Danish police abuse climate-change demonstrators

Zoran sez, “Earlier this week (12th Dec), a massive, peaceful protest of 100,000 people — the largest demonstration for climate justice in world history — was met with a heavy-handed response by the Danish police. Thousands of riot police swarmed the march route, blocked off streets surrounding large groups of protestors, and arrested almost 1,000 people. Arrestees were cuffed and forced to sit in rows for hours, as the temperatures dipped below freezing; numerous people urinated on themselves after being denied use of toilets.”

Of course, these protests are being motivated by frustration at the incredibly weak results of the COP-15 negotiations. Last week, a closed-room group of delegates from Global North countries shocked Global South delegates and climate justice activists by pushing for a secretly-negotiated “deal” that would allow global temperatures to be allowed to rise by another 2 degrees Celsius – over the vehement protests of delegates from Africa and small island countries, argue that any increase larger than 1 degree will devastate and – in some instances – literally flood them. Then, in the past two days, the negotiations on a deal on REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation) – which are being touted as the “success” of Copenhagen – have degenerated into an incredibly weak potential deal, in which immediate targets for deforestation limits would be dropped and no financial commitments from Global North countries would be made. These failings on the part of negotiators from the Global North have been met with protests – both planned and spontaneous – by youth activists as well as delegates from the Global South.

Crackdown in Copenhagen

(Thanks, Zoran!)