Frustrated By Inaction, Youth Delegates Occupy Climate Change Conference

December 09, 2011 from Democracy Now!

As the afternoon round of talks were scheduled to begin at the UN Climate Change Conference, delegates from some of the world's most vulnerable countries joined Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International, and more than 150 youth climate activists in occupying the main plenary. They continued to march throughout the conference center during our live broadcast. As security officers closed in on the protest, the president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, addressed the crowd. Democracy Now! was on the scene and brings you this report.

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2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference

The 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference was held in Durban, South Africa, from 28 November to 11 December 2011 to establish a new treaty to limit carbon emissions. A treaty was not established, but the conference agreed to establish a legally binding deal comprising ... Explore this topic

Occupy movement

The "Occupy" protests are an ongoing series of international protests which began in mid-September 2011 and are primarily against social and economic inequality, corporate greed and influence of corporate money and lobbyists on government. The protests take their name from the... Explore this topic

Protest

An act of defiance or objection by an individual or group of people. Protests can take many forms: peaceful or violent, direct or indirect, large or small. Protests in the news are often political in nature, as groups of citizens voice their disagreement or dissatisfaction. Pr... Explore this topic

Kumi Naidoo

Kumi Naidoo is a South African human rights activist and the International Executive Director of international environmentalist group Greenpeace. He is the first African to head the organisation. After battling apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s through the Helpi... Explore this topic

Durban

Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. It is also the third largest city in South Africa after Johannesburg and Cape Town. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa.... Explore this topic

Greenpeace

Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its diversity" a... Explore this topic

Mohamed Nasheed

Mohamed Nasheed is a Maldivian politician and one of the founders of the Maldivian Democratic Party, who served as the fourth President of the Maldives from 2008 to 2012., he was imprisoned more than twenty times for his opposition to long-time President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. ... Explore this topic

Mic check

A human microphone, also known as the people's microphone, is a means for delivering a speech to a large group of people, wherein persons gathered around the speaker repeat what the speaker says, thus "amplifying" the voice of the speaker without the need for amplification equ... Explore this topic

Maldives

Maldives, officially the Republic of the Maldives and also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean consisting of a double chain of twenty-six atolls, oriented north-south, that lie between Minicoy Island and the Chagos Archipelago. The chain... Explore this topic

Environment

Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements. Environ... Explore this topic

Also See

Occupy movement

2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference

Protest