Dispatches from Denmark

December 10, 09
Robert Stanfield International Airport
Halifax, Nova Scotia

Well, hello. 

I’ve been asked to keep notes on this trip: the trip to Denmark, to Copenhagen (and Aarhus), to what might be a landmark event in the world of global environmental governance or—a rather sad commentary on the impossibility of global environmental governance.  

I’m a professor of history at Dalhousie University. I’m also the coordinator of Dal’s Canadian Studies program, and an instructor in its College of Sustainability. And I’m one of two delegates—with Deborah Buszard, the College’s associate director for research—from Dalhousie on the Nova Scotia mission to COP 15 and brightgreen: one the political negotiations over a climate treaty (COP stands for “Conference of the Parties”), the other an exhibition/conference on green energies.

So why would I be going to Denmark? I know very little about greenhouse gases and air pollution, which is the major problem at hand; or about carbon capture and alternative energy technologies, which are some major solutions. And apart from one research project about the Norse settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows, I know little about historical climate change. (In case you were wondering: the north Atlantic was quite a bit warmer a thousand years ago). This makes me something of an exception among the rest of the Nova Scotia delegates, most of whom are either politicians or businesspeople with some kind of energy product to sell (tidal, wave, wind. Nova Scotia—somewhat ironically for a place so known for its coal mining history—has a lot of potential in this area). 

I’m going to Denmark, I think, for two reasons.  My first job after grad school was teaching Canadian Studies at Aarhus University—and I absolutely fell in love with the country. I’ve been back three times; it’s a terrific connection for an academic. Denmark and Canada might look different on the surface—Canada is roughly 230 times the size of Denmark; Denmark has a millennia-old monarchy—but there are some fascinating historical relationships, especially in terms of the circumpolar north. 

More importantly, though, I’m going on behalf of the three hundred students that I just finished teaching in the first-year Environment, Sustainability and Society course in the College – and the hundreds more I hope to teach in years to come. I’m going to Denmark to see if world leaders share the kind of dedication to the planet that my students have. To learn more about global climate issues and the mechanisms of transnational governance, which is something we talk about in class. And to talk about Dal, the College, and Canadian Studies to anybody who will listen.

So here’s our schedule (so you can decide if you want to keep reading these things). This weekend we will be primarily at the brightgreen event; the Crown Prince is the opening speaker on Saturday morning, after all!  Monday and Tuesday I will be in Aarhus, meeting with people about Canadian Studies, student exchanges with Dal, and some of that university’s major environmental research units.  Wednesday I’m back with the team in Copenhagen, and we fly home (too) early on Thursday. But first, the dreary and dreadful red-eye to Heathrow.

I’ve been reading reports from the COP 15 talks: developing countries feel excluded and disempowered; the major industrial nations are uncooperative; polar bears are drowning as the arctic melts; tarsandstarsandstarsands. But I refuse to be discouraged. There’s an incredibly positive spirit among the Nova Scotia delegates, and while we may not come away from the COP with climate change “solved,” having the discussion itself has a lot of value. For one, it’s going to spotlight the possibilities for cleaner energy in Nova Scotia. And for another, this is something that we need to do a lot of if we’re going to get any good at it. We’re not very good at large-scale, long-term planning, or at getting different countries to cooperate on such things. But we also haven’t been doing it very long: arguably since the early 20th century, and really only in the past twenty or 30 years when it comes to environmental issues. 

We’ve got to start somewhere.