Hopenhagen? Not if you want to participate.

After the horrid 5 hour wait on Monday I didn't even try today. Elizabeth had already obtained her pass so she did apparently get in afte several hours, I guess I should have tried on Saturday instead of attending the rally. Then again, maybe it ws all for the best. The only sure thing is that someone (UN, Danish security, Police, Jim Prentice) screed up in a big way.

It seems that they signed up 45000 people when the full capacity is only 15000. Now they are blocking even those who got their passes early. When the super stars come Thursday and Friday no one without a limo, an entourage and a silk suit will get in. Democracy still means only pretending 'rule by the people, for the people'.

However, the Klimatforum in downtown Copenhagen is a blast and there are our own superstars there. Today George Monbiot showed his exceptionally clear understanding of the issues and revealed all the 'market based' solutions for what they are - business as usual. He ended his talk with one simple sentence "The only sequestration method that will actually get the carbon into a safe place is not extracting it in the first place". Of course this option is never discussed.

He also stated the obvious, although we never think of the obvious, do we? That all departments of energy have two sides that never talk to each other and have objectives that are polar opposites: One set of policy freaks are working to increase the consumption and use of the fossil fuels we must eliminate whilst the other is trying to encourage the switch to renewables. He made the analogy that having the two objectives is like eating a steak dinner, fries, milk shake, chocolate fudge dessert and a coke but eating a salad and saying, "well I had a salad, I must be losing weight". It's all about self delusion folks and we all love our delusions.

Later the 'Angry Mermaid Awards' were given out. Exalted nominees included Shell, Monsanto, South African oil company, API, and others - Monsanto won with Shell a distant second. The awards were given by the great Naomi Klein.

Both Klein and Monbiot advised us to join the demonstration tomorrow which may get ugly - if the reports are even close. Some have a plan to break into the COP 15 compound which would definitely ignite the ugly side of the scenario.