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First Friday for the Future at COP26

Albert Bates
10 min readNov 5, 2021

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There are those who ridicule international law as a cruel farce.

It is Day Six and the theme of the day is Youth so I’d like to use this post to lecture some of our age-challenged partners on why people have come to Glasgow for these two weeks of negotiations. Most who came on a lark have already discovered there are no lodgings, few street benches, no outdoor charging outlets, food is ridiculously expensive, it rains a lot, and you won’t see any VIP delegates or celebrities, except on TV.

One of Greta’s entourage, YONGO activist Alexandra Villaseñor, tweeted:

At #COP25 in Madrid, I entered negotiating spaces and observed, which is what being a “NGO Observer” is all about. Here, at #COP26 I haven’t been able to observe at all. I feel lost, like I’m here as an ornament or to tell reporters what gives me hope over and over and over…

Apparently Alexandra never read the memos from the UNFCCC organizers, issued at regular intervals for 18 months, asking, for the sake of this not becoming a super spreader event, that observers please sit it out this year, and don’t worry, you can still observe. Everything will be web streamed and…

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Albert Bates
Albert Bates

Written by Albert Bates

Emergency Planetary Technician and Climate Science Wonk — using naturopathic remedies to recover the Holocene without geoengineering or ponzinomics.

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