We have arrived in Copenhagen and set up for the day on Kongens Nytorv Square. The Polar Conservation Organisation will be in Copenhagen till 14 December so if you are in town for the event please come past and visit. You can not miss our buss just outside the D'Angleterre hotel.

Special thanks to:

- Uchronia & Jaga for the use of their Bus.

- BASE for providing 3G super fast internet access enabling us to update this blog amongst other things.

Well the day ends here early with the sun setting early. The square is filling up with evening guests and there are plenty of other organisations around with some or other activity.

Tonight PCO is hosting a dinner with its hosts, partners and sponsors for this event. More info and photos tomorrow...

Day 2 and much anticipation. We have a busy schedule with meeting with several other organisations. The bus is ideally located, and we hope to have some short video clips from the meetings to share with the PCO visitors. Most encouraging too are the number of polar related activities.

For those in Copenhagen we recommend the following WWF:

16:00

The other end of the Earth: change in the Antarctic – Presentation by Dr. Colin Summerhayes

17:45
Arctic and Antarctic governance - David Monsma, Executive Director, Energy and Environmental Program, Aspen Institute, and Dr. Robert Corell, Vice President of Programs, H. John Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, will discuss the results of the December 3rd Workshop on “Arctic Governance:  Drawing Lessons from the Antarctic” convened as part of the 50th Anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty Summit held at the Smithsonian in Washington DC.  The results from this workshop include:  (1) general insights from the Antarctic Treaty and its relevance to current Arctic governance; (2) the relevance of the Antarctic experience with regulatory measures of resources and human development in addressing Arctic issues; and, (3) what can be learned from the Antarctic experience in order to learn how to strengthen the science and policy interaction in the Arctic.  Discussion will also include how the Aspen Institute’s Dialogue and Commission on the Arctic Climate Change and the international study entitled The Arctic Governance Project are addressing the challenges facing the Arctic.

18:15

Steven Kazlowski – last polar bear. In a presentation based on his book The Last Polar Bear, wildlife photographer Steven Kazlowski exposes the new hardships faced by polar bears in northern Alaska and warns of a grim future, as their sea-ice habitat literally melts away.

Was quite excited to go to Copenhagen and be part of something as big as the United Nations Climate Week, or COP15 as they call it is generally called. It was a good chance to talk to the people on the street and to various others we had invited to come and give presentations.  The first day, I arrived at our boat, where we were to sepnd the first night.  I already had three meetngs scheduled that day, One with Nikolaj Bock from the European Environmental Agency who is planning to present at our boat on Friday, and with Maia from the Will Steger Foundation, who will present on Saturday and Sunday. The third meeting was with an old colleague from my Germany days.

I found that the people were very friendly, and after a few mishaps with the Danish Kroner, felt quickly at home.  We have a presentation truck at Konges Nytorv Square, where we set up a booth with our flags, banners and lots of flyers.  People were really drawn to the flashy bus and interested to find out who we were and where we were coming from.  In general, they were very supportive and wished us luck these coming days, standing in the cold and rain.  They kept apologising for the bad Danish weather on several occassions, which I found quite amusing. It seemed very important to them that we should have the greatest weather possible while here !

Tomorrow is going to be dry, but much colder and we have various meetings set up, with the WWF and CICERO.  Then there will be a presentation at the boat, which has been moved closer into the harbour and a stone throw away from Konges Nytorv Square.  The little harbour reminds me of Amsterdam.  Now, close to Christmas, there are little stalls lined up at the docks that sell traditional Danish things like lakritz (liqource) and other foods, that really smell good, but can't be good for you :-)

Its been a busy morning for the PCO team with back to back meetings with other organisations and several visitors. The Belgian media is also here filming (hopefully with a mention of PCO). Many more meetings this afternoon with a Polar theme and even more tomorrow when an Arctic themed exhibition starts.

Presentation by the European Environmental Agency

Protest from the Himalayas to Copenhagen.

Brendon Grunewald setting up the tent.

PCO's Kris Molle     getting ready to welcome visitors and hand out fliers.

The bus at night.

Well the end of a very busy day...

We had many meetings some planned and some that just came about during the day. PCO was also interviewed by the folks at HUB, details of that video will be announced here when it goes out.

Tomorrow we have a visit by well known explorer Will Steger after that the protests with tens of thousands expected and the ArcticVenue openning!

"Melting Polar Bear" outside the WWF Arctic Tent.

PoliticsNow program on Carbon Exchange at the TckTckTck FreshAir Centre.

The last two days have been crazy busy, filled with meetings and presentations.  Our first meeting yesterday was with Martin Sommerkorn from the WWF, which was held at our truck. Afterwards, there was a meeting with Annette (my Facebook friend !) from the Copenhagen Municipality, who had made it possible for us to be present at Konges Nytorv Square.  I had promised her a kg box of finest Belgian chocolate (as culturale interchange), but had left it at the apartment where I was staying, so will get the to her on Monday. 

At lunch time, Nicolaj Bock, from the European Environmental Agency gave a fantastic presentation at the boat, which was well visited.  Afterwards, we met with Erland Hermansen from CICERO. It was great to meet all of these people and we will be in touch with them more often in the future. 

While we were at the bus, two Danish policemen asked if they could come into the bus.  We offered them a cup of coffee and ended up talking to them for quite a while.  They told us that, unfortunately, they were expecting trouble at the demonstration as some "underground" groups had already announced that they were going to cause trouble.

In the afternoon, we headed into town and visited the Hoppenhagen presence and the WWF tent, where various presentations were given also. Outside the tent, there is a huge icebear made from ice with a bronze skeleton inside.  It has almost melted away already.  Copenhagen was starting to fill with foreigners, who had come for Saturday's demonstration. I was stopped by various people who thought that, because I was wearing our PCO logo on my jacket and cap, I was the tourist information.  It is funny because they ask you in their own language !  Being abroad, there has to be a tourist aspect, so I bought a Canada/Denmark flag pin in the souvenir shop. 

After an almost sleepless night (it is difficult to sleep with various snoring people in one room), we all gathered for breakfast. Unfortunately, during the night, a group of troublemakers  had sprayed grafiti on our truck and kicked against the door several times. Johnny, the driver, was very disappointed about it.  There really was no need for it.

At about ten am, Will Steger and Nicole Rom from the Will Steger Foundation arrived at the ship. They wanted to do some interviews before Will was set to do a presentation.  He is an extraordinary man, with a great vision.  He has travelled to parts of this earth that no longer exists. He was introduced to us by a friend Moki Kokoris    , whois a PCO member. For the presentation, we had visitors from the US, Norway, Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands and of course, Belgiun. He showed footage of the Larsen's A and B iceshelves, which now, only a few years later, no longer exist.  Like the PCO, his foundation is dedicated to awareness raising to the importance of the Polar Regions.  It was a great priveledge to meet him and have him present to us all.  After his presentation, Brendon and myself were interviewed by Nicole Rom and filmed by their cameraman. We were able to talk to several young people of his delegation who had travelled to Copenhagen with him.

In the afternoon, we got ready for the big demonstration. We did not participate, but watched from the bridge as the people walked passed us.  I am not sure how many were in the demonstration, heard that there were about 80,000.  Later that evening we heard that a group of about 300 people had gone on a demolishing spree and doing a lot of damage.  The sad thing is that no one will remember the thousands of other demonstrators that walked peacefully, with music and were singing and dancing and smiled at you when they saw our PCO flag and took pictures and gave us the thumbs up.  An American lady came up to interview us spontaneously. The people really care about our world, and want to make a chance.  I can only hope that the people, sitting at the Bella Centre, were able to take a look at the demonstrators outside their conference facility, but will it make a difference ?  The general feedback we get from scientists, explorers, the public and all the other people we have met and interviewed so far is that action is needed NOW.  But the sad fact is that, even if we act now, it might be too late. The Polar ice is melting, and we might be able to slow it down, but we will not be able to stop it.

13.12.09

Today we went to the Arctic Venue, which is in the embassy of various countries, Norway, Finland and I think Iceland.  There, various Arctic organisations had presentations etc.  Lots of material was made available.  There was also a Greenlandic fur product manufacterer of various Arctic animals.  Coats and bags made of seal fur were on display. 

One floor down, there was an exhibition of all kinds of Arctic animals, like Musk oxen, Icebears, all kinds of birds like Terns, Geese and Razorbills.  I took lots of pictures.  Brendon commented, when I took a very close up picture of an icebear, that I would never wanted to be that close to a life one.....

We did lots of walking over the past days, exploring the surroundings and I am grateful for my warm Sorel boots I bought about two weeks ago. Tomorrow will be a quieter day, with a bit of sightseeing and the flight back to our home. Before that, we will be packing up everything again, our stand, flags etc.  And I hope I get to say goodbye to the Copenhagen mermaid.

PCO would like to thank Uchronia and Jaga for hosting the PCO in Copenhagen, and BASE for providing 3G bandwidth and making amongst other things this blog possible.