SNG lobbies for Copenhagen

Green group rallies support for climate summit

Members of Middlebury’s Sunday Night Group (SNG), a student-run environmental advocacy organization, engaged in a campaign this week to encourage students to call President Obama and demand his attendance at the upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen.

Officials from nearly 193 countries will be attending the meeting, which begins Dec. 7. At press time, President Obama remained unsure of whether he would attend.

The meeting will be a continuation of the work of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change that focuses on “stabiliz[ing] the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that prevents dangerous man-made climate changes,” according to the UN.

Organizers originally hoped that these talks will result in a firm agreement on capping emissions and will go farther than the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, many of the goals of which have not been realized.

However, Obama and other world leaders acknowledged Sunday that a legally binding treaty is not a feasible goal for the upcoming talks. Rather, they will pursue a more ambiguous “politically” binding agreement, and continue work in the upcoming talks in Mexico City in 2010.

“Politically binding” effectively means that the treaty would likely have to be renegotiated during every change of power in a nation, SNG member Rhiya Trivedi ’12.5 explained Sunday. However, the details of the “nebulous” term remain unclear.

“This represents a major setback,” Trivedi admitted to the group. Right now, Obama needs to go to Copenhagen to write the best agreement he possibility can within the limits he and other leaders established Sunday, she said. The work can and will be continued in Mexico City.

SNG member Nate Troutman Blumenshine ’10 initially expressed some concern with advocating Obama’s attendance to Copenhagen rather than protesting his decision not to pursue a legally binding decision.

“[Obama] has to prove he is the guy that represents real change,” Blumenshine said. “We need to take what we can get [out of Copenhagen], but show we’re disappointed. Our job is still to be the voice [saying] that aggressive climate policy is a priority.”

While Blumenshine acknowledges that it could be politically harmful if Obama goes to Copenhagen with goals of a binding treaty and fails, he hopes to show that failing to deliver on real change would be equally detrimental in gaining votes.

Scholar-in-Residence Bill McKibben agrees that Obama’s attendance will be falling short of what the current climate situation demands.

“It will be as much spin as substance, [but] we need to get Obama engaged in this fight somehow, and this may be as good a way as any,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Despite these setbacks, however, Brazil’s announcement Friday that it would voluntarily cut carbon emissions by at least 36 percent by 2020 offers some hope for the upcoming talks.

Environmental Minister Carlos Minc hopes that this step will lead other nations to follow suit, the AFP reports.

Trivedi notes, however, that this move is indicative of a greater problem.

“Brazil’s voluntary cuts represent a greater, graver problem, which is that developing countries are believing less and less that the developed will do the necessary,” she said in an e-mail. “Despite the fact that they have no historical responsibility for the problem … developing countries are starting to do everything they can and more to mitigate and adapt to climate change.”

The focus of SNG’s work this week, however, remained mobilizing the Middlebury student body to call Obama and express their expectation that he attend the upcoming talks. They had four key modes of reaching students.

First, SNG members created a Facebook event to reach a large number of students and publicize the need to call Obama.

Second, SNG reached out to other student organizations to help motivate their respective bases.

“This is not an issue specific to just green fingers,” Moriel Rothman ’11 explained. All student organizations should be involved, because this meeting has the power to affect everyone.

Third, SNG members passed out information cards at the dining halls explaining how, when and why to call Obama.

Fourth, SNG members performed a skit Wednesday in Proctor and Ross dining halls, giving a mock-Obama a plane ticket to Copenhagen.

McKibben believes that calling Obama may be effective, but is not entirely convinced the President can be swayed on this issue.

“Obama doesn’t have to worry too much about the politics of global warming because most environmentalists will vote for him regardless,” McKibben wrote in an e-mail. “But he does know that among young voters last time, climate change was an issue of overriding importance, and also that they’re the ones who were out knocking doors for him. So if he’s vulnerable to any pitch, it’s one like this.”

Associate Professor of Political Science Bert Johnson seconds McKibben, also remaining unsure what effect phone calls could have.

“In general, elected officials will want to keep an eye on the overall views of their constituents,” and phone calls can help alert Obama to those views, he said. However, “the president’s ultimate decision about whether to attend the talks will, of course, depend on many factors besides the protests or calls.”

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