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Blog post, December 14, 2009
The bad thing about a march is that it moves.
Well, it’s bad when you’re looking for it. I was running late to the march/protest and, of course, got lost looking for it.
The 2009 Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change Photo by Mike Mian ’11
In fact, I got off at the wrong metro stop. After wandering around a bit, I passed a scruffy man in a big puffy coat smoking a cigarette on a bench. We were in a park next to a pond full of ducks.
I asked him where the protest was, and he said, “It’s here. I’m the only one that showed up!” I’m embarrassed to say that it took me a second or two to realize that he was playing with me. He then proceeded to ask about America and detail the traffic during the previous Copenhagen conference.
Eventually, he took pity on me and nudged me in the right direction, pointing to a tall tower and saying to go that way. So I did.
And still, of course, I got lost. I spent the next half hour running around asking people where to go.
When I finally saw some signs bobbing up and down in a crowd with the step of the protesters, I sighed in relief and pulled out my camera. I was confused upon realizing that the protestors numbered somewhere in the 20s – this couldn’t be the group I was looking for… could it? They were shouting about the beauty of green capitalism, and I figured I should search elsewhere.
I ended up in a big square where a concert was taking place. Some COP 15 staff were able to point me in the right direction, and I was off again.
While leaving the square, a giant billboard caught my eye (see above) with two young boys and the words “HOPENHAGEN: Earth’s Body Guards” (referring to the children). To me, this billboard touches on a huge issue in the climate justice movement: intergenerational justice.
While articulating it as such might sound weird, it’s true that the effects of climate regulation decisions made today will be most sincerely felt by young and coming generations. At any given moment, the earth is or will soon be in the hands of the next generation. The equity divide isn’t just between rich and poor countries, but it’s between the old and the young as well. In both instances, one group has contributed the most to the problem (rich, old) and the other group will be most affected by its consequences (poor, young).
The billboard doesn’t say all of this, but, by introducing the concept of young people protecting the world from climate change in a cute and humorous manner, it opens the prevailing discourse to new debates on this topic.
