Day 3 – More Workshops, Visiting the Guldberg School, and New Insights

Becca just wrote about the experience we had on Day Two with our interest and working groups, and we moved on to new group workshops about mitigation today. They’re generally great ways to learn a little bit about specific issues (I was at the Production/Consumption working group) and brainstorm any solutions we might have. Tomorrow, we’re going to exhibit what we came up with in the Main Hall so all the delegates can learn what we did as we check out what they’re doing. These working groups tend to be more informative, whereas the interest groups (COP Declaration, Climate Ambassador Programs, Communications, Political Advocacy, Culture, etc.) tend teach real-life, applicable skills.

*A sidenote: Check out “The Story of Stuff” on YouTube for an overview of what we talked about in the P+C group. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8]*

After a delicious, locally-grown lunch, we headed off in continental groups to Danish schools. Along with Haiti, Bolivia, Brazil, and Canada, we formed the Americas group and visited the Guldberg School. As it turned out, we ended up meeting with fifteen or so selected students from about five different schools in the area who were in the same climate-focused class. Together, we enjoyed cultural presentations from Denmark and the six visiting countries. Did you know that Denmark has more pigs than people? That Bolivia has three climatic zones? That mangoes are the only crop Haiti exports? That the Brazilians had a recycled-materials fashion show? That Canada had a massive ice storm in 1998? It was definitely an informative and very fun session.

After that, we split up to cook dinner or play a version of dodgeball with the Danish kids. It turned out we had a Mexican dinner! At first, we were wondering why we were supposed to cut vegetables to put in a pancake, but realized later that it was actually a tortilla J. It was great seeing everybody trading off the dreaded onion duty, convincing Pulkit that guys could cook too, and talking to the Bolivian delegation about their cultural foods.

We’ll be visiting Guldberg again tomorrow—details to come!

-Olivia