Green Canary Sustainability Consulting

You remember all the flap in November about how Congress had proclaimed pizza a vegetable when it comes to school lunches? The “eh” news first: Pizza is still a vegetable. The better news: Today, for the first time in 15 years, the USDA announced significant new nutrition standards, including a call for at least two veggies at lunch. That means the pizza needs to be paired with a side of “other” veggies, or fruit. You know. Peas, carrots, even tomato paste’s cousin, tomatoes. Those will work too.

Sarcasm aside, the new nutrition standards signal progress toward healthier options for our children in the lunchroom. More vegetables and fruits, more whole grains, skim chocolate milk and at least 1% regular milk, first-ever lower sodium levels and reduced calorie ranges according to age.

We know big change doesn’t come overnight — especially in the complex world of public health and the environment — so we welcome the new standards. Last week, it was big news from the CDC that adult obesity rates in the U.S. have leveled off (for the moment). Encouraging news, but not yet a trend. Based on our experience working in the world of obesity prevention, we know the ultimate deterrent is a combination of policy and education that leads to successful behavior change. And in the case of obesity prevention, that means better nutrition and exercise on an individual basis. This couldn’t be more important for any age range up to 100 as it it for kindergartners and students from first grade through high school graduation. It doesn’t take a scientific study to know what we were fed growing up has an influence on what we eat now. This is progress. Let’s hope a ripple effect continues.

By Zach Hyder, Chief Marketing Officer

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” – Winston Churchill

We’re approaching the end of another successful year at EnviroMedia. 2011 marked a number of achievements for our agency – including our selection as a finalist for PR Week 2012 Agency of the Year and launching an international pro bono campaign for the Pay It Forward Foundation on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

As we celebrate our successes and look ahead to new growth opportunities, it doesn’t go unnoticed that these are challenging times for many organizations addressing the very social challenges we have been working on since 1997.

With each year EnviroMedia is given opportunities comes an obligation to give back. More important, it’s a reminder that true social change can’t be left up to any one institution – private or public. Our annual charitable giving isn’t just about generosity. It’s about strengthening the critical partnership between business, nonprofits and government required to address global challenges – from climate change to chronic disease to civic engagement.

This month, EnviroMedia contributed more than $26,000 to nonprofit organizations as our way of giving back – and helping build the resources needed to enact meaningful social change.

The Symbolism of Bikes
Kevin Tuerff and Valerie Davis first pledged their support to buy 50 bikes for Central Texas children in 2009. In addition to knowing that children will wake up to find a new bicycle under the Christmas tree, bikes remain a symbol of our work on environmental and public health issues. Fitness for kids discourages childhood obesity, and riding bikes reduces air pollution from car trips.

This year, our donation of $6,000 to JB & Sandy’s Annual “Bikes for Kids” Drive is putting more bikes under the tree for kids and reminds Texans of the benefits of biking.

Supporting Issues Our Staff Care About Most
We’ve pledged $5,000 to both Marathon Kids and Well Aware – health organizations that are true passion projects for our staff. After stinking it up for one week by our staff for Shower Strike 2011, everyone wanted to help Well Aware grow in 2012 to build more water wells in East Africa.

More than 1 million kids have completed the running of 26.2 miles with Marathon Kids. With our help, the group will expand nutrition and fitness programs to new cities. These donations add to staff volunteer efforts and funds donated by staff in our Austin and Portland offices.

Homelessness & Self-Sufficiency
The National Alliance to End Homelessness reports that more than 650,000 Americans are currently homeless – a number that has been increasing at an alarming rate during this economic downturn. We are proud to support OutsideIn in Portland, helping Oregon’s homeless youth move toward improved health, and Austin’s Caritas to provide services and resources that help individuals achieve self-sufficiency.

Health Care Is a Right, Right?
In the wake of the political infighting over health-care reform, Americans continue to struggle with access to care. Many face challenges with chronic disease prevention and treatment. The Seton Fund, which helps the economic poor gain access to health-care services, will receive a donation to help deliver needed care to Texans without health-care coverage. If you’ve read about our Portland staff’s work on HIV/AIDS education, you’ll know why we continue to support our friends at the Cascade AIDS Project to help Oregonians infected and affected by HIV.

Protecting Our Environment

This is an issue we care a bit about. Environmental protection is about more than our work on complex global issues related to climate change. It’s about protecting the natural spaces that provide us with quality of life and create a sense of community. This year, we’re sponsoring the Austin Parks Foundation’s It’s My Park Day, an annual community service day focused on cleaning, trail building and playground installation in Austin’s parks. We are also supporting organizations working to protect the health and vitality of the Puget Sound national estuary, including People for Puget Sound and the Washington Environmental Council.

Empowering Change
As election season kicks off in January, we are committed to keeping critical issues out front for community leaders, candidates and elected officials. EnviroMedia is sponsoring the Oregon League of Conservation Voters to help make the environment in Oregon a legislative priority. As the national debate over education reform and investments continues, we’re helping Austin’s Girlstart empower girls in science, technology, engineering and math.

Each of these contributions are just part of the solution. None will be enough to fully address the challenges we will all face in 2012 and beyond. We hope you’ll consider how you can help support these groups – and join us in working toward meaningful, sustainable change at home and around the world.

Happy Holidays from everyone at EnviroMedia Social Marketing, and Happy New Year!

By Kevin Tuerff and Valerie Davis, co-founders of EnviroMedia and business delegates at COP17 representing the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development

This op-ed published in Sustainable Business Oregon

“We are in a world where nobody is in charge, and that is equally true in the United States.”  That’s a quote we heard from Brian Dames, CEO of the South African electric utility giant Eskom, at “Durban Business Day” at the recent 17^th Conference of the Parties (COP17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Whether you believe the U.S. is the dominant world power or not, during our two weeks at COP17, we witnessed similar sentiments from people around the world who believe our country created most of the problem, yet have been blocking solutions.

Penny Urquhart summed up the quandary well in the South Africa Sunday Times COP17 review we read as we flew out of Durban on December 11: “We still have a massive disconnect between the science, which tells us what we need to do to avoid more dangerous climate change, and the politics.”

On the science side, as COP17 approached in November, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its report citing a “high confidence that both maximum and minimum daily temperatures have increased on a global scale due to the increase of greenhouse gases.” Meanwhile, on the political side, the U.S., China and India were at loggerheads for the entire two-week conference over committing to the same emissions cuts.

Surprisingly, as the beleaguered negotiations ran into record-breaking OT, the U.S. came out of COP17 a bit of the hero by suggesting the winning compromise language (“outcome with legal force” rather than “legally-binding”) and signing on to the “Durban Platform” with all major emitters agreeing by 2015 to commit to putting the same cuts into force by 2020. As for the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed but never ratified by the U.S., a second phase will continue in 2013 for 27 nations that were originally part of the 1997 climate treaty.

Let’s face it, climate change is just as political as it is complex — and it’s especially exacerbated by a flailing economy, headlines about “climategate,” powerful energy lobbyists and the pending 2012 election year. But no matter what your beliefs are about politics and climate change, extreme weather is a reality.

According to a new report from the National Resources Defense Council based on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in just the first 10 months of this year, every state in the U.S. had experienced record-breaking weather events — from drought and high temperatures to flooding and heavy snowfall. In fact, NOAA reports that in the same period, we broke records for the number of weather events in the U.S. that have cost more than $1 billion apiece in damage, with the grand total at more than $52 billion. Additionally, the report put a price tag on health costs related to weather events, citing, for example, a two-week heat wave in California in 2006 that caused 655 deaths, 1,620 hospitalizations, more than 16,000 emergency room visits and a cost of $5.4 billion.

As environmental marketing professionals, we believe it’s time to simplify the issue, starting with rebranding politically charged terms like “climate change” and “global warming.” It’s the same strategy tobacco giant Phillip Morris took rebranding itself as Altria after the multibillion-dollar settlements years ago, and AIG Financial Advisors took after the financial bailouts, changing its name to SagePoint Financial.

Let’s try the same tactic for the greater good by rebranding climate change to represent what it really means — extreme weather planning and cleaner energy practices. Whatever we do, let’s build a dialogue in this country to make this critical issue more relatable to all Americans.

By Kevin Tuerff, EnviroMedia president & co-founder

Did you know climate change may cause increased urinary tract and water-related infections? How about increased diarrheal disease, pneumonia, malnutrition and skin cancer? Did you know it may also cause increased human trafficking and prostitution? I’ll admit when I first read this, it seemed like a stretch. However, in poor countries, these predictions demonstrate the real-world connection between environment and public health.

South Africa’s climate adaptation plan works closely with not only the government’s environmental ministry, but also its ministry of health. At the UN climate talks (COP17) in Durban, South Africa, the government proudly displays the details of their plans for dealing with future impacts from climate change like ongoing droughts and more intense natural disasters.

Ah, now I get it. If a drought-stricken third-world country with an already inadequate water supply and treatment systems has even more problems, it will trigger an even greater number of waterborne diseases. And if crops don’t grow, farmers become more desperate. Food prices rise so much that people can’t afford to eat enough healthy foods.

Inability to provide for one’s family’s most basic needs undoubtedly creates anxiety and depression. These health problems create social problems, creating even more health problems. South Africa predicts it may face increased violence against women and children as well as increased human trafficking and recruitment into sex trade. Prostitution directly impacts rates of sexually transmitted disease like HIV and AIDS.

The facts from South Africa seem to bear this out: the South African Department of Health Study estimates that 29.4 percent of pregnant women (aged 15-49) were living with HIV in 2009.

South Africa’s plans to overcome these climate-related health impacts include: improved primary health care; promotion of disease prevention including breastfeeding, food safety and use of sunscreen; and increased access to contraception. By being prepared, and educating the public, governments will certainly help save lives.

By Valerie Davis, EnviroMedia CEO

Last year at COP16 in Cancún, we got to attend the REDD+ meeting hosted by Avoided Deforestation Partners (ADP). We were promised Dr. Jane Goodall, and we got her – but by video due to her travels. This year, at COP17 in Durban, we attended the fifth of these annual meetings, and Dr. Goodall was not only there, but stayed throughout the 3.5-hour meeting – and treated the invitation-only crowd of about 200 to her signature chimpanzee calls (see video at end).

“I spent so much of my life out in the forest. . . . The forests were not put on the planet for us. . . . We need to protect them for themselves.” – Dr. Jane Goodall

According to ADP, deforestation consumes an acre of rain forest per second and contributes an estimated 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. ADP’s founder Jeff Horowitz assembled a high-profile lineup to talk about the problem, starting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, left. Throughout the meeting, many participants cited poverty and food security as key issues related to the deforestation problem, as the poor are vulnerable to implementing damaging tactics on their land. “There’s no way we can save the chimpanzees and the forests when people are struggling to survive,” said Dr. Goodall. Norway Secretary of State Kjetil Lund, co-chair of the Green Climate Fund Transitional Committee, said REDD+ could be helped through the fund, which is to provide developing countries with assistance via $100 billion per year by 2020. Lund said the fund will likely be launched and ready for start-up funds as COP17 concludes this week, and reports this morning are encouraging about the fund’s progress in Durban.

Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai of Kenya, founder the Green Belt Movement to plant trees while empowering women, was supposed to play a key role in this year’s REDD+ event but died in September. Her daughter Wanjira Maathai, left, is continuing her mother’s work as international liaison of the Green Belt Movement and led a panel session that included Dr. Goodall, UN Development Programme Administrator Helen Clark (former prime minister of New Zealand), and former president of Ireland Mary Robinson, now head of her own foundation for climate justice. It was inspiring to hear from these ladies, and sad, too, because Wangari Maathai was not there. She was scheduled to be at the REDD+ meeting in Cancún but, like Dr. Goodall last year, also had to deliver her message via video. It’s heartening to see her legacy continue with her daughter, and the Green Belt Movement with activity in Kenya and beyond.

Throughout the meeting, video tributes to Wangari Maathai came from President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton.

President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was also to attend the meeting but was traveling to Oslo to receive the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.

Liberia Minister of Foreign Affairs Toga Gayewea McIntosh delivers a message from President Johnson Sirleaf. As the country recovers from a devastating civil war, she said, “We are redeveloping our country and want to rebuild in a sustainable way.”

U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change Jonathan Pershing appeared on a panel about government and private sector partnerships, then dashed out the door to COP17 negotiations. With less than 48 hours left for the Durban meeting, once again, we are left with a standoff between the U.S. and China.

Greenwashing Contributes to Deforestation Problem

Puvan Selvanathan, vice president of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, in photo on right with Sean de Cleene of Yara International, talks about working with small land owners and the organization’s tool to monitor and report greenhouse gas emissions as part of its certification process. Good thing, since a Malaysian Palm Oil Council spot has been rated one of the worst in greenwashing on our Greenwashing Index website since 2008. Greenwashing was cited by Dr. Goodall and World Wildlife Fund U.S. Senior Vice President Jason Clay as a contributor to the deforestation problem.

Watch Dr. Goodall emulate her beloved chimpanzees with a chimp call and hug for ADP founder Jeff Horowitz:

Goodall Does Chimp Call

By Valerie Davis, EnviroMedia CEO

When we attended Durban Business Day on Monday, UN Climate Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres finished her update on COP17 negotiations by saying, “There’s no way we can move forward until government and the private sector work together.” Then she asked for a moment to give an “advertisement” and invited us to the launch of the “Momentum for Change Initiative” in the Plenary Hall the following night, and promised a “surprise.”

After two weeks of rumors and press reports that Angelina Jolie and Leonardo DiCaprio would be in Durban for the climate talks, I have to admit we got our hopes up for those stars being the surprise Figueres promised. Kevin, after all, had heard people talking in Japanese in the buffet line at breakfast and all he could understand from their conversation were the words “Angelina Jolie.”

I resolved to go to the Momentum launch. After a closed session in the King Protea Plenary Hall, hundreds of us pressed to get the best seats, where negotiators sat earlier discussing the implementation of agreements made at COP16 in Cancún, the Green Climate Fund and the future of the Kyoto Protocol.

I sat down in the center of about the fourth row, got my camera and Tweet Deck ready, and wondered, “Which way is Angelina going to come from?” The first two rows were reserved for dignitaries, and when they filed in, everyone rose and half of the hundreds of us snapped photos. I spotted Figueres talking to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, COP17 President Maite Nkoana-Mashabane (my online research revealed she is just three days younger than I am) and took a bunch of very blurry photos. Everyone rose again when South African President Jacob Zuma entered the room.

Then the program began, with British economist Lord Nicholas Stern moderating a program featuring Figueres (at left; Stern called her “the life force behind this event”), Mashabane (in photo below), Ban and Zuma.

I’ll get to the point. There was no Angelina Jolie, no Leonardo DiCaprio. But there was a shiny example of the public-private partnerships Figueres pushed for on Monday. The Momentum for Change Initiative, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will spotlight examples of successful public-private partnership climate adaptation and mitigation projects around the globe. We saw a well-produced video highlighting 10 projects benefiting the urban poor in South Africa, Ethiopia, Seychelles (archipelago north of Madagascar), the Philippines, Brazil, Kenya, Uganda, India and China. The projects range from LED street lighting in China to solar development in rural India to soda bottle lighting in the Philippines. I’d seen an example of this a few weeks ago in a “Liter of Light” video forwarded around EnviroMedia by Associate Creative Director Antoine Harris.

Be sure to watch Momentum for Change videos (which were just posted by the UN Secretariat as I write this blog). You’ll see the real stars don’t come from Hollywood but from around the world, illuminating the way forward for positive change with these “Lighthouse Projects.” Featured in the top photo, these climate stars were welcomed to the stage at the end of the Tuesday night program. Bravo to Figueres for pushing for an unprecedented, progressive educational platform from the UN Climate Change Secretariat.

Below, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and South African President Zuma

By Valerie Davis, EnviroMedia CEO

A rules-based second commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol will be produced at the 17^th Conference of the Parties (COP17) in Durban, South Africa, this week, according to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres (above).

The question is no longer “Is there going to be a Part 2” but “How will it look?” a confident Figueres told about 120 of us at Durban Business Day, organized by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. She said a second commitment to Kyoto would contain the same metrics as under the first period, but that details would be refined over time. “What instruments will be built into it to raise the ambition of it” is yet to be determined, she said.

As the second week of negotiations kicked off at COP17 yesterday, Figueres reported that by end of Week 1, two of six negotiating tracks had wrapped late Friday night and negotiators had a draft of a long-term text to review over the weekend.

After a relatively quiet first week – with headlines about Canada’s intent to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol – Figueres said the turning point was the European Union’s offer to extend its commitment to the 1997 agreement – with “certain conditions.” Reports say those conditions mean major carbon dioxide emitters like the U.S. and China would support plans for a binding pact by 2015 that will supersede voluntary commitments by 2020. Later yesterday, China announced it would support a binding framework this week. Figueres said most of the climate ministers are here (I can vouch for the U.S.’s Todd Stern, as I saw him in the hotel gym yesterday morning) and this week will be about identifying “the likelies” to join the EU in calling for Kyoto Part 2. The ministers are having their first meeting today.

When moderator Marc Spelman of Accenture asked Figueres how we are moving toward the $100-billion-per-year Green Climate Fund, she said, “We don’t expect one to be open and ready for business until probably 2013,” adding that the instrument is “such a political issue” that debate will likely move well into Friday. The Green Climate Fund was adopted last year at COP16 in Cancún to support climate projects in developing countries.

“I question whether the Green Fund should be used for technology,” said American Electric Power’s Dennis Welch (below), who appeared on a panel on climate finance. He said the $100 billion is “woefully short” of adequately funding technology, citing AEP’s now idle Mountaineer carbon capture and storage project in New Haven, West Virginia. Welch called the project “successful” but pointed out that the government would not help absorb costs.

“Are you suggesting the Green Climate Fund should be used to finance coal?” asked a Greenpeace representative in the audience, citing renewable energy projects as perfectly viable. Welch said “we would be fooling ourselves” to think renewable energy would replace coal in 20 years and pointed out that what coal goes unsold in the U.S. is consumed overseas.

Coca-Cola’s Jeff Seabright, appearing on another panel, said the company reports climate change “as a risk to our business” in its SEC filings. With operations in 206 countries and 100,000 bottling companies, Coca-Cola is also the world’s largest juice company. Seabright cited water and agricultural issues as its two areas of greatest concern related to climate, and said all bottlers are required to conduct watershed assessments and adopt plans that ultimately will help the company work toward its goals of replenishing water supplies.

Greenpeace demonstrators outside the WBCSD meeting. Two representatives were invited inside the meeting. WBCSD President Björn Stigson said, “It’s good to see you inside rather than outside demonstrating.” They replied, “It’s important to do both.”

Pro-poor carbon practices empower rural villages as vital part of climate solution

By Valerie Davis, EnviroMedia CEO

“Micro-hydro” system brings renewable power from falling water to rural Indian villages.

“Before this, we were in darkness.” —Villager who lives in one of many rural Indian communities that are “off the grid” and coping with climate adaptation through micro-hydro renewable power generation, rechargeable solar lanterns and low-carbon farming.

Siddharth D’Souza

On Tuesday, I learned at the UN Climate Change Conference that 56 percent of rural households in India have no access to electricity. But Siddharth D’Souza and four colleagues associated with the Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change (INECC) shed light on simple technologies — like the micro-hydro — that are locally sustainable, cleaner and easier. At the same time, poor villagers are becoming empowered, and in the case of the solar-powered lanterns and charging stations, “marginalized” women are even becoming entrepreneurs.

“Technology has not really been the problem — men have been the problem,” said Ajita Tiwari Padhi of the INECC. “They couldn’t see how women could have energy solutions. . . . They [have been] undermining women’s ability to do what has been seen as man’s domain.”

Another obstacle has been tradition.

“The trouble is, [wood stoves, kerosene lanterns] have been used for generations,” said Mr. D’Souza. “When we introduced hydro, they thought I was mad, that it just wasn’t possible. You only make the switch when you see it, when there is no alternative.”

According to Jahangir Masum, the monthly household income of the poor and marginalized women is about $50, and almost 90 percent of them live in straw/leaf/bamboo/tin structures, many of which have been damaged. Incredibly, in some areas “many women have no income source and their husbands [have been] killed by tigers.”

In off-grid villages in the Jharkhand region, women have turned entrepreneur by learning to “make, market and maintain” solar LED lanterns and charging stations, replacing reliance on sooty kerosene lanterns.

And in North Karnataka, villagers are using “Culika” — an efficient cookstove that consumes half as much firewood. Even better, the micro-hydro system in Odisha generates power from falling water — which means no need for wood stoves or lanterns.

Mr. D’Souza says that over the past four of five years, villagers who have access to a micro-hydro system have “less eye-burning” from not having to use kerosene lanterns and wood stoves as well as a “general feeling of being healthier.” Rural communities are also learning “low-carbon farming” practices — replacing damaging agricultural practices of the past with sustainable techniques which yield more crops and better prices for them.

A “bottom-up” approach is a vital piece of the climate change solution at the COP17 negotiations, said panel moderator Dr. Nafisa Goga D’Souza of INECC. “The political framework that exists today is not adequate” without “pro-poor carbon projects.”

And it’s the effects of climate change on the vulnerable that make empowering small communities to cope even more vital. Mr. Masum talked about how one village in the Barisal district had never been affected by a tornado. But after a super tornado swept through, one survivor reported: “The tornado has told us that climate is changing, and changing faster than our understanding. Since our grandfather[s] had no idea about tornado[s], we believe we humans are somehow responsible and we have to work together.”

Consider this: As of 2008, India is the world’s third largest carbon dioxide emitter. Fifty-eight percent of its CO2 emissions come from electricity, but more than half of rural communities aren’t even on the grid. Why shouldn’t those underrepresented but most affected become more meaningfully empowered as part of the climate solution?

By Kevin Tuerff

(DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA) Two years ago, all the world was focused on the massive gathering of world leaders at COP15 in Copenhagen to ink a climate treaty. It didn’t happen. So what’s the deal with COP17 in Durban, South Africa? Valerie Davis and I are serving as business delegates to the convention again, thanks to the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Here’s a summary of expectations by leaders of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The quotes were published in Climate Change—The New Economy, a magazine being distributed at the International Convention Center.

COP17 President, South African Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane: The success of Durban will be measured by three categories:

• Finalize the Green Climate Fund details and get it going to help developing countries.

• With the Kyoto Protocol expiring next year, find resolution about the legal nature of a future climate change system.

• Instead of national governments, empower mayors of local governments to form the bulwark of efforts against climate change.

Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action: “Let us be clear on this: A second Kyoto period with a very limited number of parties participating is clearly insufficient to solve the problem of global warming. Let us instead try to get all major emitters on board for a future legally binding global agreement on climate change. In Durban, we should be able to agree on a clear roadmap and timeline for future years.”

Dr. R. K. Pachauri, Chairman, IPCC: “Perhaps most importantly, global awareness of climate science and options for mitigation and adaptation need to be more effectively disseminated across all stakeholder groups. To quote Albert Einstein: ‘Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.’ It is the spread of robust knowledge on climate science that will benefit policy-making, send appropriate signals to the market, and generate changes in consumption and production to ultimately provide solutions for the benefit of humanity and the ecosystems on this planet.”

Dr. Ania Grobicki, Executive Secretary, The Global Water Partnership: “Despite overwhelming evidence on the link between water, climate and development, negotiations in the UNFCCC have side-lined water management. Improved water resources management should be seen as part of the solution for both adaptation and mitigation. Parties should provide a mandate to discuss water on the agenda of the Adaptation Committee.”

Dr. Maria P. Neira, Department of Heath and Environment, World Health Organization: “Investment in public transit, walking and cycling systems, are strongly associated with improved health and reduced cardiovascular disease and obesity.”

Amen to all of the above, I say. Watch this blog through December 13 to see what really happens.

So much of what the world needs to create sustainable change starts with educating people about science, environment and health. Hmm, that’s what we do best at EnviroMedia.

So, we’re at breakfast after just having completed the 28-hour journey to Durban, South Africa, for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Kevin suddenly spots UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres walking past our table. I’m still frazzled but Kevin has a good eye, jumps up and introduces our table to the amiable Figueres. She then invites us to her afternoon gig — a Multi-Faith Rally for Climate Justice with Archbishop Desmond Tutu at Sharks rugby stadium. Wow! After clearing out the cobwebs with exercise and fresh air on the boardwalk just outside our hotel, we head to Sharks Stadium at 2 p.m.

Kevin and I were tired but thrilled to meet Christiana Figueres at breakfast.

The crowd is sparse (chilly weather? not enough publicity?) but the stage presence is powerful. After many speakers and performances (including Ladysmith Black Mambazo), Archbishop Tutu takes the podium. He compared overcoming apartheid with climate change challenges: “Now, we’re facing another huge, huge enemy. No one country can fight this particular [enemy] on its own. . . . We have only one home. . . . Whether rich or poor this is our only home and if we destroy this home we’ve had it. . . . We are inviting you to come to the side of right.” Later, the Archbishop joined Figueres and South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ms. Maite Nkoana-Mashabane (president of the UNFCCC’s 17th Conference of the Parties, COP17) on the stage to accept a petition of 200,000 signatures calling for climate change progress in Durban. After accepting the petition, which had been delivered by cyclists who had collected signatures across the country, Figueres cautioned about expecting too much from one conference, telling the cyclists and small crowd, “This is a long ride. No matter what happens in Durban, it’s a step forward.”

Kevin and I head to COP17 this afternoon to get our credentials for the two-week conference. We’ll keep you posted.

(Top photo: Archbishop Tutu, with Secretary Figueres at podium, and COP17 President Maite Nkoana-Mashabane in blue skirt.)

Sparse crowds but powerful presence on stage at Sharks rugby stadium.