Copenhagen is a water town, and the iconic symbol of Denmark’s capital city is the Little Mermaid silently standing watch over the harbor. Next month the Little Mermaid welcomes the global community coming to negotiate at least the foundation of an international treaty at the COP15 climate conference to carry beyond the Kyoto Protocol expiring in 2012.

The Little Mermaid takes her role as a symbol of climate change seriously. And she’s angry. Angry because also coming to her town are thousands of lobbyists and business (as usual) representatives intent on holding back progress for a dangerously warming world, opting instead for short term profits over long term sustainability.

The Little Mermaid is now the Angry Mermaid:

“So the Angry Mermaid decided to launch an award – in her own name – to highlight how corporate lobbyists were scheming to sabotage action to save the climate. She asked people she knew if they could suggest which companies were doing the most to undermine climate action – and she decided to publish a shortlist and ask the public to vote.”

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For the 193 national delegations gathering in Copenhagen for the U.N. Climate Change Conference in December, the reasons for concern about climate change vary widely. For delegations from low-lying island countries, the principal concern is rising sea level. For countries in southern Europe, climate change means less rainfall and more drought. For countries of East Asia and the Caribbean, more powerful storms and storm surges are a growing worry. This climate change conference is about all these things, and many more, but in a very fundamental sense, it is a conference about food security.

We need not go beyond ice melting to see that the world is in trouble on the food front. The melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets is raising sea level. If the Greenland ice sheet were to melt entirely, sea level would rise by 23 feet. Recent projections show that it could rise by up to 6 feet during this century.

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The City of Copenhagen has announced the establishment of its first hydrogen fueling station, alongside a mini-fleet of fuel cell vehicles, and hopes that the move will help it towards the ambitious goal of becoming the first carbon-neutral capital city in the world by 2025.

Following the recent news of a growing hydrogen fueling system in Germany, the new facility also opens up the intriguing proposition of a cross-border European hydrogen infrastructure.

According to grandly titled Technology and Environment Mayor Klaus Bondam, “Today we are putting Copenhagen on the map as a champion of clean transport. Together with [fuel cell vehicle integrator] H2 Logic, Copenhagen is setting in motion the development of hydrogen transport in Denmark and in northern Europe, because the hydrogen filling station in Copenhagen will help provide future hydrogen-powered vehicles from Scandinavia and Germany with hydrogen.”

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More data show that ‘Yes, climate change is happening, ice is melting at alarming rates, and the time for action is now.’

Independent research using state-of-the-art modeling and satellite observations shows that melting of the Greenland ice sheet is speeding up.

Four months ago, new research showed that Arctic sea ice was at its lowest point in about 800 years, another study a couple months ago showed suprisingly fast melting in Greenland and Antarctica. Now, research from other scientists in Bristol (UK) published in Science confirms that ice sheets in Greenland are melting at an unprecedented rate.

There has been a lot of effort in the past few months to knock down climate change activists, say it isn’t happening. No wonder, of course, given that we are quickly approaching one of the most important meetings in the history of the human race — the climate change conference in Copenhagen. This new report shows again that whether we admit it or not, ice is melting, sea levels are bound to rise, climate change is happening, and the whole world will be changed as a result of it.

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Home of the upcoming climate change conference, Copenhagen is #4 in this great bicycle city photo tour series. With about 55% of trips being by bicycle, Copenhagen is an amazing place to visit or live if you like bicycling.

The photos to follow give you a taste of this great bicycle city. From dogs on bikes to bikes on bikes, from bikes in ice to bike counters, enjoy these great bicycle photos.

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The United States must deliver concrete mid-term greenhouse gas reduction targets by next month or it will destroy efforts to achieve a framework for a global climate change deal in Copenhagen, United Nations climate chief Yvo de Boer said Monday as a week of international talks on global warming began in Barcelona.

“I do not think the international community will accept an agreement that lacks clarity from the U.S. on targets,” de Boer said.

The Barcelona talks are the final five days of two years of global negotiations leading up to the crucial UN Climate Change Conference, from Dec. 7-18, in Copenhagen. De Boer’s worst fear now is that the Copenhagen conference will end with a lack of clarity on key issues and lead to a protracted political standoff.

“Negotiations must stop at Copenhagen. Otherwise negotiations will drag on when only the technical work should be going on,” he said.

A decision by the Obama administration to put a concrete 2020 target on the table could be the game changer for the world, he suggested.

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Agriculture, transportation and small businesses exempt from Boxer-Kerry

Only 2% of companies are covered by the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, but that 2% represents 70% of US emissions, says Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), the bill’s co-sponsor.

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In a recent international conference on ‘Climate Change: Technology Development & Transfer’ held in Delhi, the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh began his speech by stating that climate friendly and environmentally sound technologies should be viewed as global public goods.

The panel, also chaired by the Maldives President after his country’s recent underwater stunt, called for the Northern countries to do (much) more than just emissions reduction. The statement also comes shortly after media reports suggest India could change its national position on climate change to drop the ‘deal-breaker’ tag put on it by the West.

The BIG question: Will India change its official position ahead of Copenhagen?

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..and then takes a U-Turn the very next day!

In a reported letter to the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Jairam Ramesh, the Indian Environment Minister proposed a radical shift in India’s stand on climate change–away from its national position on climate negotiations–which India has backed since 1990 and which was defended robustly even in UN talks in Bangkok earlier this month.

Minutes after the news spread, political parties sitting in the opposition were quick to respond. Within the next few hours, the Environment Minister issued a clarifying statement for national media and the entire Nation!

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When Joe Romm over at the Indispensable Climate Progress (I capitalize indispensable because the blog should just always be called that) gets going, he really gets going.

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Chaired by President M. Nasheed, the Government of Maldives recently concluded the world’s first ever underwater cabinet meeting. The small island nation of Maldives will perhaps be the first country to go under water, if predictions based on climate change models come true.

The underwater meeting was called to raise this concern and put pressure on the West to act NOW, and for a fair deal at COP in Copenhagen this December. A day after the event, extensively covered by the media (View on: CNN | BBC), the Government of India has announced the setting up of a National institute for long-term research on climate change.

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Even as the world prepares for the grand climate meet at Copenhagen this December, a large part of South India has gone under water. And while talks have already begun on coming up with an equitable deal and the very fear that there may be none, over 300 people have already lost their lives while millions are displaced and missing in this global warming related freak weather event, predicted well in advance by the IPCC in its Fourth Assessment Report in 2007.

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700 people stripped naked in French vineyards this week. Why? To try to influence world leaders to do more regarding climate change.

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Yesterday, Obama hopped a plane to Denmark for a whirlwind Scandinavian tour where it was thought that his presence and pitch might push Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics across the goal line. Instead, ChiTown did not make it out of the first round of balloting. Safe to say that if the White House knew that, Obama would not have made the trip. The failure marked the first - and probably last - time that a sitting US President schilled in front of an IOC selection committee.

The miscalculation is a familiar one. Just after Labor Day, POTUS addressed a joint session of Congress to drive home his point on the urgency of health care reform happening this year. Now barely into October, the only Senate health care bill thought to have a chance on the floor emerged from committee with no bipartisan support. And, as October begins it is clear that if any health care reform bill is signed in 2009, it will not include the now notorious “public option.”

In both cases, the White House made the decision to put their guy out there, but - evidently - no one counted the votes beforehand. The situation is eerily similar to the early administration flubs in the appointments process (i.e., the Daschle false start and the Judd Gregg quagmire). Any good party whip knows that you do not bring a bill to the floor until you know how the roll is going to be called.

As a result of Denmark, Obama winds up wearing a piece of a defeat that was inevitable and it was not even his fight. The Chicago Olympics story is clearly being played up for everything - and more - than its worth by the Right, but it is worth considering why - given that the Chicago bid was circling the drain - Obama let himself get dragged down with it?

When the call came asking for his support, White House staffers should have told the Chicago team to spend 48 hours having coffee with everyone who held a vote, and bring back their tally. If it looked close, then Obama has a tough call to make. But, if they cannot bring back a straw poll or if they bring back numbers that show the Windy City being blown away, then the White House has an easy answer: “love to help, but…”

As the world closes in on December’s big UN climate change conference — back in Copenhagen — it begs the question: is the White House strategy informed by good ground-level information on where other parties sit? Clearly, that strategy includes putting pressure on reluctant Senators with the prospect (read: threat) of EPA regulation of emissions in the absence of comprehensive legislation, even something as watered-down as Waxman-Markey. The upside to handing things off to Lisa Jackson is that it may force the hands of some of the upper Midwest Dems Obama needs to get to 60. And, even if it is not enough of a prod to move a bill through the Senate, it allows Obama to fly his flag in Copenhagen.

But, what if they are not close to 60? What if the lever is not the right one to swing the votes they need. Based on their recent due diligence, it is difficult to say whether the White House even knows where their votes are, who can be swung, and how. That said, should they roll the dice with an EPA plan? How will the inevitable backlash inside the US look on the global stage?

Strong political interests are already lining up against the idea of an executive power move on carbon, and with a lot of Dems looking more vulnerable for the mid-terms in 2010, you have to wonder if the move does not just paint Obama back into a corner and have allies running in the other direction on climate change.

On the campaign trail - in spite of Reverend Wright - Obama earned the gloss “No Drama Obama.” A little less than a year into his tenure as President, the shine is wearing off.

Flickr photo by RobBeer.

Kids & Kids’ Bikes in Bike Buckets (i.e. Bike Minivans)

The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart. ~Iris Murdoch, The Red and the Green

If you like these, make sure to check out the kids on bikes on p.4 of the Paris photo tour and babies on bikes on p.6 of the Groningen photo tour. Many more photos there and some very cute ones!

Image Credit 1: gargola87 via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: Spacing Magazine via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: fuzzytnth3 via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Great Bike Parking — Tons of Bikes Everywhere

Big Bike Lanes Great for Group Bike Rides

Image Credit 1: Spacing Magazine via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: xrrr via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: Bjørn Giesenbauer via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 4: Riv via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 5: Boonerator via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 6: ezioman via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 7: madsflash via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 8: Spacing Magazine via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Happy Dogs on Bikes, Bikes on Bikes, People on Octopus Bikes

Image Credit 1: Stig Nygaard via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: Gullig via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: tuplang via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Blue Bikes Lanes at Critical Intersections

This last one also fits on the kids on bikes page.

Image Credit 1: malouette via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: malouette via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: malouette via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 4: complexify. via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Bikes in Ice & Snow

Image Credit 1: jack_g via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: Ø via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Traffic Counter, for Bicycles!

3,340 bicyclists going by here by about 1:00pm in the afternoon!

Image Credit 1: James Cridland via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Bike Sharing — 2nd Generation

Copenhagen has a very successful 2nd generation bicycle sharing program, where you can borrow a bike by putting a cash deposit in where the bike is locked and you get the deposit back when you return the bike. Although not as sophisticated as Paris or Barcelona’s 3rd generation bicycle sharing programs, this is a good one as well.

Image Credit 1: norrebrograde via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: supervillain via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: quatro.sinko via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Bikes & Trains

The bikeway here is right next to the rails. Not sure how that would be, but would like to try it myself.

Trains all over Europe have bike cars, but nice to see such a big bike symbol painted on the car here — easier to see when the train is rolling up.

Image Credit 1: hdport via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: hdport via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Bike Art & Art on Bikes

Not sure what this one below is about.

For more bike art, art on bikes, and interesting pictures, check out the #10 Basel, #9 Bogota, #8 Barcelona, #7 Berlin, #6 Groningen, and #5 Paris great bicycle city photo tours.

Copenhagen might have been higher on the list, but the pictures were not the most spectacular in my opinion. Hope you enjoyed these, but if you missed the others, I encourage you to check those out, too. Copenhagen might have been closer to #10 on the list if I didn’t consider it to be the best or second best large bicycle city in the world.

Also, I can tell you that the top three bicycle photo tours will have some amazing bike photos really worth seeing, from three different continents and completely different styles.

So, to keep yourself updated on the next three photo tours, keep your eye on EcoWorldly or subscribe to its feed or email list. Have something extra to add? Comment below!

Image Credit 1: richardmasoner via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: caspermoller via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: Passetti via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: only alice via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Al Gore and Dr. R.K. Pachauri (IPCC) under the Mahatma’s words!

Today is the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi - regarded as ‘Father of the Nation’ by the Republic of India and a ‘Global Peacemaker’ by the United Nations; so much so that this day is also celebrated as the International Day of Non-Violence. The Mahatma has also been the inspiration for US President Obama who believes that America has its roots in Gandhi’s India because the teachings he shared with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. helped change U.S. society through the civil rights movement.

Now, with the world facing a climate crisis and already on the crossroads of equity and/in development, it is time to resurrect and revive the Gandhian principles of simple living-high thinking, participatory governance, etc. at the global level.

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A new tool in Google Earth shows you the “effect” of climate change in your area.

Using Google Earth, you can look at climate effects under three different scenarios — 1) Confronting Climate Change — “with Al Gore”, 2) IPCC High Emissions Scenario, and 3) IPCC Low Emissions Scenario. Other new tools let you examine other aspects of climate change and how to adapt to climate change.

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In his first UN appearance since taking the Oval Office, Obama staked a lofty position for the US, promised that the US is “determined to act,” and that the US “will meet our responsibility to future generations.” Chinese President Hu Jintao matched Obama’s rhetoric, pledging that the Chinese would commit to a host of progressive steps around renewable energy and emissions reductions, but also cautioning that developing economies like China’s “should not … be asked to take on obligations that go beyond their development stage.”

The summer saw a lot of pre-positioning in advance of Copenhagen, and with today’s UN General Assembly marking the beginning of a series of mini-summits in the lead-up to December’s big climate change conference, the volume on those announcements will only increase along with their frequency and grandeur.

Still, with Obama facing an uphill battle on domestic climate change legislation and China hiding behind their “developing” status, Copenhagen is threatening to become little more than a public relations event with little real concerted action. The US will have to avoid making the push for global leadership on climate change into a new breed of arms race that would find Obama and US policymakers at a significant disadvantage against the Chinese in the following ways:

Paying Lip Service is Costly – China, India and other developing countries want the US-led West to subsidize their carbon reduction efforts. If the West balks and no comprehensive global agreement emerges, the US could still find itself saddled with costly commitments made in going toe-to-toe with China as a demonstration of leadership and willingness to cooperate. For example, at the UN, President Jintao made the headline-grabbing promise to plant enough new trees in China to cover the area of Norway. Jintao also promised to get China to 15% renewable energy within 10 years, a much more ambitious timeline than any US plan. While it may not represent the kind of economy-crippling commitment that China fears will result from a global agreement, these programs will be costly, and Obama has his hands full just trying to pay for health care.

Democracy’s Dilemma - Not only is Obama hamstrung by health care, an increasingly troublesome war in Afghanistan, and an economy that is still teetering; but, he also has the mettlesome matters of bipartisanship, political pressure and budget restraints. While a strongly Democratic House could barely pass a weakened climate bill, Jintao and the Chinese have a one-party system overseeing a command economy that gives the Chinese a lot more adaptability as circumstances dictate in Copenhagen, in the world press, and on the geopolitical landscape.

The World Won’t Grade on a Curve - The Chinese are already crying foul over efforts to stifle their economy for the sake of climate change action and the world community is not expecting much from the world’s fastest growing economy and most voluminous emitter. Commitments like those above are enough to make a splash and convince the world that China really is trying. By contrast, Senators from Obama’s own party are refusing to discuss the prospect of domestic climate change legislation unless it includes trade protections. That kind of opposition in his own party makes a lot of his words ring hollow while the Chinese will certainly be able to deliver on whatever proposals they float. There are no handicaps in this game, so even if they overshoot on a much lower standard, the Chinese promise to steal Obama’s thunder.

Conventional wisdom says you should never enter a land war in Asia. The same might be said for wars of words.

Flickr photo.

Kids & Kids’ Bikes in Bike Buckets (i.e. Bike Minivans)

The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart. ~Iris Murdoch, The Red and the Green

If you like these, make sure to check out the kids on bikes on p.4 of the Paris photo tour and babies on bikes on p.6 of the Groningen photo tour. Many more photos there and some very cute ones!

Image Credit 1: gargola87 via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: Spacing Magazine via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: fuzzytnth3 via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Great Bike Parking — Tons of Bikes Everywhere

Big Bike Lanes Great for Group Bike Rides

Image Credit 1: Spacing Magazine via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: xrrr via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: Bjørn Giesenbauer via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 4: Riv via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 5: Boonerator via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 6: ezioman via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 7: madsflash via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 8: Spacing Magazine via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Happy Dogs on Bikes, Bikes on Bikes, People on Octopus Bikes

Image Credit 1: Stig Nygaard via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: Gullig via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: tuplang via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Blue Bikes Lanes at Critical Intersections

This last one also fits on the kids on bikes page.

Image Credit 1: malouette via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: malouette via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: malouette via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 4: complexify. via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Bikes in Ice & Snow

Image Credit 1: jack_g via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: Ø via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Traffic Counter, for Bicycles!

3,340 bicyclists going by here by about 1:00pm in the afternoon!

Image Credit 1: James Cridland via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Bike Sharing — 2nd Generation

Copenhagen has a very successful 2nd generation bicycle sharing program, where you can borrow a bike by putting a cash deposit in where the bike is locked and you get the deposit back when you return the bike. Although not as sophisticated as Paris or Barcelona’s 3rd generation bicycle sharing programs, this is a good one as well.

Image Credit 1: norrebrograde via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: supervillain via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: quatro.sinko via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Bikes & Trains

The bikeway here is right next to the rails. Not sure how that would be, but would like to try it myself.

Trains all over Europe have bike cars, but nice to see such a big bike symbol painted on the car here — easier to see when the train is rolling up.

Image Credit 1: hdport via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: hdport via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Bike Art & Art on Bikes

Not sure what this one below is about.

For more bike art, art on bikes, and interesting pictures, check out the #10 Basel, #9 Bogota, #8 Barcelona, #7 Berlin, #6 Groningen, and #5 Paris great bicycle city photo tours.

Copenhagen might have been higher on the list, but the pictures were not the most spectacular in my opinion. Hope you enjoyed these, but if you missed the others, I encourage you to check those out, too. Copenhagen might have been closer to #10 on the list if I didn’t consider it to be the best or second best large bicycle city in the world.

Also, I can tell you that the top three bicycle photo tours will have some amazing bike photos really worth seeing, from three different continents and completely different styles.

So, to keep yourself updated on the next three photo tours, keep your eye on EcoWorldly or subscribe to its feed or email list. Have something extra to add? Comment below!

Image Credit 1: richardmasoner via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: caspermoller via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: Passetti via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: only alice via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Climate Action Will Pay for Itself, and More.

The United Nations (UN) stated earlier this month that the cost of avoiding climate change was at least 1% of global GDP — $500-600 billion dollars. Despite this major cost, Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the UK, and The Climate Group, presented a report to the UN yesterday saying that a strong climate deal will “boost growth in all major economies & create millions of new jobs.”

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A new survey of Asians finds that they want a strong international climate agreement, and they want a few key world leaders to step up to the plate to make it happen.

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