[Reader-list] Klein in Copenhagen

[Nagraj Adve]

The Copenhagen deal <http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/copenhagen> may
turn into the worst kind of disaster capitalism, Naomi Klein said last
night. In her speech to Klimaforum09 <http://www.klimaforum09.org/>, the
"people's summit" she told the thousand or so campaigners and activists that
this was a chance to carry on building the new convergence, the movement of
movements that began "all those years ago in Seattle, fighting against the
privatisation of life itself". Here was an opportunity to "continue the
conversation that was so rudely interrupted by 9/11".

"Down the road at the Bella Centre
<http://www.bellacenter.dk/English>[where delegates are meeting] there
is the worst case of disaster capitalism
that we have ever witnessed. We know that what is being proposed in the
Bella Centre doesn't even come close to the deal that is needed. We know the
paltry emissions cuts that Obama has
proposed<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/25/barack-obama-copenhagen>;
they're insulting. We're the ones who created this crisis... on the basic
historical principle of polluters pays, we should pay."

Around the city, opening events were kicking off a fortnight of
negotiations, debate and protest. In the morning Rajendra Pachauri, the
chair of the IPCC, and Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the prime minister of Denmark,
opened the conference
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/dec/07/copenhagen-climate-change-conference-opens>with
a plea for action.

Later, in the centre of town special UN envoy Gro Harlem Brundtland and
climate change UN chief Yvo de Boer declared the heavily branded
Hopenhagen<http://www.hopenhagen.org/>open, as a globe bearing a large
Siemens logos was illuminated. The popular
Danish band Nephew kicked off (to bigger cheers than Brundtland or de Boer).

And in the evening Klein joined with Henry Saragih, the general convenor of
the Via Campesina <http://viacampesina.org/main_en/> movement, and
international
Friends of the Earth <http://www.foei.org/> chair Nnimmo Bassey, to declare
Klimaforum09 the "real event in Copenhagen".

Saragih called for food sovereignty <http://blog.henrysaragih.net/?p=29> -
greater power for small farmers - and said that changes to agricultural
practices could reduce carbon emissions by up to 50%.

Bassey said that crude oil only appeared cheap because we do not pay the
true price, and told the audience; "Leave the oil in the soil, leave the
coal in the hole, leave the tarsand in the land".
And Klein finished up:

We have to be the lie detectors here. Let's not restrict ourselves to polite
marches and formulaic panel discussions. If Seattle was the coming out
party, this should be the coming of age party. And, as a friend of mine
called John Jordan says, I hope that we have grown up to be even more
disobedient. Why are thousands of us burning fossil fuels to get here?
Because we have to build a global mass movement that will not allow leaders
to get away with what they are trying to get away with. Think of it as the
mother of all carbon offsets.