Courtesy of Blaine O'Neill

Students chanted “Climate justice now” and “No more delay” on the first day of the conference.

BY MENGHAN JIN

In print | Published February 4, 2010

While some go abroad to learn a language or participate in a specialized academic program, Blaine O’Neill ’11 and Zachary Postone ’11 spent last semester in Copenhagen collaborating with young activists from 165 nations to campaign for climate justice. Considering the United Nations held a two-week long international climate change in December,` Copenhagen was a prime place for environmental activism For Postone and O’Neill.

“I was positively overwhelmed from day one in Copenhagen to the end,” O’Neill said. “Every day was an extreme visceral experience that tied together different skill sets and connections.”

Though O’Neill and Postone, both members of Earthlust, went to Copenhagen to study architecture, they set out to get involved with the climate conference in any way possible.

They both spent the entire two weeks of the conference, commonly known as COP15, working with young activists from across the globe. But it was two weeks before the opening of the climate talks at the Bella Center when they discovered a project that would become one of their biggest commitments — HeadQuarters.

“Originally, HQ was a purely artistic project invented by the French artist Thierry Geoffroy, also known as Colonel. The idea was to have artists working together inside an art institution reacting immediately to events happening outside in the world,” said Linda Peterson, another core volunteer at HeadQuarters who collaborated with O’Neill before COP15.

Working alongside the social activist groups Avaaz Climate Action Factory, The Yes Men and ActionAid, O’Neill and Postone transformed the Gallery Poulsen in Copenhagen into an open collaborative work space and exhibition for organizations, activists and artists to express their views about the conference through different artistic mediums.

HQ aimed to provide steady commentary on the negotiations and an alternate, reliable voice even when access to the conference was restricted.

“Civil society access to the conference was really radically, radically cut back as the conference proceeded,” Postone said.

“It was pretty open the first week and then towards the end of the first week and the beginning of the second week, they really did starting cutting down the level of NGO and civil society access to the Bella Center.”

While the main floor of HQ allowed artists to showcase their immediate reactions to summit events in the form of artwork, the basement was transformed into a replica of the increasingly restricted Bella Center. The Bella Center replica welcomed all to voice and capture their opinions on video.

A sign before the entrance to the Bella Center replica said, “This is your unique chance for 15 minutes of fame. Sign up for making your own climate vision statement documented on video.”

Before COP15, O’Neill spent the summer working for the Avaaz.org Climate Action Factory with other young activists organizing environmental actions and campaigns in several different European cities.

For several months, they tried to pressure governments into passing a legally binding global climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire in 2012. Political lobbying, banner drops and rallies were just a few of their tactics.

Postone joined O’Neill in Copenhagen in November 2009 for the study abroad program at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad.

“For activists and youth and civil society, it was extremely empowering and not at all demoralizing, because you’re confronted with literally tens of thousands of people who were all there representing tons of different issues, geographies and identities,” O’Neill said.

“Everyone being together and contributing their skill sets and experiences towards a unifying crisis that needs to be addressed, I think that’s really powerful.”

Beyond the gallery, O’Neill and Postone also participated in numerous demonstrations, some of which took a violent turn by the end of the conference.

One demonstration, known as “People First, Planet First,” took place before the chaos of the second week and promoted a more positive and peaceful tone that attracted approximately 100,000 people. Postone said that while they were walking collectively from the center of Copenhagen to the Bella Center to rally, HQ members still had optimism for the outcome of the summit.

After the drafting of the ambiguous and nonbinding Copenhagen Accord at the end of negotiations, both O’Neill and Postone said that they lost hope. They now question whether climate change in the future can be approached through the U.N. process. According to O’Neill and Postone, the 192 member states should have equal opportunity to voice their opinions in these negotiations, but that did not happen at the Copenhagen Summit.

“A lot of people came together to show that they were concerned about the movement, which gives people hope that something stronger will come about in the future, but the actual agreements weren’t really as strong as they need to be to hold countries to commitments that’ll make a lot of positive impact,” Earthlust member KC Cushman said.

Though the outcome of the Copenhagen Summit led to frustration, O’Neill and Postone came back home with more confidence, a larger network of connections and more innovative ideas for potential campaigns and projects.

“What happened in the negotiations is pretty generally regarded as a disappointment, but people who were there really were inspired by the level of energy that descended upon the city,” Postone said. “A lot of the U.S. youth have come back with a lot of energy and a lot of new campaign on how to approach U.S. climate change policy.”

For next year’s climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, O’Neill and Postone intend to incorporate more structure and organization in HeadQuarters and hope to receive` funding to establish a new work space apart from the gallery.

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