THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
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Global Climate Action Summit 2018
Blog 6: Marching orders – Sending out the soldiers of change
Alison Holmes reports from the heart of the GCAS
www.globalclimateactionsummit.org
The hall is as wide as it is deep, creating a vast dark cavern while the stage is bright with vivid and warm colors stretching from side to side. The music between speakers is a cross between Enya and George Winston without being either too cloying or loud. The speakers have personal mics that allow them to walk the stage (or read the autocue / screens on the floor) without removing them from their audience. Effectively, it is mesmerizing and emotional in a way that is very different than seeing it on the screens in the exhibition hall or the press office. In short, the atmosphere is perfect for that sense of feeling singled out by each speaker. You are one person they want to reach. You are the real target of their message. You are the one person who can take the climate change action plan back out into the world and make it real – and surely that's the point.
It's the point because it really works and the final plenary session of the summit was a roll call of those from the worlds of business, government, and NGOs who are 'stepping up' and a who's who of inspirational leaders. Foremost on that list is, of course, Former Vice President Al Gore who received a standing ovation (this is truly his home team) and being a proud environmentalist, he didn't shy away from more than a little recycling – including his own jokes and data factoids from the day before!
However, if there was a theme of the day, it was that we should not respond to the information deluge received here by being depressed. The news of disaster and doom – including observations from the Vice President like "the news is like nature night through the book of Revelation" or "we are treating the open sky like an open sewer" is only part of the story as there is also much to be awed and inspired by.
He used the bully pulpit of that broad, but intimate stage to make a rallying cry for action directed to the audience of foot soldiers for climate change action. He was fired up (what a shame he has found an activist passion and voice so late in his career) and his would-be foot soldiers hooted and cheered in anticipation of being let loose from the hall to march to the sound of gunfire. It remains to be seen how effective they will be at storming the barricades.
