“I was now in Hopenhaven”

We are proud to have Rachel Weil (CAS ‘10) and Athena Laines (CAS ‘10) as part of the Boston University contingent to the Climate Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, this week. Rachel and Athena will be providing us daily reports while at the summit, and we will be featuring them on the Dean’s Blog! Check back tomorrow for more reports!

Saturday, December 13

Getting onto the plane, I was a bit anxious. It didn’t help that we were probably the youngest people on the plane much to Rach and my surprise. Flying is not my forte. Luckily it was a smooth ride on both our ride to Reykjavik and on our way to Copenhagen. Upon our arrival, it hit me; I was no longer on American grounds. I was now in “Hopenhaven,” a town where the hopes and dreams of millions of people from all over the world were resting on.  Ad after ad pressed a sense of urgency and an image of climate action into my head.

After getting lost for a bit looking for the our so called “Ship15,” I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was located in popular tourist part of town next to the famed Den lille havfrue or Little Mermaid statue. Next to it was a powerful statue, probably placed as part of the conference, was another statue titled “Survival of the Fattest.” It shows a fat woman holding scales riding on the back of a starved African. It symbolizes the wealthy nations getting a free ride on the backs third world countries while pretending to do what is best for him.  It was a powerful message that I carried with me throughout the day.

(image from www.hopenhagen.org)

Our first mission was to find some food so we wandered the streets a bit with a guide book that I borrowed from a friend as our only compass. We happened upon Kongens Nytorv (King’s New Square), the biggest square in the city. The food was expensive but we found some good Thai food and I found a lovely statue at the Christmas market of a kid rolling a snowball, a gift for my mom. We then met up with Rachel Leon, BU alum and form Environmental Student Association president. Her trip was waning down but she was filled with excitement as she talked about her involvement in the day’s protest. The three of us spent the night walking around the city and exploring some of the exhibits set up around the city. We went through climate maze of sheets filled with people’s comments from all over the world. It was set up as part of the Seal the Deal campaign set by the UN earlier this year. While I was reading it, it reminded me just how global the issue is and how people all around the world have high hopes for the conference. Rachel gave us a tour through parts of the city on our way to our first trip to Klimaforum09, labeled the global civil society counterpart of the official UN conference. We stopped by a small boat set up by fisher folk to promote fisherman who will be hurt by climate change. With loud trance music blasting in the background, I warmed my feet and took in the feeling of comradery. Probably the most striking image of the day was the giant globe set up in the city center, home base to the Hopenhagen Live events. Surrounded by bright green cubed rooms, the gigantic globe scrolled the one line hope and dreams of that people submitted from all over the world. The rooms themselves contained everything from souvenir shops to an exhibit about what cities are doing to become more sustainable. More intense trance music was playing on a giant stage set up in the square. The night was cold but the city was filled with bright lights that amazed me. The city looked like one big Christmas town, with buildings outlined in lights. I thought of New York’s Time Square only the lights were much more strategically planned to highlight the architecture of the city. Some buildings like the Magasin du Nord, a department store, looked like a gingerbread house with all its lights. I also began to see just how different the people of Denmark are. They are so friendly and nice and the city is so safe. Bikes are usually not chained no one is afraid it will get stolen. It is so different from Boston. Not a bad first day.

Athena Laines