United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Contacts:
Daniel Lathrop 206-718-0349

InvestigateWest photographer detained in Copenhagen

SEATTLE -- A  journalist on assignment for InvestigateWest to cover
protests outside the United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen
was arrested Tuesday -- the second time he has been arrested while
photographing demonstrators. This time, demonstrators were attempting
to enter Copenhagen’s Bella Center, the site of the international
climate talks.

Christopher Crow of Bellingham was taken into custody by police, who
are empowered under a new law to hold demonstrators for up to 12 hours
without filing charges. He was arrested at about Noon local time and
remained in custody as of 6 PM local time.

Crow was previously arrested Sunday and released after 3 ½ hours
without any charges being filed.

In both cases, the officers took Crow away despite the fact that he is
a credentialed journalist carrying out his duty as to document the
unrest in the streets and not a participant in the demonstrations.
Demonstrators are angry about an emerging United Nations treaty that
would allow some companies to profit from fighting climate change.

After his first arrest, InvestigateWest executive director and editor
Rita Hibbard had issued the following statement:

"This is an outrageous affront to the freedom of the press. Reporters
are obligated to cover civil disturbances like the protests in
Copenhagen, and police who arrest journalists are violating their
human rights. Christopher and InvestigateWest are owed an apology by the
Danish authorities and we will be filing a formal protest."

Members of the InvestigateWest team in Copenhagen available for
interviews via Skype.

A leading climate scientist whose pirated e-mails were bared for world scrutiny in the so-called "climategate" incident is making some points about the climate-change debate, and scientists' relationship with the public, that have needed saying for some time.

Hat tip to Matt Preusch of The Oregonian for spotting one piece in The Wall Street Journal by Mike Hulme of the University of East Anglia in England. Hulme also held forth in a longer and more involved column, written in conjunction with science critic-questioner Jerome Ravetz, for the BBC. (It's also worth noting that Hulme is the author of a book I intend to find, Why We Disagree About Climate Change.)

Now, I have to say that I was taken aback by the way scientists involved in the email exchanges seem to have been trying to squelch the dissemination of data, and even schemed to block publication of science they found ... sorry, can't help myself... inconvenient.

The e-mail exchanges between prominent American and British climate researchers revealed some disturbing points about how some of the scientists involved in this field have conducted themselves.

But as I read Hulme's piece, it came to me that he is on point about this: We are all arguing about the science of climate change, when what we ought to be arguing about is our value systems and our political inclinations.

Hulme's WSJ article, which is fairly short, is worth a read.

As the orderly column of peaceful protest marchers rounded a corner in downtown Seattle, the scene changed suddenly. And dramatically. People were running every which way. Smoke billowed from dumpsters set afire. A young man ran past me clutching the silver “N” he had just snatched from above the entrance to the Niketown store. A voice behind me boomed into a megaphone: 

Everybody go down this alley – we think we’ve found a back way into the hotel!

I turned around to see that the guy with the megaphone was Michael Moore – the filmmaker, not the guy by the same name in charge of the World Trade Organization. It was the WTO’s presence in Seattle that sparked this scene 10 years ago today, as 40,000 or more protesters descended on the city.

I’m not big on anniversary journalism, but that protest known as N30  remains the largest anti-globalization protest in North American history. And, 10 years on, this week marks the start of what will no doubt be another series of globally significant protests.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected a week from today in Copenhagen, where negotiators from around the globe are traveling to supposedly try to reach a global accord limiting green-house gas emissions. Will the negotiators succeed?