Days 10-11 Policy Updates: The Storm Before the Storm

By Nathan Thanki with input from Katie O'Brien, Anjali Appadurai, and others. Photos by Rachel Wells In short, the negotiations are falling apart. We say that with utmost respect for the work being done by our negotiator allies and friends among civil society observers. It is not their fault. Nor is it the fault of the UNFCCC per se, though its Secretariat must shoulder some blame. The...

On the way to the Rally

By Katie O'Brien I'm currently writing this post from my phone in a van on the way to the rally against the flow-reversal of the Portland-Montreal Pipeline. Thirty COA students are heading down, quite a few of whom are involved with Earth in Brackets. In the weeks since Doha, I have been trying to think of how to bring international climate justice issues into the dialogues and campaigns of...

The Night Shift

by nathan thanki The minarets are blaring. A prayer might be all we have left. It's 5am on Saturday morning and a rag-tag bunch of rabble rousers are scattered across various benches in a temporary tent-come-food-court that we've named "westaurant."  It's been a long night - one of frustration, confusion, and every negotiating tactic under the sun (or moon!) The details...

The Point of It All

Point of No Return By Mariana Calderon Sitting back in a bed in a hostel in Rio de Janeiro, trying to regain some sense of normalcy through regular sleep and regular meals, I hardly dare to think back on the last two weeks - or the last 20 years - just yet. Some time to recover, please. Unfortunately, time is something we don’t have much of anymore. In the halls of the Rio Centro convention...