On board the climate express

[ensho]

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/climatesos/2009/12/200912711581269593.html





Thousands of people are arriving in Copenhagen, Denmark, for crucial negotiations on climate change.

But few of those can be as proud of their journey's carbon footprint as those arriving bleary-eyed on Saturday night after 12 hours on the Climate Express – a train from Brussels to Copenhagen.

The organisers say the train journey was entirely carbon free - with all the electricity powering the train coming from renewable sources.

About 400 people took the special train, including high level European and UN representatives, as well as activists, lobbyists, non-governmental organisations and media.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) calculates that, by not flying, 97 tonnes of carbon were saved in total.

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Climategate scandal

The "eco-passengers" took part in seminars and debates highlighting the issues at stake in Copenhagen and bringing a message to climate policy makers and world leaders to "keep on the right track" towards securing an ambitious and binding climate deal.

One key event on board the train, with the head of the UN's environment programme Achim Steiner, saw inevitable questions about "Climategate" - the scandal involving hacked emails from scientists who've been providing key data on manmade climate change.

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Symbolic gesture

Margrethe Sagevik told Al Jazeera she had made the journey by rail all the way from Kyoto in Japan to "to make a symbolic low-carbon link between the first generation global climate change agreement and what will hopefully be the outcome of COP15 in Copenhagen".

She said that she had met many wonderful people on her journey, which included the Trans-Siberian Express across Russia.

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But nevertheless any action sufficient to halt the potential temperature rise will have to include a massive rethink on how we transport ourselves, and our goods, in the future.
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neat!