DAILY NEWS - Beyond Kyoto

A young boy cooking hot dogs by solar energy, a retired teacher showing his new solar panels on the roof of his house or a farmer being co-owner of a windmill. In a decade the conservative farmer community of Samsø, a small island nestled in the Kattegat Strait, has turned into a case study for [...]

In the future, green consumers might be faced with a difficult choice: Do they want to buy meat from grazing, grass-fed, cows who emit 50% more greenhouse gasses than their locked-up counterparts? Or do they want to prioritize the fight against climate change by supporting farmers who keep their cattle indoors, minimizing the emissions of [...]

The media has a responsibility to inform the public about climate change. And right now, the media are not doing enough.
People at the Beyond Kyoto conference are not only talking about global CO2 emissions. Some also practice what they preach on a personal level. Simple things the average person can do to reduce his own carbon [...]

Everyday people need to be more active in the environmental debate and decision making; this is Aarhus Convention Secretary Jeremy Wates’ message.
The United Nations’ Aarhus Convention presents how the participating countries would like the environmental case to be shaped. The convention calls for citizens to play a bigger role in the environmental debate.
More debate leads [...]

Providing specific data and facts about climate change may not be enough to change people’s habits. Unfortunately, many people concerned about climate issues discuss it in a way that ordinary people simply cannot understand. Having entertainment programmes address green issues could make people sit up and listen.

Just as in advertising, the best way to [...]

Here are the final recommendations from the Beyond Kyoto conference:

Climate Policy: All sectors of society must be involved in future climate solutions
Biodiversity and Ecosystems: Biodiversity must be an integrated part of the general mitigation and adaptation effort
Agriculture and Climate Change: We must increase agricultural productivity to use less water and land
Nanotechnology Solutions: Nanotechnology will lead [...]

Speakers and participants at the Beyond Kyoto Conference agree that the climate challenges are global and are likely to hit the developing world harder than anyone else. They also agree that the issue needs to be addressed and discussed internationally, across borders, religions and economies. But a short look at the list of speakers reveals only a [...]

Environment groups are disputing the viability of carbon capture storage (CCS) on the grounds that the technology is not proven, unsafe and according to Friends of the Earth “would take 20-30 years to have any effect on carbon emissions.” Green peace have stated “CCS isn’t commercially viable; there are no commercially operating CCS plants in [...]

Media’s obsession with conflict and crisis takes the attention away from stories about solutions to climate change.
Media need spectacular events to take an interest in a scientific topic. Journalists like reporting negative happenings and showing negative sides of environment subject as well.
This is why climate change stories are currently so popular in the press. [...]

Minutes away from the Beyond Kyoto conference, an energy efficient and carbon-neutral home receives visitors.
Denmark’s very own energy-producing house saw its first visitors today, as sister companies VELAC and VELUX gave officials from the U.S. embassy a sneak peek at their ‘Home for Life’ project.
The house in Aarhus’ suburb Lystrup, will be energy efficient and [...]

Right next to the Beyond Kyoto conference, where delegates from all over the world discuss the future of the earth, the host city Aarhus exhibits ambitions of its own. By 2030, Aarhus has plans to be CO2-neutral.
The city council will implement initiatives, such as plans for low-energy buildings, the new TRAM-system and internal energy savings. [...]

The municipality of Aarhus, the host-city of the “Beyond Kyoto” conference, is impatient when it comes to fighting global warming. From 2015 Danish legislation will demand that buildings consume only half of the energy that they do today.  But Aarhus doesn’t want to wait that long and is likely to implement the new procedures this [...]

Fighting global warming does not necessarily need to cost a fortune. The owner of one of Europe’s biggest golf resort has proven that investing in the environment can also make business sense.

When Poul Anker Lübker decided to invest some extra million Euros to make his new golf resort greener than average, he thought that he [...]

A lake peppered with offshore oil platforms might seem like the least likely location for a carbon neutral resort.
But oddly enough this is the master plan from BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, one of Denmark’s most innovative architectural firms.
The Zira Island project, a carbon-neutral resort and residential development is set to be constructed in [...]

Tivoli and the Danish energy company, DONG Energy, have teamed up in a new climate partnership that will make Tivoli the first amusement park in the world driven by renewable energy. The partnership implies that Tivoli will buy green energy from DONG corresponding to the parks annual energy consumption.
“In this way we not only secure [...]

Christian Poll from the Danish Society for Nature Preservation thinks journalists focus too much on CO2 in the public environmental debate. According to him, the CO2-focus draws away the attention from other important environmental matters.
During the international climate conference Beyond Kyoto – addressing the challenges of climate change the global the CO2 emission will be [...]

Environmental conferences have some interesting side-effects on climate reporting in the Danish Media

In anticipation of the Beyond Kyoto Conference and the COP 15 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in nine months time,  Danish media coverage of climate issues has increased dramatically.
With the increase of coverage happening so quickly experts and journalists have raised concerns about [...]

In a Scandinavian climate growing still warmer as a result of the global heating, cooling down ice skating rinks takes up a lot of electricity. Regardless, there is a rink situated in front of the Musikhuset, where an international climate change conference is currently happening.
When scientists, politicians, NGO’s and more gather in Århus to discuss [...]

Modern companies can no longer get away with ignoring their production’s impact on the environment or the conditions of the workers who are involved in the process. Caring for the world through Corporate Social Responsibility has therefore become imperative and widespread. From January 1 it is mandatory for the 1100 biggest companies of Denmark to [...]

Humans are one of the biggest contributors to the multitude of climate issues that plague our society today. Humans are also the catalysts of change needed to combat these diffcult times.
The theme of Citizens and Society is a crucial area of debate and discussion; the effects of climate change have begun to affect our everyday [...]

Name – University – Country
Alex (Alexander) Skorochid      – –      Ryerson (CA)      – –      Canada
Andrew King      – –      Concordia (ca) University      – –      Canada
Anne Shifley      – –      Missouri       – –      USA
Anne-Meike van den Berg      – –      Utrecht      – –     [...]

Yes, you may think we write about a conference, and about the frightening effects of climate changes.
But journalism is about people.
So what we actually do – is writing about people!