Many people hoped that the December’s United Nation’s Climate Change Conference held in Copenhagen would generate a decisive global stance to curb the planet’s warming. With world leaders joining journalists, policy makers, activists, business people, and grassroots stakeholders, the talks were varied and heated. While some walked away claiming victory, others saw the conference as a failure to make critical changes in global climate policy.
A month after Copenhagen’s conclusion, we gather to talk with three Boston residents, one journalist and two activists, who attended the conference. Smartmeme’s Doyle Canning, ACE’s Kalila Barnett, and The World’s Peter Thomson will share their stories and photos from both inside the Bella Center, and outside on the streets.
For those of us that weren’t at Copenhagen, this JP Forum will be a wonderful way to learn about what happened and what the next step is to challenge climate change.
Doyle Canning is a strategist, trainer, and organizer with a deep commitment to innovating social change methods and building 21st century social movements for ecological justice. As co-director of smartMeme, Doyle acts as a facilitator, messaging strategy consultant, trainer and coach for grassroots groups and social change organizations. Doyle is a contributor to Letters from Young Activists (Nation Books, 2005), and co-author of Re:Imagining Change – How to Use Story-based Strategy to Win Campaigns, Build Movements, and Change the World (PM Press, 2010). Doyle served on the advisory funding panel of the Haymarket People’s Fund, an antiracist social change foundation in Boston from 2007-2009. She lives in Jamaica Plain, MA, where she enjoys practicing yoga and singing.
Kalila Barnett has been the Executive Director of Roxbury’s Alternatives for Community & Environment (ACE) since February 2009. She was previously a Senior Organizer at Community Labor United and served on ACE’s Board of Directors for 5 years. She is a Roxbury native and lifelong resident of Boston. Kalila graduated from Bates College in 2001 with a degree in American Studies and Spanish. She has also worked at Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation and Madison Park Development Corporation, organizing around community development issues and affordable housing in the Roxbury and Jamaica Plain area. Kalila was also the field director for a local city council campaign in 2005.
Peter Thomson is The World’s environment editor, for Public Radio International. He works with staff and freelance reporters and the show’s hosts to bring clear and compelling coverage and analysis of global environmental issues to the program’s 2.5 million listeners. Peter has worked for NPR, WBUR, Boston, and Monitor Radio. He’s been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Italy, and is a member of the board of Directors of the Society of Environmental Journalists. Peter lives in Boston with his co-mortgagee Edith and their cats, Stretch and Mister Softee.
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