Archive for October, 2009

The Climate Debt Agents makes an important and prominent campaign in Brussels while the prime ministers of EU discuss the climate. With the message “EU pay your climate debt” the Agents in their red suits makes a sensational appearance in the streets of Brussels. See the picture in the Danish newspaper Politiken today (October 30^th) and read the article “EU takes an important step in the climate negotiations” (EU tager et vigtigt skridt i klimaforhandlingerne).

Read the interviews with the Agents in the article “De rykker for 42 milliader euro” (They reminds for 42 billions of Euro), published in the danish newspaper Politiken today October 28^th.

Watch the Climate Debt Agents as they do their spectacular walk through the streets of Copenhagen.

Right now the Agents are in Brussels to communicate their message to the politicians. Follow the events and performances on this site.

Today 3 Agents visited a holistic project just outside Nairobi, where it hasn’t been raining for 5 years. The project was about making a children’s home in a sustainable manner. Today, the international 350-day; we helped plant more than 400 trees.  In the desert environment, trees are a big task to grow so we planted special trees that needs a minimum of water. Hopefully in a couple of years the trees will have helped the troubled ecosystem so the rain will come back to the area.

The houses built for the project is made of recycled materials. Furthermore they are low on energy! The house constructions means that it is warm in the winter and cold in the summer. This means that they will have a very low need for electricity, and the small amount that is needed will in time come from solar power.

However the price of these initiatives are very high! The project we visited today is done by founding from outside Kenya.  So once again the message is clear: The solutions are here but they need the money. The money we owe to the developing world.

So for the Danish government – pay the climate debt!

Today 3 Agents visited a holistic project just outside Nairobi, where it hasn’t been raining for 5 years. The project was about making a children’s home in a sustainable manner. Today, the international 350-day; we helped plant more than 400 trees.  In the desert environment, trees are a big task to grow so we planted special trees that needs a minimum of water. Hopefully in a couple of years the trees will have helped the troubled ecosystem so the rain will come back to the area.

The houses built for the project is made of recycled materials. Furthermore they are low on energy! The house constructions means that it is warm in the winter and cold in the summer. This means that they will have a very low need for electricity, and the small amount that is needed will in time come from solar power.

However the price of these initiatives are very high! The project we visited today is done by founding from outside Kenya.  So once again the message is clear: The solutions are here but they need the money. The money we owe to the developing world.

So for the Danish government – pay the climate debt!

The Climate Debt Agents had their début in the National News October 19^th. In relation to the proposal from the minister of justice, Brian Mikkelsen, to make a law against disturbance, the Danish TV station DR made an item about peaceful campaigns featuring amongst others the Climate Debt Agents. The pictures below are screenshots from the item.

You’re probably asking yourself: could there be any better way to start a field work in Kenya than to visit the slums of Nairobi? Yes – starting the fieldwork with a video workshop with the guys from Ghetto Films in the slums of Nairobi! So that’s of course what we did!

The day started out early bird style with a one hour taxi ride through the dusty morning traffic to the slum village Korokoch on the outskirts of Nairobi, where we met up with the Ghetto Film crew – a group of young guys and girls working as volounteers on a community radio and a slum TV station. Their aim is to support and spread solidarity, a feeling of local responsibility and not least entertainment to the 1 million listeners and viewers living in Korokoch. Within just a few years their work of trying to create a better alternative for young criminals, they have played a major role in the development of Korokoch going from a place where people lived in constant fear of being robbed of murdered to the friendly, peaceful neighborhood it is today.

Global Change students and Ghetto Filmmakers took out to film three very different stories in the area: one group looking at a local orphanage for disabled children, one group looking into the promotion of a local beauty contest (Miss Korokoch) and finally one last group looking into a government-funded river cleaning project in the local river – a project which itself proved to be the perfect example of the inequality in environmental issues: the industries pollute the local river taking away an important resource from the inhabitants of the area, the government pays the local people to help clean up the mess in the river, the local people end up with typhoid due to a complete lack of safety equipment – and the polluters keep the pollution going and the absurd system running.

A perfect start for our campaign work – and not least an important lesson in the wonders of storytelling and media production. It’s definitely not easy, but tomorrow is another working day and for every minute we grow better and by December the politicians won’t stand a chance against our campaign claim: pay the debt, it’s yours!

The Climate Debt Agents in Denmark are preparing events, work shops and information meetings that will take place in Copenhagen, Odense, Århus and Bruxelles the next following weeks.

We will inform you at this web site and on Facebook about how you can take part in the events.

Yesterday 11 Climate Debt Agents arrived in Kenya after 12hours of traveling. The journey was quit interesting the high light being a meeting with Connie Hedegaard in CPH. She promised to respond to our mails, so for all the Climate Debt Agents at home start writhing! (a video will be posted later on).

Today we had our first meeting with Forest Action Network (FAN), an NGO that has been working against deforestation in Kenya since 1994. Doing our visits it became clear that we have come to the right continent when it comes to mapping climate change. 1/5 of all known species of plants, mammals and bird are located at east Africa. All of which are depending on the eco – system that are now being radically change because of climate change. There is less water in the rivers, the ice at Kilimanjaro are melting, the Enso rain is getting more extreme and coral reefs are being destroyed. The different species are struggling to adapt.

The humans living in villages are highly depending on nature and the eco-system to be continues. More people are suffering from malnutrition because their crops don’t grow anymore. The raising temperatures are making malaria spread to all parts of the country.

Energized after the interesting and informative day we can’t wait to start our fieldwork in cooperation with FAN in order to get as much information on the table as possible before COP15.

For more information on FAN: http://www.fanweb.org/
We will be posting more short news as they unfold so follow us on twitter and chek out our facebook group.

In less than a week from now 13 Climate Debt Agents will be heading for Kenya to gather evidence, deliver training and meet up with fellow activists. Follow our journey extensively here on this blog as we move along!

Among other things the program will include a visit at the Kelele blogger conference, 6 different communicties in the Arid and Semi Arid Lands severely affected by climate change – and a week-long training camp with youth from 4 different countries.