2nd Thursday: on the loose

Today, apart from it being 5 below zero (and Wendy saying it was 41 in Merimbula!) and a biting wind, with 100 mm snow, we are are out in the cold. We went to the Crowne Plaza at 9am for a skype-based BINGO briefing (there are a couple of BINGO heavies actually inside Bella!). Here is a photo taken from the Hard Rock Cafe, at noon - note the sunshine!:


The best way to ascertain the current state of despair is to take two Bex powders, have a lie down, and then visit the IISD site for the daily ENB newsletter. You can also watch the presidents and prime ministers expressing their good will - except for Bolivia - on the live stream from the UNFCCC website.

You may have seen on the news that there was a "riot" at Bella yesterday. Now we were safely inside - being diplomatic - and it is rumoured that some folks went outside to protest - leaving their coats and jackets inside... Well, surprise!!! They couldn't get back in, and they got a bit cross. Now, if it's snowing, why would you go outside, in a high security environment, unless you were looking for trouble? Looking at the Bella Metro stop, barracaded and full of police and security guards, it's hard to see how more than three people, two flags and a dog could have assembled to create much of a riot.

There was also much mileage in the Australian press about a demonstration disrupting Penny Wong's address to the COP. My belief is that it was a pure co-incidence that Penny was speaking when the die-in occurred. They had been waiting for an opportunity, and that was when it happened. No specific intent to harm or communicate about Australia's (lamentable) position - the Americans are well and truly creating enough problems for the rest of us to be able to hide our embarrassment quietly. (The yanks won their third Fossil in a row last night...)