Climate change: The best lessons fall outside the lecture hall

I have never been on a trip on this scale before. I was 15 years old for Make Poverty History and that was my first major rally, as well as my first experience with CAFOD. So when I heard about travelling to Copenhagen with CAFOD, I wasn’t really sure what to expect.

I didn’t even speak a word of Danish! I still don’t actually (well, that’s not quite true, but more about that later) but it doesn’t seem to matter as everyone in Copenhagen has been so friendly and welcoming.

I had never really campaigned on climate change before this trip. I was a bit worried about how it would affect society, and how people’s lives in the future might be very different as a result, but I didn’t know anything about policies or allegiances or who were the frontrunners and who were the countries dragging their feet. I just had vague notions that America weren’t really pulling their weight.

But it’s fair to say that the trip has been a total eye-opener. It’s a pity that it took this journey, even queuing for hours outside the Bella Centre, to learn all that I have.

I have learnt how the media spins stories to make things seem more controversial in order to sell a few papers. For example, they only conveyed the violence and the number of arrests on the march through Copenhagen last Saturday, when my own experience was wholly peaceful. The police were so friendly and helpful to us and everybody marched and chanted with such energy and hope – so I’ll no longer believe everything I read in the papers.

I have learnt that even though a lot of people have accepted that climate change is happening, there are huge variances in the solutions that people – scientists, governments, companies – propose, but that there are ways forward that governments can take now.

I have learnt that I can sing climate change carols, as part of  a really small group, to the whole world’s media and to all the thousands of delegates and parties at the negotiations. I have more courage than I gave myself credit for.

I have learnt heaps about the politics of climate change, and how influential corporations are – how much sway they hold on the delegations and the outcomes of decisions or the choices they’ll propose.

I have learnt a lot from the group I have been travelling with – from how to make a decent cup of tea to the ins and outs of the climate science.

I have learnt to say ‘Mit navn er Clare’, which is ‘My name is Clare’ in Danish.

And finally I have learnt that people sit up and take notice when people take action, and act from the heart – whether you’re part of a group of 1, 30 or 100,000. I hope this won’t be last time I’m part of a movement to create change. In fact, I know it won’t.

Posted by Clare Oliver, CAFOD volunteer and student from Liverpool

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