Marnie Chesterton blogs away in/from Copenhagen:

Tuesday, 8 December 2009

We're sitting here in the middle of an enormous room that looks a bit like the inside of a shopping mall. To get here, we had to pass through the crowds of climate protesters outside, then the police who checked our passes and scanned us and our stuff. So now we're in the conference centre, along with at least 15,000 others, who are – variously - in meetings, press conferences, drinking coffee and preparing a way to stand out from the crowd (as evidenced by the gentleman below with the green nose).

 
But how to make your message stand out from the myriad of quite similar messages; variations on the theme of “Do something about the climate mess we’re in”?
 
Bribery and shouting
The Greenpeace strategy is a mixture of bribery and shouting, although it’s a lot more pleasant than this description makes it sound. Every morning, as potential deal-makers make their way into the conference centre, a labyrinth pre-fab on the outskirts of Copenhagen, they are meet by fresh faces offering fresh coffee. The payoff? You listen to the message of the day as you spoon in your milk and sugar. All against a backdrop of some loud ethnic chanting. Yesterday was drumming for action. Today was African chanting. Can’t wait for tomorrow’s treat.
 
Others take a more extreme approach; really preparing to suffer for the cause. Copenhagen in winter is not warm under normal conditions. So my heart really went out to Maldives activist Mohammed, who lowered himself into a tank of water to highlight the plight of the island (photo below) which is threatened by rising sea levels and climate change. Oxfam, who were helping to set up the stunt, seemed very insistent that the water be muddy, to reflect the waters that would swamp his homeland. Seemed mean though.

 
Today’s stunt goes to even further lengths as we met four hunger strikers who’ve had nothing but water for 33 days now. The international hunger strike is supposed to “wake the world up to reality” but with such a vague goal – climate justice – I’m hoping the strikers don’t wait until ‘climate justice’ happens before they restart eating, because the issues on the table here look set to run for years.