Kris' impressions 2

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.