InvestigateWest will be covering climate talks in Copenhagen; WTO-style street protests expected

By Alexander Kelly    Ten years after Seattle witnessed the largest anti-corporate globalization action the United States has seen, protesters will take to the streets of Copenhagen in a week to oppose the global capitalization of the struggle against climate change.

The delegates attending the upcoming high-stakes negotiations are expected to entertain mostly market-based solutions to climate change, which critics say improperly treat carbon as a commodity to be traded among the world’s largest polluters.

Plenty of activists aren’t buying it, and like their predecessors at the WTO rallies in ‘99, they’re ready to let world leaders know.

Nor are they buying the rhetoric spouted at Singapore’s recent international economic summit, where the official goal of the Copenhagen meetings was reduced from the development of a “legally binding treaty” to a “political” one. The announcement has activist groups like Bill McKibben’s 350.org and members of the Climate Justice Action network in an uproar, with street-side frustrations on the rise as the will to tackle climate change seemingly takes a political nosedive.

As tens of thousands of protesters from the world over converge on December’s climate talks, so will InvestigateWest. We’re sending a team of fully equipped young journalists to observe, photograph, film and report on the developments at what’s known as COP-15.

Allow me to introduce our crew.

• Blair Kelly, 28, has spent the last six years making narrative and documentary films in San Francisco, where his projects have netted multiple awards. His video updates, complete with protest actions and interviews, will accompany the written portion of our reports.

• Capturing stills at the COP-15 will be Christopher Crow and Mark Malijan, current and former students of Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. Chris, 27, a humanities major, is returning to photography after breaking from an avid practice early in his twenties. Mark, 23, is a recent graduate of the WWU Journalism Department, where he received a degree in visual journalism. He twice received the Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence award. Both have published work in such papers as Whatcom Watch and The Bellingham Herald.

• Finally, handling interviews and the written portion of our reports will be me, Alexander Kelly. At 22, I’ve spent the last four years studying the humanities and biology at WWU. I have published socio-environmental pieces in The Planet magazine and Cascadia Weekly, and have interviewed such figures as David Suzuki and Derrick Jensen.

As young journalists with an interest in our generation’s future, we’ve been paying close attention to the events leading up to the Copenhagen talks. We won’t limit our reports to a mere recounting of the events – we’ll also tell you what they mean. We’ll have access to press briefings inside the COP15, and will keep a heavy focus on the thousands of activists and protest actions expected in the streets.

We’re also looking for any Dateline Earth readers who are making their way to Copenhagen. If you or your group plans on attending, please get in touch with us at akelly@invw.org.

The talks begin December 7th and run through the 18th. Check back here for daily updates on the developments in Copenhagen, and the future of global climate change.