Climate Change Conference

Hi Pals!

Wow, what a week.

So I participated as part of the Conference Secretariat for the UNESCO Conference on Climate Change and Ethics at the Marriott Hotel in St. Kitts.  SIDENOTE:  If you want to see a place that is really La-Tee-Da, I would suggest staying at the Marriott.  There is marble everywhere - it is also beach, golf, tennis and restaurant adjacent (always a nice plus).

So, I'm afraid I didn't have much time to take any pictures.  In fact.... I have two.  Just two.  I know, I know, boo you Hewy.  But wait, just wait a second... don't you think it's a much better idea to blame someone else?  Perhaps someone who does a lot of knitting?  I mean, what are they trying to hide beneath all that wool?  If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm taking a playful jab at my friend Ali.

Anyways, the pictures themselves aren't much to speak of, so here are some highlights of the conference:

1. Great spread.  I mean, absolutely delicious food.
2. I was very impressed by the ministerial round tables and the level of commitment that came with the governments involved.  The Minister from Antigua-Barbados was particularly impressive, not only for his deep and intimidating voice and large stature, but by the fact that he constantly called for action.  He was very upset about how there seemed to be research from years and years and years ago that had been done, saying the same thing and nothing had been done.  He emphatically stated he didn't want to get involved in a situation where experts and consultants just got together and talked shop.  
3. Many ministers actually echoed the minister from #2 by contributing that foreign consultants essentially sucked out about 90% of the funds and grants provided to do something about climate change for years without really providing any tangible benefits.  There was a real sense that local knowledge systems and local experts would have to be vigourously harnessed and trained in order to deliver a truly Caribbean solution.
4. There was some blame-gaming.  The Cuban delegation made the obligatory reference to Imperialist Economic Policies, poisoning the Earth etc.  The good thing is, after the first morning, the blame gaming ceased and what began in earnest was a frank and honest discussion on the issues at hand.
5. To get back to #3 a little, Dr. Jacobs (if you google him and the conference name I'm sure you'll get a good picture of what he does) was emphatic in the need to get more funding, more linkages with UNESCO and more local grad students and Ph.D Candidates because the basic knowledge is there, it's really a matter of getting the properly trained people in the right places.  He said that in the next few years he'd like to have two masters of Ph.D level practitioners on each caribbean island.  A daunting feat if you ask me, but definitely a goal to strive for.  He's an expert in Remote sensing and did a presentation on land availability, desertification (yes, islands surrounded by water in the Carib are turning into deserts), and the damage that improper infrastructure planning has done.  It was a daunting task, I'm sure, because they live right next to Haiti which as we all know is just one disaster after another.
6. I found the Cuban delegation very charming, especially the President of Cuba's Science Agency.  She was a very kindly, sweet lady who always smiled and although her English was a little imprecise, I found myself very charmed by her.  It's times like this when you just start to think, "Whoa, Kindly old Grandmother, or Communist?  Or Both?"  Cuba has actually done quite a bit to arrest some of the environmental damage to it's island, but... well, this is the Westerner in me, they've probably been able to do more because they have an authoritarian government.  When you can compel people to be environmentally minded, you get results.  If that doesn't make you uncomfortable, I don't know what will.  Fidel was highly praised in the Science Agency's presentation.  That made me a little sad, but it also made sense.  The former president of Cuba has always liked to be seen on the progressive side of history, despite his iron grip on power.
7. The delegation from the Dominican Republic was really cool, despite only having one fluent English speaker as they had a series of very impressive images images and whatnot detailing the damage that water rising and hurricanes were doing to destroy all their infrastructure.  These weather extremes are caused by, you guessed it, climate change.
8. Dr. Owen Day from CARIBSAVE showed a really awesome film that he produced and directed.  He and I spoke a little and he was very charismatic, good sense of humour.  CARIBSAVE has actually done a lot in the past few years to set up no-go areas for the fish population to replenish.  When this happens, fish get larger and live longer, thus producing greater quantities of eggs, thus producing more diverisification, thus adding to the vibrancy of the eco-system, thus reaping environmental and economic rewards.  Conservation was one of the highlights, but so was a lot of proactive public awareness education, eco-tourism and private-public partnerships.  It was, overall, a fantastic presentation.
9. What I did was I was part of the secretariat, so I spent a lot of time running around, printing copies, saving files, transferring files, setting up presentations and running the powerpoints.  I must say, the few tech snafus which occurred nearly gave me heart attacks at some points as I was scrambling to get things set up when there are 8 cabinet ministers from different nations all looking at me.  My most nervous time was when I had to amend, on a large screen in front of everyone, a draft communique that would be issued to the press in a few hours while it was still in a word doc.  I had to listen to all the points made and at time had to stroke out and write completely new paragraphs while everyone was talking.  And not everyone agreed on what could be written, so I sometimes had to erase what I just wrote because one country could not commit to this point or that point.  The most difficult point for me was that I still find it very difficult to parse through the accents and dialects of the various people here in the Islands.  I know, I know, around here I am the one with the funny way of talking, but that didn't make it any easier on me.  Let's just say, it was a difficult process and I'm glad it's over.  Everyone seemed pleased with how the draft turned out, so... yeah!  Go Captain Planet!
10. I was so flattered when Dr. David Doyle of UNESCO came up to me today and thanked me, and congratulated me, on the work I did at the conference.  I didn't think I had really done much, but I must say I was thrilled when he specifically mentioned he was pleased at how I had made amendments to the draft.  He said something about me knowing when and when not to add something and wait for something to be hashed out or to cut off debate by putting it in right away.  Little did he know that I was just trying to figure out what had been said in some cases.  However, I very gratefully and humbly accepted his praise.  It made my day.
11. On the first night of the conference, I got to go the Governor General's Residence for a reception.  It was really really cool.  I got to smooze with academics, talk to my boss's boss's boss, eat some cool food, drink a few rum's with very little coke in them (they were very rummy, I don't think the gentleman behind the bar even heard me when I said "and coke".) and there was some entertainment that consisted of some dancers, some in masquerade and others on these huge stilts with long, long, long, long pants on.  I was very impressed/had a great time.

So now that the conference is over, I got back to work at the collection.  I catalogued a lot today, and not much yesterday (I was exhausted from the previous two days activity) and Dr. Doyle came by again to give me and Mr. Maynard some instructions on what he wants to see develop vis a vis our Web Capacity.  I thought he'd want me to design a new website from scratch, so I was scrambling to get some Drupal stuff together to teach myself, but it turns out he mostly wants me to link and provide material already published on the website as it exists.  *Phew!*  Still, learning Drupal is a good idea... thinking of getting started this weekend actually on Sunday while I wait for my laundry to finish.  On Saturday, I'm going to see Alexander Hamilton's birthplace in Nevis.

Just in case you don't know, he was an American Founding Father who started the Bank of America and opposed Thomas Jefferson bitterly in his lifetime.  Fascinating guy.