Storm front over Churchill, Manitoba

I watched this terrific storm roll in over what remains of NASA’s rocket centre. I thought to myself, this is like an aurora. If they were still here, maybe they would launch a rocket into it. Maybe.

It’s been a long week, and a tough shoot. We are without a bear guide. I have a gun license. This means in addition to two camera, a tripod, lights and mics, I am now carrying a winchester 12 gauge shot gun. I am the last line of defence against 1,200 pounds of giant white predator. It’s more than I bargained for.

Sometimes, while I am walking along this great moon landscape, gun in one hand, mk11 in the other, I think to myself, this is my life.

How did I get here?

But today I am feeling sad.  I am feeling sad because the two most powerful men in the world are meeting in Beijing to discuss the future of the planet. Our planet.  Together their nations account for fully 40 percent of the mess we find ourselves in.   Historically one was worse than the other, and so there is a lot of name-calling and finger pointing on who should be the first to say “I’m sorry, let me lead on this one.”  There are no leaders in this mess.

It strikes me as unfair that two men that I didn’t elect will decide the fate of our planet.  It strikes me as ridiculous that our own elected leader has failed to position Canada in a leadership position, kowtowing instead to the interests of big oil and industry.   It strikes me as hopeless that the general consensus now is that Copenhagen will be little more than a dog and pony show for the political elite.

I spend my day in a basement, underground, typing these little memo’s and releasing them to the universe with the sincere hope that someone will read them, feel inspired, demand more.  Hopeful that things will change.  But today I am feeling sad.  I am feeling sad because deep down I wonder if it’s reasonable to demand people far away to sacrifice their economic development for a mess I created.  I wonder if it isn’t already too late.  I do not want to be typing these memos when I am 50, but I fear that might be the case.  I am fearful.  This is a sinking ship.  Perhaps the only justice in our failure to reach consensus, to co-operate the way we were all taught too back in kindergarten, is that we will all go down together.

Three years ago, I went to a workshop in Ottawa. Here I met my dear friend Lixin Fan. At the time he had just arrived from China with big dreams to make a documentary about the world’s largest human migration, which happens in China during the new year when migrant workers return home for the holidays. He didn’t know anyone, he wasn’t sure where to begin, but he could see the film in his mind, and damn it, he was going to make it.

I was present the first time Lixin pitched the film, in an big auditorium in front of a crowd of strangers. He had rehearsed for days in the hostel we stayed in carefully going over every word, perfecting the cadence of his voice I could tell you it went off without a hitch, but that would be a lie. It was tough, because the business is tough. Making films is kinda like climbing Everest without oxygen – sure it can be done, but it’s next to impossible and perhaps not the best idea. You have to want it bad.

This is Lixin’s film. It is complete. He pitched it, he filmed it, he edited it. Certainly film making is a collaborative art, but Last Train Home is truly his film. Later this month it will premiere at IDFA, where it will screen in competition, before making its way through the festival loop and into theaters around the world.

I am, simply put, just so damn proud.

Pedel power in China, July 2006

Well, we’ve hit the five month countdown to Copenhagen 2009 – let the climate change reports from NGO’s begin!

First up, China, where Oxfam has released a report linking climate change to poverty in the region. My Mandarin isn’t what it once was, and so alas, I could not read the full report. But the English summary went something like this: Poor people are farmers, farmers live in ecologically sensitive areas, therefore they are more likely to experience the negative impacts of a changing climate (drought, floods, etc) and will in turn, become poorer than they already are.

In 2008, developing economies represented over half the world's CO2 emissions

Alright, that’s a bit glib. In truth, while the report seems self evident (perhaps even redundant) China, while clearly an industrialized nation, was classified as developing under the Kyoto round of negotiations.  This is bad news, as China is a mega carbon emitter (note the graph to the right).  For China to step up to the plate and do it’s part will take more than bullying from G8 member states.  As Duncan Green puts it from his excellent post on Poverty to Power;

“This kind of research could lead to a more productive debate within China. It places poverty at the centre of the domestic discussion on how to adapt, and once climate change is understood as anti-poverty, it becomes hard to present mitigation as simply a neo-imperialist plot to prevent China from developing, disguised in ‘China-as-bad-guy-emitter’ rhetoric.”

Important stuff, especially given that in 2008 developing countries emitted more than half the world’s carbon (which is perhaps fair given that they house 2/3 of the world’s population). For Copenhagen to succeed where Kyoto failed, China (and India) will have to step up.

Sean Gallagher's birlliant photos illustrae the impacts of desertification in China.

Continuing with the theme of yesterday’s post, photojournalist Sean Gallagher has produced a fascinating and thoughtful photo essay on desertification in China on behalf of the Pulitzer center. Capturing the essence of ongoing environmental devastation, as opposed to catastrophic environmental events, requires a certain finesse of the medium. You can see Gallagher’s work here and learn more about his process here.