Naomi Klein to Danes: Ease Off the Controls in ‘Hopenhagen’

So, author-activist Naomi Klein has spent the last few days in Copenhagen, taking in the developments—and appreciating streamlined and functional Scandinavian design—at the climate summit, but she has a message for her Danish hosts: Cool it on the whole control freak thing, or the “Hopenhagen” conference isn’t going to be a success.  —KA

Naomi Klein in The Nation:

The Danes have invested a huge amount of money co-branding their [capital] city (now “Hopenhagen”) with a summit that will supposedly save the world. That would be fine if this summit actually were on track to save the world. But since it isn’t, the Danes are frantically trying to redesign us.

Take the weekend’s protests. By the end, around 1,100 people had been arrested. That’s just nuts. Saturday’s march of roughly 100,000 people came at a crucial juncture in the climate negotiations, when all signs pointed either to break down or a dangerously weak deal. The march was festive and peaceful but also tough. “The Climate Doesn’t Negotiate” was the message, and western negotiators need to [heed] it.

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This screen grab from Saturday’s march in Copenhagen shows demonstrators calling for less talk and more action from participating members of the climate summit in Denmark.