Student Summit: Climate Change (London)

The National History Museum organised a very international youth conference in London. I was there as "delegate" for the Netherlands, from 10 to 14 July. Here's a kind of short report with an impression of the event and my opinion on it all. For more information you can visit the NHM website. Which has been updated incredibly fast by the way, as it's already got the voting results up while the conference ended some hours ago. (That's right, I'm writing this out of a fresh memory!)
The crowded hall, used for breaks - with plenty of great food!

The shiny website that's already been updated illustrates a characteristic of this summit very well: its organisation was as robust as the scientific evidence for climate change. Even for me, from a rich country, the luxury was quite astonishing. Of course especially since it's not what you'd expect of a summit on climate change, that takes a strong stand for the environmentalists. Which has my support, provided that that's not just people like Jonathon Porritt, a "self-confessed tree hugger". Unfortunately the terms "environmentalist" and "the greens" have gotten quite that image, which I think they owe to themselves. I would never identify myself with such groups, even though I firmly support the opinion that everyone should change his lifestyle to help fight climate change. So I'm glad the attitude of many other speakers was not as biased and condemning ("you're against tree hugging, so you're on Jeremy Clarkson's side", I paraphrase). Actually, you don't have to be part of that mad planet-worshiping movement to help fight climate change!
All delegates stayed at this four star hotel. (I'm using this photo for the lack of a shocking tree-hug shot.)

There have indeed been very good speakers also, some of which unfortunately did not stand out because of a lacking visual presentation. Probably the best example of this is Dr Saleemul Huq, who gave a powerful view from the developing countries, though he had no Powerpoint sheets at all. I think the main reason climate change needs to be addressed is to save millions of lives in those countries - and not because of a "spiritual relationship" with "mother Earth", or to save whales. Though Dr Huq did not mention this latter addition, he did make a very clear statement that the western countries and citizens have a moral obligation towards the developing countries. We must not let climate change cause their countries to be damaged / destroyed by e.g. floods, while we have the money to build dykes. I also found John Pontin an inspiring speaker on the developing countries - and with quite a good presentation as well.
A large screen was available for visual presentations - here you see a voting result.

Then there were the artistic speakers, that obviously had a great presentation, but with a message behind it all. Art is not at all my cup of tea, so I apologize for not being able to give you a review of high artistic quality. The idea of going to the Arctic to provide some touchable artistic proof of climate change is great! I've seen some fantastic photos that can really make a difference for many art-lovers. Nonetheless I think some of the produced art is way too alternative, and not touchable at all. To say it more boldly, stuff like projecting images of pregnant women on the ice is a terrible idea. And I refuse to respect things like that for the sake of art, or whatever - it simply is disgusting. Sorry if I offended anybody, but it's no use shutting up about the bad things and only praising the good things, because nothing would change then!

The summit also produced a "manifesto", expressing the opinions of the delegates and the UK students present. This was done using a special voting system - which occasionally failed, leading to some manual labour. Even though the outcome of nearly all questions was kind of known beforehand - since they were totally obvious and very suggestive - it was still a good thing, in most cases. Stating the obvious can be useful at times, and as one of the speakers correctly mentioned, this summit was kind of "preaching to the converted" anyway. (Note that I'm not happy with this implicit comparison: being climate-aware is not a religion at all, being a tree hugger is.) I think most people in my country, the Netherlands, are convinced of human-caused climate change. But giving it any priority, let alone doing something to stop its advance, is the problem for many people. This summit, if presented the right way, can make a difference doing that. Simply reminding people of the problem and the consequences, especially for the developing countries, can have a powerful activating effect. That's the real power of this summit, despite of all the shortcomings I quite boldly mentioned. But making a difference doesn't start with the manifesto, it starts with the people: that's us.
Each student had one of these high-tech voting devices to help create the manifesto.

And of course I must also mention that it's great to meet people from all over the world. Hopefully all of you other summit students have enjoyed my company - I have enjoyed yours. I thank the British Council for having provided this many people with the opportunity to visit London and meet eachother!