18 August 2009

110 Days - Ideas for Impassioning the Climate Talks at Copenhagen with Compassion

On 11 August 2009, Grist ran Climate disobedience: Is a new "Seattle" in the making? by Mark Engler.

It's an interesting article that's got me thinking about civil compassion (rather than civil disobedience). You know, protest-y type events, but where people simply teach and preach about love for our children and grandchildren and compassion for the rest of life on Earth.

So, very quietly (don't want word to get out or photo albums could be slammed shut all over the world), here's my best (so far) idea for the protests and "civil compassion" at Copenhagen in December.

Let's get photographs of all the children of all the climate negotiators and all the world's leaders (I already have photos of the children of Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper) and anyone who will be participating at the talks.

I know that my heart goes out to all the children of the world, but I doubt that hard-nosed politicians and bureaucrats will so easily have their deep inner sources of compassion tapped into. But seeing the faces of their own children and grandchildren hung on walls, flashed on screens and stuck on T-shirts might help them realize who they are negotiating for - or whose future they are negotiating away.

Sure, it's a tame idea. But tame isn't necessarily lame. And since we have to do absolutely everything we can, let's not throw out any ideas that stand a chance of moving even one heart - that one heart could turn out to be our greatest climate hero.

Writing the names of the children and their home country on all the photos will help people match hard-hearted (or is it cowardly?) negotiators with the real-life faces of the young people whose future they are willing to trade away.

Thoughts? Is it workable? Any other ideas for getting some compassionate action into the Copenhagen climate talks in December?

No comments:

Post a Comment

I would appreciate hearing your thoughts or questions on this post or anything else you've read here. What is your take on courage and compassion being an important part of the solution to the climate change emergency?