This morning I woke before the crack of dawn and hit the streets with Will Steger Foundation's pro videographer Jerry to meet with Mikael Colville-Anderson, Denmark's official ambassador of all things biking. The fog was thick in the air as we met by the bridge with the most bike traffic in all of Europe. There is actually a bicycle rush hour here in Copenhagen and bike riders have their own lane and always get the right of way. When it snows in the winter, the bike trails are plowed before the streets or the sidewalks. "If they didn't plow them first," explained Mikael, "everyone would take the transit system and it would be swamped because SO many people rely on biking to get around."

This afternoon, I met Erick, a lead negotiator from Tanzania while picking up schedules. "Is the United States going to bring real solutions, or is it going to bring problems?" he asked me and then said, "there is a lot that you can do as youth to influence your president and your negotiators. I'm counting on you." As youth who will be living in the results of climate change, this not just a theory, this is reality, this is our future, and we can influence it, and there is a lot of weight riding on our decisions.

This afternoon, the international youth held our first event inside the conference, a "flash dance" where immediately after the opening ceremony, hundreds of youth broke into a song that started with the phrase, "ooooh, it's hot in here. There's too much carbon in the atmosphere." Here is the link if you would like to check it out.

This post was written originally for Canadian Geographic magazine's blog

Copenhagen-- A giant orb glows in a major city square, while in another part of Copenhagen, new steel cages await unruly protestors. Denmark’s capital is prepped for the Monday’s kickoff to 12 days of United Nations climate negotiations.
On Sunday, I sat down with Amber Church, the national director for the Canadian Youth Climate coalition, to get her take on the Canadian negotiating team for the next two weeks.

The 28-year-old calls Canada a “lost lemming” in the global climate negotiations, which has even fallen behind the U.S. with its inaction.
“Right now Canada is not leading—it’s not even following very well because Environment Minister Jim Prentice’s line is ‘We can’t do anything until the U.S. does something,’” Church says. “To be perfectly honest, the U.S. is ahead of us and we’re not even following very well.”

Her advice for Canada in Copenhagen? “Canada should lead, follow or get out of the way,” Church says.

Church, who lives in Whitehorse, will be leading the Canadian youth delegation at the talks. The delegation is composed of a 35 activists from around the country, making up one of the largest youth delegations at the conference. This doesn’t count another 50 or so more Canadians who are attending with student delegations from universities such as the University of Toronto.

Church says the Canadian youth will lobby hard for strong reduction targets, holding the Conservative government’s negotiating team accountable for not supporting a climate bill earlier this year in the House of Commons, which called for certain emissions reductions.

“The Canadian public along with the House of Commons supports these targets and so we’d like to make sure our government is actually speaking for our people.”
With this goal in mind, Canadian youth will be meeting with a growing list of Canadian politicians while in Copenhagen, including Prentice, NDP leader Jack Layton, Green Party leader Elizabeth May, environment ministers from the territories, and Canada’s chief negotiator, Michael Martin.

A meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper is still in the works.

Church said these lobbying sessions with politicians will not be soft photo-ops, since the Canadian youth will be driving home their message, Church says.

“Canada needs to stop being obstructionist and Canada needs to come to the table and actually start participating,” Church said.

Check back soon for more developments on the Canadian youth delegation in Copenhagen.

Liana B. Baker, a former intern with the magazine, is Canadian Geographic climate policy correspondent in Copenhagen.

How long could you not only survive but fight for a cause while sustaining yourself on only water? This is no Lent or Ramadan fast where selective days and times are marked for fasting -- three young people from across the globe have joined together to lead the Climate Justice Fast living on only water for 30 days running.

These young people, along with the many others around the world and here in Copenhagen, that are fasting for climate justice highlight the power that the youth movement (aka the YOUNGOs) carries like a torch into the coming week of negotiations. They are lighting the path for true climate revolution with humanity and moral conscience.

Beginning Monday, our global leaders being negotiating our global inheritance. As youth, we have no political parties to answer to, no lobbyists or businesses to appease, no risk other than the risk of our future at stake. Over 500 youth have fundraised their way here to take a stand, to put our face in the faces of those leaders writing our future.

Change is not only possible, it's essential. The humanity, the emotion, the personal stories have compelled me near tears today and have rumbled the deepest spirit of movement in my heart.

What can you do, what will you do to rumble the spirits and rally call to those in your community? I invite you to check out the climate justice fast, support them with your words or actions. Light a candle with your friends in honor of those most vulnerable and already impacted by the most adverse effects of climate change on December 11 or 12 with people around the world.

Take a stand. Bring humanity to the forefront of this movement.

rEvolution is here.

I hit the trail early this morning, trekking with my fellow Will Steger delegates to COY, the Conference of Youth. As we were walking, I noticed how many people bike in town. There is actually a separate lane for cyclists, and I’ve heard rumor that there are more bikes than in people in Copenhagen. Whether or not this is true, it’s a far cry from some of the places I biked through earlier this autumn.

Young people from all across the world gathered today for our first day of training in preparation for the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change (COP-15) which begins on Monday.

The air was vibrant with the energy of a thousand young people, ready to call for a strong, fair, and legally binding treaty over the next couple of weeks. Today, I met with youth delegates from India, Sweden, Cameroon, Canada, Australia, Belgium, China, Japan, from all across the world. I ran into fellow 350 organizers from across the world, who were organizing events internationally while I was biking 350 miles around the state of Minnesota to talk to people about climate solutions.

Stay tuned for breaking news from behind the scenes at COP-15!

Until tomorrow,
Reed Aronow

Revolution never come with a warning. 
Revolution never send you an omen.
Revolution just arrives like the morning, ring the alarm time to wake up this morning. ~Michael Franti & Spearhead

With just a few short weeks & a few long days before landing at the climate movement's ground zero, I feel like a Scooby Doo character who is running in place before setting off in an all out sprint!

The other week Al Gore made a great appearance on David Letterman to promote his new book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis and to talk Copenhagen. Gore stated that although the grassroots movement is the largest this world has ever seen, it has yet to reach a critical mass. It is up to us to prove that statement wrong.

All the amazing folks I've had the opportunity to talk to here in Wisconsin on the platform of climate solutions are ready for revolution -- we want climate justice, climate equality and REAL, BINDING, SUSTAINABLE climate solutions. That is the message that I will carry to and advocate for in Copenhagen.

To the folks I have talked to and to all those readers that I have not yet had the opportunity to meet -- revolution is ours to make. It is every voice, every song, every noise that we create that will break the barrier to create a critical mass. The volume is rising... I hear it... I feel the vibrations... it moves my soul and moves me to act... we need it to be LOUDER.

It's like the end of Horton Hears A Who... there is a jungle of doubt willing to fight to prevent change, to spout all the reasons that a world with 350ppm, a world run on sustainable energy, a world led with a positive, green foot forward and the creation of a dramatic, binding, just climate treaty is not logical or possible. Amidst the clamor of doubt, we must stand strong with loud voices, clanging every pot and drum and using our voices to let them know that WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE! We can break the sound barrier and create a critical mass that is impossible to ignore.

We are the movement. We are the ones that create the revolution. And just like Horton, we will stand strong amidst powerful, threatening opposition. And just like every Who in Whoville, we will yell and make every noise possible to let global leaders and communities know that WE ARE HERE.