Copenhagen here I come....

Hello! I'm Leah, a Geography grad student at SDSU and UCSB on my way to

the COP 15 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark as part of the Tropical Forest Group's (TFG) delegation. TFG is a non-profit conservation organization based out of San Diego that works to protect tropical forests, improve the lives of local people, and fight climate change - (http://www.tropicalforestgroup.org/html_pages/meet_tfg.html). Among other things, TFG will be working on details of REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), an initiative that will compensate developing countries for reducing deforestation rates. In January I'll be heading to Ecuador to start my field work looking at soil carbon in highland Andean grasslands (páramos) so I'll also be poking around for information on how ecosystems that store lots of carbon below ground might be included in the upcoming climate agreement. I really wish I could swim to Copenhagen to avoid the massive carbon footprint involved in making this trip in the first place, but alas realize that in trying to be a part of the solution I am also a big part of the problem! This is the great irony of this conference - while a legally binding climate agreement will be key for for reducing greenhouse gas emissions on a big scale over the long-term, the carbon footprint behind the international travel and living arrangements required to make this happen is enormous (equal to the total carbon emissions from Morrocco in 2006). The Danish government plans to "offset" these emissions by replacing outdated brick kilns in Bangledash with 20 new ones, saving about 50,000 tons of CO2 a year (about the equivalent of emissions from the conference itself). On the ground, the conference is trying to be as "green" as can be - bikes for hire, no conference bags, "carbon-neutral hotdogs made in factories where pig manure fuels the electricity," energy efficient hotel rooms... and the list goes on. I leave for Copenhagen tomorrow so should have some interesting updates on this and more soon!