I was going to write this long rant about failing to meet minimal expectations and agreements to consider agreeing but thought better of it - because I get to chat occasionally with some of the coolest green bloggers EVAH - Tim Hurst, Maria Surma Manka and Jeff McIntire-Strassburg - and we talked about it there and made a podcast. You can find it at Tim Hurst's Ecopolitology blog and at Earth & Industry.
Tim, by the way, is ridiculous crazy awesome. (yes, I know. Man crush.) He and I chatted a bit about speech clouds and he came up with this really cool idea to take the concept to the next level.
So we threw together a google maps mashup of speech clouds that came from COP15. We invited Solana Larsen of Global Voices Online to play along, since they put together a special section of citizen media coverage of COP15. And I opened it up for anyone to contribute anything they want to it.
This is going to shock you but most of the speeches say the time for talk is over and the time for action is now. Where have I heard that before?
Oh, and I'm heading off the grid for the holidays. Happy happy merry merry ho ho ho. See you in 2010...
23 December 2009
17 December 2009
At the Copen... Copen-Cabana....
Yeah, I know, you didn't think I could do worse than "Copen-Puffs", but I did.
I contributed a column to Business Lexington this week where I labeled COP15 the "You First Summit." Basically everyone is willing to talk tough and demand action but no one will lift a finger unless someone else does it first. There's still one more day to see if the brinksmanship will end and people will get serious, and you could argue that's what it takes in global negotiations.
Here's the sad part - I actually wrote the column before the conference began. Call me cynical, but call me right. Tim Hurst was kind enough to pick up my "coverage" of the summit over at Ecopolitology, and there have been a few more updates since then - mostly sad. Of course, if you're an optimist that means that President Obama is about to swoop in at the last minute and save the world.
A couple of items worth noting from COP15:
Samoa waits patiently for countries with money to do something. The Samoan Ambassador to the UN showed up and basically told the rest of the world while they're posturing, his country is sinking into the ocean. Not good.
Developing countries walk out, then walk back in. "Negotiations" were halted for a few hours while the G77 decides to show the world they're serious by not picking up a ball and not going home.
The COP15 President resigns suddenly - but really, this was planned, we just forgot to tell everyone. Now the Danish Prime Minister is the "President" of COP15 but Connie Hedegaard is basically still doing everything she was doing. Apparently with all these presidents flying in the Danish leader needed more clout, but...
No one is listening to the prime minister of whats-is-stan or someplace. Reuters reports that 120-ish heads of state are in Copenhagen and all want to address the assembly, but the assembly is busy in negotiations. So the leader of an entire country talks to a half-empty room while some low-level bureaucrat whispers into his earpiece, "I'm sorry Mr. Prime Minister but you've gone over your allotted five minutes."
Secretary Clinton pulls $100 billion out of thin air. In what could be argued as a shift in position, the US apparently is ready to participate in a $100 billion/year (i.e., the low end of what's necessary for poor countries to address climate change) global fund to help Samoa and other countries, though where this money will come from and how it will be spent is not known.
Nobody's happy and everyone's waiting for someone else to blink. It's someone else's fault. Essentially everyone is trying to goad everyone else into making the first major concession. Not sure how that happens.
But there's a bright side too. One of the people who's actually working at the summit says it's a big deal, mostly because everyone is talking about climate change and a number of big countries have made tentative commitments - this wouldn't have happened in the absence of the summit.
There's no doubt that people will declare victory once this thing is done. But I'll be talking with three of my green-blogging pals to get the straight skinny...
I contributed a column to Business Lexington this week where I labeled COP15 the "You First Summit." Basically everyone is willing to talk tough and demand action but no one will lift a finger unless someone else does it first. There's still one more day to see if the brinksmanship will end and people will get serious, and you could argue that's what it takes in global negotiations.
Here's the sad part - I actually wrote the column before the conference began. Call me cynical, but call me right. Tim Hurst was kind enough to pick up my "coverage" of the summit over at Ecopolitology, and there have been a few more updates since then - mostly sad. Of course, if you're an optimist that means that President Obama is about to swoop in at the last minute and save the world.
A couple of items worth noting from COP15:
Samoa waits patiently for countries with money to do something. The Samoan Ambassador to the UN showed up and basically told the rest of the world while they're posturing, his country is sinking into the ocean. Not good.
Developing countries walk out, then walk back in. "Negotiations" were halted for a few hours while the G77 decides to show the world they're serious by not picking up a ball and not going home.
The COP15 President resigns suddenly - but really, this was planned, we just forgot to tell everyone. Now the Danish Prime Minister is the "President" of COP15 but Connie Hedegaard is basically still doing everything she was doing. Apparently with all these presidents flying in the Danish leader needed more clout, but...
No one is listening to the prime minister of whats-is-stan or someplace. Reuters reports that 120-ish heads of state are in Copenhagen and all want to address the assembly, but the assembly is busy in negotiations. So the leader of an entire country talks to a half-empty room while some low-level bureaucrat whispers into his earpiece, "I'm sorry Mr. Prime Minister but you've gone over your allotted five minutes."
Secretary Clinton pulls $100 billion out of thin air. In what could be argued as a shift in position, the US apparently is ready to participate in a $100 billion/year (i.e., the low end of what's necessary for poor countries to address climate change) global fund to help Samoa and other countries, though where this money will come from and how it will be spent is not known.
Nobody's happy and everyone's waiting for someone else to blink. It's someone else's fault. Essentially everyone is trying to goad everyone else into making the first major concession. Not sure how that happens.
But there's a bright side too. One of the people who's actually working at the summit says it's a big deal, mostly because everyone is talking about climate change and a number of big countries have made tentative commitments - this wouldn't have happened in the absence of the summit.
There's no doubt that people will declare victory once this thing is done. But I'll be talking with three of my green-blogging pals to get the straight skinny...
10 December 2009
I'm coo coo for Copen-Puffs
More tasty morsels from and about the conference in Copenhagen:
US, China become frenemies. So we're all, "China really wants to pollute more and they're trying to make it look like they're cutting carbon and they're really not," and they're all, "yeah, well the US promised a boatload of cash to poor countries to fight climate change and they didn't do it." And yet you can see that look in the bureaucrats eyes that shows they really love each other but don't want anyone else to know. You know, because they keep lending us money and we keep buying their stuff.
Sarah Palin says something to get attention and the media falls for it again. I want to be respectful of the former Governor, but let's face it, that op-ed was a joke. We need serious people to work on this issue in an intellectually honest manner, and we need to be at the table for major negotiations on serious issues. This op-ed (and I'm not sure she wrote it herself) added nothing constructive to the discussion. She has every right to say it, but I don't think it was helpful.
OH NO YOU DIDN'T WRITE AN IDEA DOWN ON PAPER! And speaking of saying things, apparently discussion drafts are no longer fashionable. Seems some "rich" countries put some thoughts on paper in advance of the meeting, and some developing countries got mad because the thoughts helped those rich countries more than developing countries, and there's only supposed to be one idea on paper at a time. Or something. I'm sorry but I can't get too upset about this. People develop negotiating strategies in advance of negotiations all the time. On occasion those strategies will be put on paper. It doesn't mean they become the final product. (See "reform, health care.")
Global Voices makes a splash. I've been waiting for the GVO special section on Copenhagen, and it didn't disappoint. They have 4 bloggers on site - from Kenya, Brazil, Ghana, and Maldives. they're tracking the citizen media about Copenhagen - NOBODY else is doing this like they can.
US, China become frenemies. So we're all, "China really wants to pollute more and they're trying to make it look like they're cutting carbon and they're really not," and they're all, "yeah, well the US promised a boatload of cash to poor countries to fight climate change and they didn't do it." And yet you can see that look in the bureaucrats eyes that shows they really love each other but don't want anyone else to know. You know, because they keep lending us money and we keep buying their stuff.
Sarah Palin says something to get attention and the media falls for it again. I want to be respectful of the former Governor, but let's face it, that op-ed was a joke. We need serious people to work on this issue in an intellectually honest manner, and we need to be at the table for major negotiations on serious issues. This op-ed (and I'm not sure she wrote it herself) added nothing constructive to the discussion. She has every right to say it, but I don't think it was helpful.
OH NO YOU DIDN'T WRITE AN IDEA DOWN ON PAPER! And speaking of saying things, apparently discussion drafts are no longer fashionable. Seems some "rich" countries put some thoughts on paper in advance of the meeting, and some developing countries got mad because the thoughts helped those rich countries more than developing countries, and there's only supposed to be one idea on paper at a time. Or something. I'm sorry but I can't get too upset about this. People develop negotiating strategies in advance of negotiations all the time. On occasion those strategies will be put on paper. It doesn't mean they become the final product. (See "reform, health care.")
Global Voices makes a splash. I've been waiting for the GVO special section on Copenhagen, and it didn't disappoint. They have 4 bloggers on site - from Kenya, Brazil, Ghana, and Maldives. they're tracking the citizen media about Copenhagen - NOBODY else is doing this like they can.
09 December 2009
FIGHT GLOBAL CORRUPTION
We interrupt Copen-fest 2K9 to remind everyone that today is UN Anticorruption Day. Normally I'm not a huge fan of naming "days" after causes but if the organizations involved actually back up words with real action they deserve attention. This is one such effort.
My colleagues and I have been working with the World Bank and the United Nations to reach out to bloggers to talk about efforts to fight corruption worldwide. A couple of days ago we had the first of what I hope will be many online events that will help build relationships among online advocates and UN & World Bank staff to join forces in this effort.
Corruption is one of the major obstacles in fighting global poverty. You can help raise awareness by adding a badge to your website or blog (available in several langauges) - or embedding this video.
My colleagues and I have been working with the World Bank and the United Nations to reach out to bloggers to talk about efforts to fight corruption worldwide. A couple of days ago we had the first of what I hope will be many online events that will help build relationships among online advocates and UN & World Bank staff to join forces in this effort.
Corruption is one of the major obstacles in fighting global poverty. You can help raise awareness by adding a badge to your website or blog (available in several langauges) - or embedding this video.
08 December 2009
Copen-fest 2K9
Some significant developments in environmental policy, as our enviro-elites meet in Denmark:
The "endangerment finding." The US EPA has all the authority it needs to move on regulating carbon. It just needs to come to the conclusion that carbon emissions constitute a danger to public health, which it did this week. Frankly I think this is really just another facet of the Administration's stimulus package - more corporate lawyers are going to be paid thanks to this single decision than pretty much anything else EPA does... ;)
File under, "duh." The earth is warming. This decade will likely be the warmest on record, and 2009 is shaping up to be the 5th most warm year. Brought to you by the World Meteorological Society.
Bangladesh goes Oliver Twist. When it comes to funding to fight climate change, The Bangladeshi government says, "please sir, I want some more." As in 15 percent of any fund that is created to fight climate change. While most American's can't find Bangladesh on a map, Think about 20 million people displaced if the oceans rise by one meter. That's more than the entire population of Florida.
Gordon Brown talks tough. The British Prime Minister wants the EU to strengthen its carbon reduction goals. No surprise here. Politically he's on the ropes back home and he needs to look strong on this issue. Of course, it's easy to talk tough when you're calling for things beyond your control...
more updates as warranted.
The "endangerment finding." The US EPA has all the authority it needs to move on regulating carbon. It just needs to come to the conclusion that carbon emissions constitute a danger to public health, which it did this week. Frankly I think this is really just another facet of the Administration's stimulus package - more corporate lawyers are going to be paid thanks to this single decision than pretty much anything else EPA does... ;)
File under, "duh." The earth is warming. This decade will likely be the warmest on record, and 2009 is shaping up to be the 5th most warm year. Brought to you by the World Meteorological Society.
Bangladesh goes Oliver Twist. When it comes to funding to fight climate change, The Bangladeshi government says, "please sir, I want some more." As in 15 percent of any fund that is created to fight climate change. While most American's can't find Bangladesh on a map, Think about 20 million people displaced if the oceans rise by one meter. That's more than the entire population of Florida.
Gordon Brown talks tough. The British Prime Minister wants the EU to strengthen its carbon reduction goals. No surprise here. Politically he's on the ropes back home and he needs to look strong on this issue. Of course, it's easy to talk tough when you're calling for things beyond your control...
more updates as warranted.
07 December 2009
Ah, Denmark in December.
Today marks the beginning of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. To be honest, I think the announcement about 3 weeks ago that there won't be a binding deal on carbon emissions was a bit obvious. While that's certainly depressing, at least political leaders aren't setting themselves up for a shock.
I tried to give a preview of the conference over at Earth & Industry. While I'm sure a lot people will come out of this meeting insisting that a lot has been accomplished - after all, they don't want all this time and money to be wasted - my prediction is the real results of the summit will be to just punt the agenda down another year, Of course, we'll have a piece of paper that says everyone promises to take it very seriously next year, but that's it. Because once you filter out all the "fierce urgency of now" rhetoric, once you get past all the knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers who still want to question the science here, the whole issue boils down to two words: "You first." But more on that later.
Despite the cynicism, I do think it's important for world leaders to get together to focus everyone's attention on a crucial issue. So here's what you should look at to get the REAL scoop on what happens in Copenhagen this week.
The IPCC home and report: This is the online home of the UN group that writes and revises the analysis on the climate change science. This is the site you visit first to know the facts.
COP 15 home: The conference home page. You can learn who's meeting where and so on.
Reuters Copenhagen page: Reuters did a phenomenal job covering the G20 Summit, I expect them to do the same here.
Crowd-sourced newspaper editorial: OK, not really "crowdsourced" the way techies define it. But the Guardian led a group of 56 newspapers in 45 countries to publish an editorial about the summit and the issue. I don't usually take newspaper editorials very seriously but this constitutes a very high level of collaboration in an industry that isn't really known for playing well with others. That alone makes it worthy of reading.
Communication Tips for Scientists and Reporting Tips for Journalists: UC-Berkeley cranked out a couple of very useful one-pagers for scientists and journalists who may be getting together for the first time thanks to this summit. Sarah Kuck at Worldchanging reproduced both. The lasting legacy of this summit may very well be how people talk about it - so let's hope everyone gets this right.
The #cop15 twitter hashstag rss feed: I'm putting this in my sidebar for now. There doesn't seem to be a consensus yet on a hashtag, some people are using #climate, but that strikes me as more general.
Those hacked emails everyone is talking about: No, they don't disprove the science about climate change. They really don't even throw it into question. But this is a problem - scientists, perhaps reacting to the incredibly politicized environment here, may have attempted to exclude critics from the scientific discussion. That's not cool. This issue is too serious for people to be excluded - scientists have an obligation to explain to the lay public why their critics are wrong and why further delay is dangerous - but they don't have a right to exclude people because of their political leanings or financial motivations. (They can start by using those UC-Berkeley tip sheets.) Here in America we just had an administration where one side of a scientific argument was routinely silenced. We can't give them an excuse to do it again once they come back.
I'll be on the look out for more news coverage of the summit - online and off - and try to give a list as soon as I can. I'm really curious to see what the GVO folks will do, since climate change has really morphed into a foreign policy issue more than anything else, at least in my mind. Meantime I hope this gets people started...
I tried to give a preview of the conference over at Earth & Industry. While I'm sure a lot people will come out of this meeting insisting that a lot has been accomplished - after all, they don't want all this time and money to be wasted - my prediction is the real results of the summit will be to just punt the agenda down another year, Of course, we'll have a piece of paper that says everyone promises to take it very seriously next year, but that's it. Because once you filter out all the "fierce urgency of now" rhetoric, once you get past all the knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers who still want to question the science here, the whole issue boils down to two words: "You first." But more on that later.
Despite the cynicism, I do think it's important for world leaders to get together to focus everyone's attention on a crucial issue. So here's what you should look at to get the REAL scoop on what happens in Copenhagen this week.
The IPCC home and report: This is the online home of the UN group that writes and revises the analysis on the climate change science. This is the site you visit first to know the facts.
COP 15 home: The conference home page. You can learn who's meeting where and so on.
Reuters Copenhagen page: Reuters did a phenomenal job covering the G20 Summit, I expect them to do the same here.
Crowd-sourced newspaper editorial: OK, not really "crowdsourced" the way techies define it. But the Guardian led a group of 56 newspapers in 45 countries to publish an editorial about the summit and the issue. I don't usually take newspaper editorials very seriously but this constitutes a very high level of collaboration in an industry that isn't really known for playing well with others. That alone makes it worthy of reading.
Communication Tips for Scientists and Reporting Tips for Journalists: UC-Berkeley cranked out a couple of very useful one-pagers for scientists and journalists who may be getting together for the first time thanks to this summit. Sarah Kuck at Worldchanging reproduced both. The lasting legacy of this summit may very well be how people talk about it - so let's hope everyone gets this right.
The #cop15 twitter hashstag rss feed: I'm putting this in my sidebar for now. There doesn't seem to be a consensus yet on a hashtag, some people are using #climate, but that strikes me as more general.
Those hacked emails everyone is talking about: No, they don't disprove the science about climate change. They really don't even throw it into question. But this is a problem - scientists, perhaps reacting to the incredibly politicized environment here, may have attempted to exclude critics from the scientific discussion. That's not cool. This issue is too serious for people to be excluded - scientists have an obligation to explain to the lay public why their critics are wrong and why further delay is dangerous - but they don't have a right to exclude people because of their political leanings or financial motivations. (They can start by using those UC-Berkeley tip sheets.) Here in America we just had an administration where one side of a scientific argument was routinely silenced. We can't give them an excuse to do it again once they come back.
I'll be on the look out for more news coverage of the summit - online and off - and try to give a list as soon as I can. I'm really curious to see what the GVO folks will do, since climate change has really morphed into a foreign policy issue more than anything else, at least in my mind. Meantime I hope this gets people started...
03 December 2009
Suicide Pact, Revisited
I'll try to be clear here: a six-percent cut in higher education is NOT an appropriate reason for college presidents to take a rhetorical victory lap. It's a reason for outrage. This budget is NOT an act of courage or a sign of commitment to education. It's a suicide pact that will send smart people looking for opportunity - the only hope for Kentucky's future - heading toward the exits. It's a sure sign that Kentucky is trapped in a cultural and political sinkhole of low expectations and profoundly wrong-headed thinking.My wife turned out to be one of those smart people looking for opportunity who headed for the exit, taking her husband and son with her. A former faculty member at the state's flagship university, she's now on the faculty at Duke University School of Medicine. A number of other faculty members in her department have also left.
When the legislature implemented these spending cuts, the University of Kentucky was actually under a statutory mandate to be a "top 20 public university" by 2020. Of course, the legislature didn't specify what "top 20" meant. But at the time, the US News and World Report college rankings - certainly not the only ranking system, but probably the most well-recognized - had UK behind 55 other public universities, dropping a few spots from the previous year.
I checked the most recent rankings for public universities - UK is now tied for last on their list. (BTW, Duke is #10 on the list of ALL universities, not just public or just private.)
Now, in the real world lists like this are subjective and they don't mean much. Except the state legislature has decreed rankings mean quite a bit. They even passed a law. (Can't seem to pass a law making cross burnings a hate crime, though. Apparently too controversial.)
This may be terribly unfair, but I can't help but think this is really a reflection of the values and culture of the people there. The political will exists to be able to say "we're among the best," but not to actually improve by any substantive measure. Having the cheapest cigarettes in the nation is more important than paying market rates for UK employees - unless, of course, that UK employee is the basketball coach, in which case no price is too high.
In fact, for a brief time, Kentucky's highest paid public employee - not simply in the UK system but in the entire Commonwealth - had the following job description: "Do NOT coach the UK basketball team." Seriously. He was supplanted by a guy whose job description is "Please DO coach the UK basketball team." And that guy is paid more than any college basketball coach in America.
And hey, thanks in no small part to those cheap cigarettes, Kentucky can finally boast it's #1 in something, and it's not even close - lung cancer deaths.
Now the economy is in trouble, and faculty at UK should be bracing themselves for another year without a salary increase - and that's a best-case scenario. Faculty lines aren't being filled. Commitments made to recruited faculty aren't being kept. And once again the debate won't be whether the state will cut higher ed funding, but how much.
Of course, my wife and I know plenty of very good people still in Kentucky who know that this is a terrible problem and want their leaders to make the tough decisions to fix it. But the circumstances there lead to one simple conclusion: Kentucky doesn't simply need a shift in thinking, it needs a leadership transplant.
This suicide pact has sealed the fates of too many Kentuckians, and the sinkhole is only growing deeper.
02 December 2009
Hey, Sam Stein!
Both of the readers here at It's Not a Lecture will tell you that I was doing Speech Clouds before they were cool.
But it's not enough to just do one - you really should compare clouds from different people on the same topic like health care or terrorism or the same purpose like an inaugural address or a commencement address.
Or you could compare clouds from the same person on the same topic like climate change or foreign policy.
That way a speech cloud is more of a useful tool than a shiny toy.
But it's not enough to just do one - you really should compare clouds from different people on the same topic like health care or terrorism or the same purpose like an inaugural address or a commencement address.
Or you could compare clouds from the same person on the same topic like climate change or foreign policy.
That way a speech cloud is more of a useful tool than a shiny toy.
01 December 2009
Definitely One To Watch
I'm taking a quick trip up to DC today for the PR News Awards luncheon - it will be good to see colleagues and I'm looking forward to the networking, but I'm most excited about celebrating the success and recognition of one of my cooler colleagues, John Cangany.
John has been named to a list of "15 to Watch for 2009" by PR News Magazine.
I've worked with John for a while now and it's been a privilege to watch this guy in action. The first thing you realize is he never stops. He's not one of those guys who sends you the email at 11pm just to show you he's working late - he's really too busy to care about that stuff. John works hard because he really cares about online communities and technology. It's clear that social media is a passion of his.
John's also one of those guys who just "gets it" - he knows instinctively that social media isn't about tools, it's about communities and relationships and conversations and influence. He's relentless about connecting people with ideas and issues and helping share best practices. (Hence the vid cap specifying his advice when introducing oneself to an online community.)
So bigtime kudos to John and the rest of my colleagues who will be recognized for their efforts today.
But mostly John.
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