Also our business

by Sarah “Adaptation is also our business,”as stated by Andrew Defrancesco which was the title of a side even this afternoon put on by members of the EU. The room was packed, and as we sat in rows and sweated, the presenters made some interesting and important points. According to IPCC predictions, the Mediterranean is going to be one of the areas of the world most affected by climate change....

This is not political gloss-over

by Sarah I feel pretty confident saying that some of the statements delivered in this morning’s high level segment by NGOs had the blood pumping through the veins of the room. Prior to the youth speech- which was delivered by three of our wonderful, intelligent, and inspiring number and ended in all of us calling loudly to pull together (”Harambe!”)- two African women in particular had a...

A not-so-small problem

by Sarah In a side event about deforestatrion this morning, researchers from the Woods Hole Research Institute talked about the science of emissions from tropical deforestation. I was disappointed that they did not go into specifics of monitoring procedures and how they got their numbers, but the message was clear: deforestation is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions (mostly carbon...

We may be small…

by Sarah Connie Hedegaard, Minister of Environment of Denmark, just made the most exciting speech I have heard here so far. Perhaps it is my Danish pride surfacing, but this dynamic speaker not only hit the nail on the head by saying that, although we make progress at these meetings, COP is a frustrating process that is not enough, but enthusiastically announced DK’s bid to host COP15-COP/MOP5...

Weather and development

by Sarah After lunch, I walked by the World Meteorological Institute’s (WMO) booth and decided to try to get a better idea of how people actually monitor things like atmospheric temperature, sea surface temperature, weather, etc. and how that information is used. After speaking to a WMO representative, I have gleaned the following info, which I think is interesting. There are several satellites...