Having arrived safely in Copenhagen and at the United Nations Climate Change conference, it is time to share the 7th story of love from the Trans-Siberian railways. It is about the love we share for our planet.
You might have wondered what the collecting love stories on the Trans-Siberian Railways line during the symbolic Kyoto “ Copenhagen journey had to do with climate change. The answer is short “ everything!
While collecting messages from people to the decision makers at COP 15 in Copenhagen we often experienced that people did not feel comfortable when we started by asking about climate change. They claimed they did not feel qualified to answer. When we started by asking for a contribution for our collection of love stories from the Trans-Siberian Railways the conversation started to run very smoothly.
Asking people for a love story became our ice breaker and introduction to good dialogues. We were at the core of life. From there the link to what we care about and what we worry about was often short, and people revealed knowledge and strong opinions about climate change “ and what we have to do “ and before we knew it people were delivering their messages to the decision makers at C0P 15.
The seventh story of love from the Trans-Siberian Railways thus includes some reflections on the power of words and language. The technical terms used in the climate change debate might create distance for people living far from the United Nations Climate Change conference. The language used there is filled with abbreviations and codes. For example COP 15 means the 15th conference of Parties to the UNFCCC which is the United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change and CO2 which is carbon dioxide and is difficult to picture and relate to even when we put figures on it. Especially when the decison makers are to agree on targets for how to reduce these. People have told us about how the temperature, the weather and the nature are changing and what we have to do reverse this - and how this relates to their lives.
We do hope that we with the motto ’Bringing people to Copenhagen and Copenhagen to the people’ did succeed in supporting and increasing awareness on the urgency to act on climate change among the people we met on our way towards Copenhagen. At least we got very inspired and encouraged by these meetings and dialogues. We learnt about the love we share for our planet.
To end the reporting on romance on the Trans-Siberian Railway line we shortly add that we learnt from the staff onboard with many examples (some we have shared here) that this train has a reputation for being a place where one can find true and long lasting love...