Finally home!

Hi everyone,

I am finally back in Canada. As much as I love travelling, I am very happy to be home with my family. This trip was amazing! I learned a lot of things I never knew before, and met people from all around the world with great ideas and stories to share about their country's success and efforts towards a better environment.

Since I've been home, I've had many people ask my thoughts on the fact that thousands of delegates flew from around the world, increasing their carbon footprints, just to meet with others like them to collectively agree on an action plan for combating global warming. My response has been simply that in order to come up with an agreement, world leaders and experts require a face to face meeting. After spending over a week at the Bella Centre, going to meetings and trying to get as much information as possible, I realized that this agreement would never be met over teleconferencing. The fact that these delegates care enough to take time out of their busy schedules to fly across the world for the cause should be admired, not criticized.

Just so you know, I will be presenting at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in January (email me for dates if interested). There will be other presentations to come that have yet to be confirmed. I am also making a transportation documentary, with a theme something along the lines of "Canada vs. Europe; what we SHOULD be doing". I will post this once it is finished.

Thank you all for your interest, and a special thanks to those who donated, encouraged, and helped out!

Copenhagen Accord

Hi everyone,

The Copenhagen Accord has been released. The conclusions drawn were less than satisfying. We need a very strong action plan to combat global warming. While this agreement is a good start, we must continue to work towards a solid solution.

The Accord has a few main points:
-Global emissions must be reduced to a point that will eliminate any human interference to the climate system.
-An increase in temperature must not exceed 2 degrees Celsius.
-Developing countries need aide in building resilience to the effects of climate change, and that developed countries will help financially.
-Countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol will meet their targets by January 31st, 2010 and will continue their efforts thereafter.
-Establishment of REDD+, to enhance the removal of emissions by forests, therefore reducing the rate of deforestation and forest degradation.

There is more to the agreement than what I have stated here, but these are the first few points that were agreed upon. As you can see, these are great starting points. However, they leave no incentive to further reduce emissions from the targets set by the Kyoto Protocol. In order for governments to act, there has to be a target to work towards. By signing this accord, countries are essentially saying that they understand the consequences of global warming, yet have no reason for actually reducing emissions. We need something more than this.

Until next time! :)

Wind Farm Tour

Hi everyone,

As many of you may know, Denmark is the leading country when it comes to wind power technology. They have about 5,200 wind turbines! Imagine! And yet none of the citizens seem to complain about this, much like we would expect Canadians to. It is said that on a windy day, the wind turbines could meet all electricity requirements for all Danish households, even during the peak hours of 5 to 7pm. This is amazing!

Almost 75% of wind turbines within Europe are located in Germany, Spain, Great Britain, Portugal and Denmark. Of course, Denmark has a massive off coast wind farm called the Horns Rev 2. It contains 91 wind turbines, with an estimated annual production of 209 MW. The Horns Rev 1 has 80 turbines, with a total capacity of 160 MW. A few members of our delegation were lucky enough to book a tour to these turbines (Horns Rev 1), to get an up close and personal experience.

The boat ride took only 10 minutes, and then before we knew it we were right under a gigantic turbine. Pictures do not do it justice. It was huge!! And surprisingly quiet. On the boat, we were given sandwiches and drinks, just to complete the whole experience. It was a little cold out, but a great day nonetheless. Check out Ryan's video below.

On the bus ride back to the Bella Centre the host of the tour was explaining to us the company's success stories. This company aims at introducing other countries to wind power technology, and is very happy when someone follows by their example. Only a couple of years ago, a representative from Ontario was here to find out more about this wind farm. He promised the Danes that he would push to have wind power in his province, and sure enough, only a few months later, this proposal was adopted. The Danes within this company are very proud of this. And it made us look good for once during this trip, which we were very happy about.

Until next time! :)

Meeting with the Rt. Hon. Paul Martin

Hi everyone,

We had the honour to meet with former Prime Minister Paul Martin Sunday evening. This was an amazing opportunity to hear his personal thoughts on the issues of climate change. Mr. Martin spends much of his time working closely with issues regarding the deforestation, as well as Aboriginal rights in Canada and Africa, among others. He gave a truly inspirational speech about his experiences and knowledge on the Congo basin and the reasons that local communities have resorted to the deforestation of the tropical rain forests. Unfortunately, Mr. Martin states, that the trees found in these rain forests are worth more dead than alive.

All in all, this evening was very educational, and we were all pleased to be able to have a more intimate conversation with Mr. Martin. He is clearly working very hard for the issues he feels are important, and has no doubt made progress with his efforts.

Until next time! :)

Beautiful Malmo

Hi everyone,

Sunday morning started off beautiful and sunny. The perfect day to go to Sweden. Malmo is one of the most popular cities within Sweden, only 30 minutes from Copenhagen. Fadi, Marielle, Ryan, Antoine and I jumped on the train at about 1pm. Of course by the time we reached the city centre it was dark and cloudy out.

This city is absolutely amazing. One of the first things we saw was a beautiful skating rink right in the middle of the city. There was Christmas music, children skating, pony rides, and lights everywhere. It was right out of a cheesy Christmas movie, but amazing to see firsthand. We went to a restaurant called Gozzip, where we tried a Scandinavian beer and some great food. Of course, we walked around the city, took pictures, and did a little shopping. But this wasn't the type of place you wasted indoors buying things. Regardless of the extremely cold weather, we had to take in the scenery. The architecture was amazing, with very modern brick buildings lining the streets.

We unfortunately could not spend much time there, but it was well worth going to. Very few cars on the road, mostly pedestrians and bicyclists as usual. Just the perfect city to spend a nice Sunday afternoon in.

Until next time! :)

Fun day of Shopping

Hi everyone,

This blog might make it sound like we took a day off. And I guess in all honesty, most of us did. Of course we did some work at the Bella Centre, had a productive meeting, did some Day 6 video introductions, and what not, but for the most part we decided to finally take a day for ourselves. Not everyone did this by the way. There are a few, including Liz, who worked all day.

At about noon, Ryan, Antoine, Marielle and I went down town Copenhagen to find a nice cafe for brunch. We ate at Kaffesalonen, which I think means Coffee House. It was great! We walked around for a bit down town until we had to get back for our meeting. On our way we heard that there were protests going on outside of the Bella Centre, and that we might have a hard time getting in. We finally got there, and found no protests going on near the entrance that we usually used. There were no security issues at all. It wasn`t until we left that we saw the huge crowd protesting right outside. It was unreal! I wish I had pictures to share, but I`m sure they would be easy to find on the Internet.

Mike and I went shopping down town after the meeting. We reached the walking streets at 5pm, and yet most stores were already closed, and it was completely dark out. This, of course, did not stop us from hunting down some open stores and buying some souvenirs :) Being down town is really amazing! The lights, the people, the lack of cars. A great place to just walk around for hours, which is exactly what we did.

When we returned to our apartment, Chris, our landlord, made a very Danish Christmas drink for us, called.. well I don't remember what it was called. But it was really good! He was telling us about the charity that he runs called ACHELP. This charity looks at helping people with AIDS. Truly amazing work. He also explained to me some of the Danish cuisine, which consists mainly of potatoes from the sounds of it :) I love it here!

Tomorrow we are off to Sweden for the day!

Until next time! :)

Interview with Mayor of Toronto re: Fossil of the day Award

Hi everyone,

Today was an interesting day at COP-15. Canada won the Fossil of the day award, AGAIN! This award is voted on by NGO's at the conference each day. It is presented to the country that has caused the most obstruction during the process towards the climate agreement.

So far, Canada has been on the top three list of ALL countries each day of the conferences. Today, not only did we win, but we won both first AND second place. This couldn't get more embarrassing! This is how the entire world sees our country. How do you feel about this?

Ryan was able to get a great interview with the Mayor of Toronto, David Miller, who was the lucky individual who recieved the award on behalf of our country. See the interview at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v207VsT-e9g

Until next time! :)