I walked out of the house yesterday morning to a spectacular sunrise. The temperature had risen forty degrees over night and melted all the snow. It was a great day to get out and enjoy some balmy weather (despite the rain showers).
As you may or may not know, the UN conference on climate change is taking place here in Montreal this week. Several of my classes are held in a building adjacent to the convention center. When I arrived yesterday, I noticed lots more police and security guard presence. After my lunchtime class, I took a stroll outside to where there was lots of activity by "earth activists".
They had some works of art, banners and costumed protesters. I walked around and looked at all of it. My favorite banner was this one.
They were also erecting a full block long "quilt" composed of panels lamenting our treatment of the earth. Here is a pic of one part of it. I especially liked the "drowning earth" panel.
One of the people kept chanting " Are we really going to let the rich and powerful destroy the planet which belongs to all of us?" And I can't get it out of my head. Sigh.
6 comments:
wow, that first pic is amazing!
I loved the heavy fog in the air as all that snow was evaporating. Wished I'd had my camera handy.
Cool pics, love the bold colours!
Have you been on demos?
This is a topic that weighs heavy on my mind as well. The exxon-mobil world headquarters is just down the freeway from me and sometimes I wish I could drive a tank through their gate and hold their feet to a fire. Sadly though the UN is, in my opinion, a feeble and crippled institution and does not much more than talk. No thanks to the fact that the US ignores mulitlateral agreements and treaties (wink).
As they all drive their gas-guzzling cars to the protest...
those drastic temperature changes are interesting, in a freaky sort of way. i think mother nature must've been showing off for the climate control conference. she's cool like that.
Montreal is such a cosmopolitan city.
I feel so provincial.
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