Tear Gas For Breakfast Revisited

Snow is falling in Copenhagen- fat, wet flakes of the white stuff wrapping Denmark’s capital city in a soft blanket of peace. The sparkling Christmas lights of the holiday season and quiet stillness of the winter weather provide an unexpected finish to a radical day of protests, police beat downs and the ever intensifying COP15 negotiations process. The juxtaposition between the two realities is undeniably moving, casting a weird question mark over the final 2 days of the climate change conference that, despite all that has transpired thus far- or not transpired- makes you believe once again, however foolish it may seem, in hope.

The trouble wasn’t just in the streets today- inside the bursting at the seams Bella Center, several non-government agencies like Friends of the Earth and the Third World Network clashed with conference administrators over access while others walked out in the heat of negotiations in a show of solidarity with the thousands of people rallying outside and facing down tear gas, water canons, snarling dogs, and police batons. As for the delegates and leaders from around the world- you know, the people actually charged with hashing out the raison d’etre for the conference- hope still bubbles from many of them that a deal of some sort is possible before the party ends on Friday but what exactly that deal will look like is entirely up in the air.

This morning, Operation Copenhagen arrived at the Bella Center to the sounds of drums banging and tensions rising. A legally sanctioned rally- The Push for Climate Change-had been at it since early in the morning, thousands of activists gathering at separate train stations before making their way to the conference headquarters in hopes of “pushing” through security walls and gaining access to the center in an undeniable- albeit illegal- show support for sweeping climate change fighting legislation.