Dickinson to Durban » Archive
Durban: A Reflection
By Sam Pollan, ’14 The conclusion of our South Africa adventure was bittersweet. After spending several weeks sharing my pictures and experiences with friends and family, looking back on the conference and the incredible experience of walking through rooms with such noteworthy people, it was sad for that series of events to conclude. The same goes for my time in the Valley of a Thousand Hills. We met some truly amazing people who devote their lives … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change
A Walk in the Woods Should Never Be Overlooked
By Sam Pollan, ’14 A walk in the woods should never be overlooked. Our ventures outside of the classroom have proved to be some of the most valuable experiences of the semester, even if they did not directly relate to our studies. While some field trips, such as our lab where we examined the sediment record at Gettysburg, did provide pertinent information for our studies, other trips offered alternate benefits. Our hikes in the Drakensberg National Park, Hluhluwe Game Reserve, and Krantzkloof Nature Reserve gave us a chance to step back from our hectic time at the COP and with Makaphutu and take a breath of fresh air. While the first few weeks at the conference covered an incessant whirlwind of activities from daybreak until well after sundown, there was still enough … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change
My Week with Makaphutu
By Sam Pollan ’14 Working with the Makaphutu Trust in the week following our time at the COP was an incredible experience. After two weeks of dawn-to-dusk attendance of the conference, I was expecting things to slow down in the Valley of a Thousand Hills. This, however, was not the case. Our time and manpower was put to work at the Makaphutu Children’s village where we efficiently sorted dozens of boxes of clothes and food for distribution. In addition to the sorting, which would have taken days had only the Makaphutu employees been working, we also painted a building that was going to be a new dorm for the children. And of course, throughout the process the children were hanging all over us. Although it wasn’t quite the same time commitment … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change
Roadmap to the Future
By Sam Pollan, ‘14 The expected “Big Deal” coming out of Durban may or may not be the second commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol, but the emerging EU roadmap is looking like a more promising result now that we are nearing the end of the conference. The EU roadmap is essentially a document planning binding emissions targets for 2015 through the post-2020 period and here is the best part: the US is actually supportive. According to British Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne, over 120 countries are already supporting this new agreement including several developing and AOSIS countries that have predominantly been pushing towards the second commitment period. Even Jennifer Morgan, who spoke with our group in DC on behalf of the World Resources Institute, is hopeful here in … Read entire article »
Filed under: Key COP17 Issues
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