COP16

A Mayan Pyramid Built From Recycled Boxes and Hope | Inhabitat #COP16

Inhabitat was on the scene yesterday at COP16 when tcktcktck, a global network of NGOs, pieced together this colorful Mayan pyramid. Sure, it’s made from recycled boxes, but this cardboard monument is a little more than green materials. In fact, it’s covered in images submitted by NGOs worldwide, sending a message of passion and hope for the talks ahead. Read on to learn about how you can be part of this massive collaboration (hint: it has to do with that blank TV screen…)

via COP16: A Mayan Pyramid Built From Recycled Boxes and Hope | Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World.

Arcola Intern goes to climate negoitations in Cancun #COP16

After the disappointing outcome of Copenhagen last December the next climate change negotiations have started to  take place in Cancun, Mexico.

Arcola intern, Anthony Ford-Shubrook has been chosen as one of a group of eight to represent UK youth at the UN conference. He will be part of the UKYCC (UK Youth Climate Coalition) delegation, to campaign for politicians to sign up to real emissions cuts and cap temperature rises before it’s too late. There’s a lot of scaremongering and even scepticism around about climate change but when a recent study shows that 98% of climate scientists that publish research on the subject support the view that human activities are warming the planet and that this warming will lead to catastrophic events such as floods, droughts and violent storms across the world he feels we have to do something. Anthony says, “I’m going to go and take part in the movement trying to call for something to be done. If we act now to cut emissions we really can make a difference.”

At the conference Anthony will be campaigning and sitting in on the negotiations each day.

Visit www.ukycc.org for more information on Anthony’s trip.

Go to Arcola Energy

Fossil of the Day for Nov 30th – Day 2 – #COP16

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G-T3S7xf8s

The world famous fossil of the day returns for the UNFCCC COP16 Climate Talks taking place in Cancun, Mexico.

Japan wins the 1st place Fossil of the Day for reasons outlined below:

“When leadership is needed most, the home country of the Kyoto Protocol made a destructive statement in the AWGK plenary yesterday. It factually rejected the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol by saying Japan will not inscribe its targets under the Kyoto Protocol under any conditions or under any circumstances. Preferring a single treaty approach is one thing, but aggressively denying the future of Kyoto in open plenary is another.”

OneClimate will be broadcasting live from the talks – you can take part here – http://www.oneclimate.net/cancun

via YouTube – Fossil of the Day – Day 2 – Cancun, Mexico COP16 Nov 30th.

#COP16: Posters Depicting Designers’ Messages of Climate Change | Inhabitat

If a picture is worth a thousand words, there’s a whole lot of talking going on right now at the Eleventh Annual Poster Biennial of Mexico. “Disenyadores por la tierra,” (Designers for the Earth) is an exhibition of poster design down at the COP16 Climate Change Village exploring the theme of the relationship between man and his environment. Click through all of the pictures of these eye-opening posters and visit the site to download them for yourself.

via COP16: Posters Depicting Designers’ Messages of Climate Change | Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World.

Day 2 in Cancun – Opening of #COP16 debriefing

As with the previous COP, the CSPA has been seeking out alternative action around the climate meetings. Moe Beitiks, a CSPA affiliate and writer for Inhabitat.com, is Executive Director Ian Garrett’s traveling companion for the conference and made her way to the Moon Palace today. The CSPA, instead, headed to the Villa Del Cambio Climático or Climate Change Village to see what was happening with the Mexican version of Hopenhagen and meet with the co-director of Artport, Anne-Marie Melster, who is organizing projects here in Cancun.

You may remember Artport from last year’s COP15 and their (Re-) Cycles of Paradise, which has been remounted in Mexico City concurrent to COP16: Through video installations, photography, drawings, sculptures, and interactive interventions, artists such as Kim Abeles (USA), Subhankar Benerjee (Indien/USA), and Charley Case (Belgien) explore links between the destruction of nature and the suffering of women, revealing hidden or unknown aspects of the interrelation of gender and climate change. They will retell the story of a “lost paradise” and the role of women. Gender issues will be scrutinized as part of a process to reverse climate change. “Paradise” is no longer a long-lost ideal world but can be recreated as a contemporary, more sustainable place on earth.

This year, ARTPORT_making waves and partner Cinema Planeta are presenting a rich program of cell phone video contests, art videos, panels with conference participants and artists, and a live art performance with hundreds of children drowning little islands in the midst of a heated climate debate. It is part of the official cultural program of the United Nations Climate Conference in Mexico, COP16, at local cinemas, outdoor screens, public spaces, and conference locations in Cancun, Tulum, and Playa del Carmen.

Moe will have more on that soon, as the information is digested.

The Climate Change Village, like Hopenhagen, was a mixture of public stage, exhibitions on green technologies and cultural showcases. Aboce is a picture of masked dancers in the food stalls. Additionally, there was a temporary structure which held a photo and video installation by photographer Willy Sousa on the the culture of Mexico called Mexico en tus Sentidos which had previously toured to international cities and been a part of the Mexican Pavilion at the recent Shanghai Expo. It was capped with a lovely piece of Mexican Pride/Propoganda focusing on the diverse populations of Mexico interacting with the flag.

We immeadiately scurried over to the main expo hall to catch a screening of Cool Stories I, Artport’s short form, curator film series. It was unfortunately shown on a lo-res led video panel, but the films are worth check out in all of their glory on the Artport website.

Here is an excerpt from one of the included films, Rob Carter‘s Metropolis:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGF0hauSu34

Later on in the week, the Artport Public performance of La Isla Hundida (The Drowned Island), their collaboration with Spanish artist Javier Velasco, will involve hundreds of school children from Cancun, who will produce an island from a cutout model with a newspaper page during a live performance in a public space in each city. The children will then drown the islands in a large container filled with water. The performances will be videotaped and streamed live.

I may be gone by the time the first one happens, on the 4th, but if you would like to attend, check out their website or our calendar. And, to make your own drowning island, here are a couple informational vidoes:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB2s53vq6dw

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzbPwD8Kzzs

After the screening, we grabbed some tacos and climbed into a collectivo van to get back into downtown. One thing I will say is that there is plentiful and convenient transportation for getting around Cancun itself. Many buses, shuttles and collectivos, all really low cost. However, getting to the various sites related to the conferences–which are all fairly remote compared to downtown OR the hotel zone– is a real annoying venture. Official shuttles only go to official places like associated hotels, but not things like the bus station or transit hubs. And then you’re let with taxis, which aren’t expensive per se, but aren’t the lowest cost option.

Once we made it back, we took a dip in the pool and called it a night.

First Day in Cancun, Pre-#COP16 debrief

More soon, but a quick post at the very end of the day about how things are looking here in Cancun.

Today started out leisurely, we were on the shuttle to Cancun Messe around noon and got there in the early afternoon. The roadways are lined with police in a number of forms, but most foreboding is the Federal Police with their large automatic weapons.

There is less of a mass outside this initial meting place than the Bella Center, and it is just a stop over to most of the other sessions at the Moon Palace resort. Both locations are remote. The only reasonable transportation is the semi-hourly shuttles for various spots in the surrounding area.

With no lack of trying to be helpful, a staffer directing buses attempted to put us closer to the small town, where we could pick up the shuttle to this year’s Klimaforum. It instead put us at an equally remote resort from which we took a cab. Originally we were going to take the taxi from the resort to the shuttle stop, but I opted in for the full ride.

We arrived at the Kilmaforum hopeful, it was fairly well signed up to the gate, but once in it was a slow downhill. We traveled into the back of the El Rey Polo Club and found a hand drawn “Registro aquí”. The table to which it referred was staffer by temporary relief for the women who had been there. They assumed we would want to camp there, but we just were there to visit. We were also informed the shuttle wasn’t running on any schedule, just when people want to go and there was critical mass (10 people). We asked about getting the shuttle from the shuttle stops to here, they were puzzled.

Whereas the Klimaforum in Copenhagen for COP15 was the conference for everyone else that wasn’t in the Bella Center, this did not follow in it’s footsteps. Closer to the Climate Bottom Meeting in Christianshavn, even with tents for meeting spaces, it was more of a temporary commune than a conference. They had faster Wireless than our hotel, but were otherwise unprepared for visitors. We were directed to a press person who didn’t speak english, which is fine, it’s Mexico, where spanish is spoken, but we had made it clear to someone from an english speaking country (USA or Canada) that our spanish was minimal. So we hung out waiting for some film we were told was going to be shown at 5:00pm, then 5:30pm, but it never happened.

I’m pretty sure we overheard some people involved with the film talk about how this set-up wasn’t what they expected. They expected the meican sequel to the 2009 Kilmaforum, as had I. The response they got was: “Hey, we’re volunteers, we’ve been trying to get this together since Friday, we’re trying to do something different, this isn’t like every other conference you could get anywhere.”

After a guy who had hitchhiked from the Netherlands came to talk to us, since we’re press, we tried to leave. We asked about the shuttle and were told, that it’s only $1o pesos/person if there were 10 people in the shuttle, since that’s how much it costs to make the run. Since it was just us 2, it would be $50 pesos/person… just to leave we did it. The most comfortingly reliable and convenient transport of the day was the bus we took back to cancun.

A few things:

  • If you say the conference is from the 26th of a month, but don’t intend to have public until the 29th, just say it starts on the 29th.
  • If you tell someone that you’re going to show a film at 5pm, show a film at 5pm or make an announcement.
  • If you say you’re open and you’re running a shuttle, run the shuttle  and put it where people, thinking you’ve started, will expect to find it.
  • Also 2 shuttle vans for 10 people each running each journey for what you think is going to be even just hundreds of people is not enough.
  • Be upfront about how your systems work, and commit to it, even if it’s not going to be the best thing in one particular way.
  • If you’re going to do the communal living, camping in the woods, contemporary hippie thing… please be aware that it isn’t the most inclusive way to do things. You may be all friendly and want to love everyone warmly, but not everyone is bought into an extreme lifestyle like that, but they still might care about the climate.

We made it back to our hotel, even more so an oasis after the frustrations of the day, and set about dinner. We wandered nearby to the central square, which reminded me of home around area like Echo Park and McArthur Park. We had some food and wandered to the UNESCO photo exhibit on disappearing climates. Not unlike some of the photo exhibits in the public squares of Copenhagen. It was the first real, accessible, publicly engaged  moment of the day.

Tomorrow should prove to be better, I’m spending the day at the Villa de Cambio Climático, while Moe heads to the opening plenary. HOpefully more to report tomorrow, when the real fun begins!

Budget accommodation and free venues to participate in #COP16

  • Participate in COP 16
  • Come and share your ideas and experiences
  • Contribute to the design and implementation of innovative Climate Change initiatives
  • Transform participation in developing Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation strategies

Do you have something to share with the climate community? Are you looking for budget accommodation in order to participate in COP 16?

Carbonding invites you to join the Climate Community and participate in the two initiatives that we will be running during COP 16. Through Friendly Accommodation (http://www.carbonding.com/friendly.php), we offer a number of budget hotels, apartments and houses in Playa del Carmen, a small beach-town located 30 min away from the official COP 16 venue, Open Climate-X-Change (http://www.carbonding.com/openclim.php) is an open, free-access forum that will run in parallel during COP 16 in several venues in Playa del Carmen and that will host a number of cultural and artistic events as well as a series of thematic conferences. If you are looking for a free venue to host a climate-related event (e.g. lectures, photo exhibitions, artistic performances, etc.) please get in touch with our organizing committee at admin@carbonding.com. The final list of events that we will be hosting will be ready from www.carbonding.com on the 22nd of November and will be shared through Climate-L and by email. If you want to receive the list of events please send an email to admin@carbonding.com

Join us in this experience at COP 16 and be part of our Carbonding Climate Community!

The Organizing Committee

Carbonding Climate Community S. de R. L. de C.V.

Email: admin@carbonding.com
Web: http://www.carbonding.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/carbonding