The Old Country

Good Morning Copenhagen (Cop from now on).  2:48 am Cop time as my body seems to be a bit confused by the time change (8 hours). But ntl I arrived safely and had a fairly uneventful journey with few surprises and nice people.

B/c airports MSP and O'Hare charge for wifi (Bonging or something like that $7.95) I submit by Word doc to you to bring you up to speed on my preparation and a new Day 1...after counting down from Day 28, now I'm going the other way to 19..kind of puts things into perspective of TCK,TCK,TCK and the alarm that COP 15 will send to it's sleeping and awakening citizens,,,,,,

see you back here after a word from the past....thanks for your presence btw

Hmmmm Google won't let a word doc be posted...another learning .....ask me and I'll send you my story...short version

Tuesday's "All Hands On Deck" action at Peavey Plaza in downtown Mpls was a throw back to my Ski to End Hunger fasts and camp outs on the mall in July where I learned that I was to become a father....quite a day that was!!!


Here's a shot of Reed Aronow of the WSF Expedition Cop group speaking with Chuck Prentice and Kate Knuth in the background. Chuck is responsible for the Resolution which I now proudly carry (passed by the Edina City Council 4-1) as an example of local govt having a voice in the matter of Climate Change on a global level. Kate (in orange coat) is the MN State Rep from Arden Hills and New Brighton, very involved in greening our state and will be arriving in Cop on Dec 14th.....


....just when the World leaders (wait that's us) will be arriving in Cop to sign (what NASA's James Hansen the world's leading scientist on Climate Change now says "must fail" (b/c it's so flawed) the Cop Climate Treaty for our planet's road map to a healthy future.

Either way we have a lot of work to do....go to http://www.dailyclimate.org/copenhagen for all the dirt.

Also a huge shout out to Shara Motadhi (Edina HS student who is one of tomorrow's leaders today) for getting me onto FOX 9 Morning Show for a 4 minute interview on Wed morning with Kurt_________. BTW Shara, Kurt said he would post the link on the web so spread it around and send to me I'll post it here....my brief brush with TV stardom.

Speaking of stars....on my long flight from Chicago to Cop I sat next to  a young (26) attractive woman, Gita from a small city in Norway. She was returning from LA so my opening line was "so are you a movie star?"...she looks at me smiles and says "yes, I've been in LA for four days in meetings for a film I'm working on." She loves LA but can't believe how much time people spend in vehicles driving around.

The other huge thank you goes to Jen Kochevar my dear friend and one day media director...great shots and video from the Peavey Plaza event and support in getting ready for the journey....here's a shot of Jen in action and of our good bye at the MSP airport.

Amazing the skills we discover in ourselves when we are called into being for something we believe in.






The last piece that really to me is crucial is the growing partnership that the EEC (Edina Energy and Environment Commission) is building with the City Council who demonstrated that with the passing of this resolution the evening before I left:

WHEREAS, the City of Edina adopted ICLEI's Cities for Climate Protection Campaign on November 5, 2007 and

WHEREAS, through its actions (like forming our Edina Energy and Environment Commission) the City of Edina has demonstrated concern over global warming.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOVED, by the City Council of the City Edina strongly supports action at the upcoming UN Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen for the United States and other nations to commit to reducing green house gas emissions to a level necessary to stablilize
atmospheric CO2 levels at or below 350 ppm

Dated December 1, 2009


A BIG step for a small mid western city about to be better known on the biggest stage the climate conversation has ever seen.


Time to dive into e mail, setting up my day and riding my bike (thanks to my host Jane Vinter) for shopping and finding out "What Kind of World Do You Want?"

Reed and Bjorn at Peavey Plaza, "All Hands on Deck" action for Climate Action.

Paul in Genofte, Denmark...population 60,000

2 weeks out!!!

Bummer to fly at night but day break will come quickly as I head East for my first trip to Europe. I'm back and living in the future again.

Had our Nov. EEC (Edina Energy and Environment Commission) mtg this evening and Chuck Prentice (friend and whose daughter Valida will be in Copenhagen as well) came and suggested that we send a resolution to the City Council....so we came up with:

"The City of Edina MN strongly supports a comprehensive Climate Treaty at the UN Climate Change Convention in Copenhagen, Denmark which limits the GHG (green house gases)emissions to stabilize the level of atmospheric CO2 at 350 ppm or lower."

GO EDINA!!!!

I was at a Peace and Sustainability Conference at Hennepin Ave Methodist Church in downtown Mpls last Sunday and I mentioned I was with the Edina EEC and he looked up and said "you Edina people are really making things happen aren't you?"

and so we are....today with Cindy's help I even learned how to make a hot link on the donation link to the Edina Community Foundation on this blog and people who can't come to the fundraiser and update gathering at Sarah and Hamid's on Sunday are already contributing.

Breakfast with the Mayor and Dick Crockett from the ECF at 7:30...time to hit the sack...now to find the perfect HD video camera with an external mic jack and good sound controls....I can feel a new avocation brewing.

How do we get Obama to commit to going?

Edina to Copenhagen...not so far

Election Day 2009...remember last year? The whole country...perhaps much of the world was watching America and feeling this amazing change take place. As I walked down to Weber Park warming house to cast my vote for Edina School Board I was thinking about context and how important that is to set the scene for something big to happen.

Well, something very big is happening and like Obama's inauguration in January, I just need to be there.

The UN Summit on Climate Change will be held in Copenhagen Denmark from Dec. 7- 18 and it promises to be full of difficult negotiations, inspiring partnerships, humbling realizations and hopefully unexpected breakthrus. Heaven knows we need some big shifts to align the stars with a new pathway back to 350 ppm of CO2, the science based number referring to the safe maximum level of CO2 in our air to keep the Earth humming along the way it's been for the past few centuries..

the bad news....we passed 350 about 20 years ago and are now hovering dangerously close to the 4th century. so now that I've bummed everyone out here's the hopeful news that can help to create a Hopenhagen out of Copenhagen.

You.

10 days ago tens of thousands of you stood up, climbed mountains, had a cabinet meeting under the ocean surface in scuba gear, sang songs to the Earth and each others and tossed frisbees for the planet.....in 5200 locations in 181 countries...most of the countries that will be haggling out the details in Copenhagen for the most important of all treaties ever signed.

You did that, and now the real work of re-building our precious planet continues....and perhaps you'll come back to see how a frisbee player and retired 2nd grade teacher and a bunch of friends got together with a few million other unique humans to say "NO" to business as usual and "Yes" to building new systems for operating spaceship Earth....we seem to have lost the directions.

check out 350.org and 1 Sky for some inspiring scenes about you and your fellow humans on the move....I'll be back...more context to set the stage...with your help.