From Claremont to Copenhagen

A Pomona College senior is at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, blogging. Grace Vermeer is writing about her experience at COP15 on the college's Environmental Analysis Program website, www.dispatches.pomonaea.org.

The opening day ceremony "began with a video full of activist imagery -- scared children running from climate change induced floods and storms, their teddy bears falling in their wake," Vermeer writes, eyes rolling.

She finds the protesters "a bit obnoxious" and the delegates seemingly more interested in networking than working. She's not crazy about the "Hopenhagen" slogan promoted by the city's mayor: "Just because it rhymes doesn't mean it's clever."

President Obama is scheduled to arrive today and we'll see how Vermeer takes it all in.

She's there with Pomona senior Dawn Bickett, Scripps senior Elizabeth DeGori, two University of Texas students and Pomona political professor Richard Worthington, all granted observer status as a research, nongovernmental organization.

The conference began Monday and ends Dec. 18. The purpose is to come up with a global climate change agreement to replace the Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012.