Hi, I'm Jess from the United States, coming to you live from Copenhagen, a city totally abuzz with anticipation, excitement, and lately - ACTION. Courtesy of the 40 plus Greenpeace youth of over a dozen nations assembled here, Copenhagen has seen a lot of activity in its streets and squares.
To add to the 10 million signatures that Greenpeace, in coordination with the tck tck tck campaign, has collected internationally, we've fanned out across downtown Copenhagen to gather an additional 2,000 petitions. When we asked passerbys "Will you add your name to millions of others calling on world leaders to commit to a fair, ambitious, and binding treaty?" The answer quite emphatically is "Yes!" and in big numbers.
To spice up the constant petitioning, the team from Greenpeace USA kicked off a series of visits to the embassies of battleground climate nations. The US makes this list in a big way - we are far and away the biggest contributor to global warming pollution as well as the make or break voice at the United Nations' COP talks that begin next week. US students drove this action, coordinating a mass youth demonstration in the streets of Copenhagen. The movement for climate justice is truly one of the largest and most diverse in our nation's history. To take that movement to the doorstep of our decision-makers in the run-up to the most critical negotiations for our planet's future was a huge responsibility, opportunity, and...SUCCESS.
The student activists' words matter most, so I'll give 'em to you straight. Jess Serrante, a Senior at University of Vermont and one of the negotiators inside the embassy wrote this run-down of what the US Embassy visit was all about:
"As a priority country in the upcoming climate summit, yesterday we lead the US national day at the international youth vigil, and I have to say that I’m so proud of the whole group because the whole day went off without a hitch!
To kick off the day we had a march from the vigil site in Kongens Nyrtov square to the US embassy and it was so energetic!
In true American fashion, we had a loud ‘n rowdy march. We taught our international crew of Germans, French, Russians, and Dutch some American protest chants, which involved a lot of hilarious accents where a lot of meanings were lost in translation. We had prepped banners – some we made here in Copenhagen and others flew across the Atlantic with us in our luggage – and put together drums out to make a scene in the streets on the way to the American Embassy. We arrived and the guards of the Embassy rushed out to usher the group away from the entrance – a little too lively for them, I’d bet.
Ruthie, my fellow Greenpeace Student Network leader, student activist leader Brinkley Hutchings, and I stepped up to meet our host at the embassy, First Secretary of the Regional Envioronmental Office, Erik Hall.
We asked Mr. Hall to deliver a message to President Obama from the youth-led climate movement in the United States: OUR movement. It’s a massive and dynamic movement, and unlike anything that US has ever seen before in its rich social history. We wanted to be sure that Secretary Hall and, through diplomatic communication, the rest of the American negotiating team in Copenhagen felt the sheer scope of this movement – from Environmental Justice to Green Jobs to all of the work we are doing individually on our campuses and in our home states. This is a movement that is demanding a fair, ambitious, and binding treaty and we will not being backing down any time soon.
We talked about how a little over a year ago, as young people we put all our environmental work on hold to ensure that Barack Obama would be our next president. We fought to get him into office because he gave us hope and he promised us change. NOW, a year later, we are holding him accountable to the campaign promise that he made us about ‘restoring science to is rightful place’.
Another point that we discussed was that the US is in a position where our government can truly make the difference that all nations are waiting for. Being in this international youth team has been eye-opening. As hard as these other students work in Turkey or in Fiji or in Switzerland, their leaders can’t lead the world in the way that President Obama can. As big and as passionate as their movements are, their voices just aren’t as loud on the international stage. Ours are. So, to meet with Secretary Hall was really important not just for Brinkley and I and rest of the Greenpeace Student Network, but it was important for the world.
Secretary Hall gave us his word that he would do what he could to get our message to President Obama. We made it clear that he’d be hearing from us back home as well. So, it’s important that you take action today. Obama needs to be HERE, in Copenhagen on December 18th to push a binding and science-based treaty this year. We’re doing our best here in Denmark. Keep it up back home so that the US fulfills its responsibility to the world.
