxide as a dangerous pollutant, sidestepping a divided Congress to boost global climate talks in Copenhagen.The decision paves the way for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue standards on how much carbon US factories, buildings and cars can emit, even though legislation has yet to pass through the Congress.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson signed orders declaring six greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide blamed for global warming to be pollutants that are subject to government regulation. This new development will give president Obama new power to make a real offering and agreement when you comes to Copenhagen next week.
News from the Front
 Yesterday Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer, the UN’s top climate change official, expressed confidence that the UN Climate Conference would deliver a comprehensive, ambitious and effective international climate change deal. “Within two weeks from Monday, governments must give their adequate response to the urgent challenge of climate change,” said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer. “Negotiators now have the clearest signal ever from world leaders to craft solid proposals to implement rapid action.” He added that the numerous emission reduction pledges that developing countries have made “show that there is an unprecedented political momentum to clinch an ambitious deal in Copenhagen. Yvo de Boer spoke of three layers of action that governments must agree to in the course of the coming two weeks: fast and effective implementation of immediate action on climate change; ambitious commitments to cut and limit emissions, including start-up funding and a long-term funding commitment; and a long-term shared vision on a low-emissions future for all.
More than 15,000 participants, including delegates from 192 countries, are expected to take part in the UN Climate Change. But is it enough and will the US make a real and binding commitment? While President Obama’s proposal to reduce US emissions by the equivalent of 4 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, and China’s offer to nearly halve the ratio of pollution to GDP over the next decade, should be taken as signals they are prepared to negotiate, these numbers appear to be too little too late. People like Lester Brown, president of Earth Policy institute and author of Plan B 4.0 (to down load or order this book go to http://www.earth-policy.org/) and author, educator and environmentalist Bill McKibben (http://www.350.org/ ), are calling for a cut of net global carbon emissions of 80 percent by 2020.
Which numbers are right? I invite you to take the time during the next 2 week to do your homework and come up with your own answers to that question. I will continue to supply daily updates on what is happening here, including leads to do your own research. But it is up to each of us to get involved, get informed and Act! There could easily be upwards of a hundred thousand citizen activists coming to Copenhagen to make sure that their voices and the people they represent are included. The big question is, will your voice be heard. The children of future generations are asking right now, what did you do when you heard…?
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Great Blessings On Us All,
michael
Get informed, Get involved and Act!
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This Sunday I attended a most beautiful ceremony at The Church of our Lady in Copenhagen. This church, which was originally built in the 12th C., has been burned down or destroyed 5 times in its history. But, the Danes continue to rebuild it as a testament to faith it self. When the English ships blew the bell tower off the church with their mighty cannons in 1807, they opened the doors again in 1821. And as the Queen of Denmark walked proudly by me singing with the congregation, I felt proud of my Danish heritage.
