Cons: sunburns, goosebumps (from the sudden cold rain), bruises from Dizzee Rascal fans crushing me, soar legs, screwed voice

Pros: an amazing time, closest spot to the stage, Matthew Bellamy making eye contact with me while guitaring, one of the best nights ever

Was it worth it? A thousand YES’s.

It has been less than 24 hours since I last saw them, and I am already missing Matt, Dom, and Chris big time!

Read the full story here.

The al-Qaeda is a violent Islamic group targeting civilians and military units. More noticeably, they are the group involved in the September 11th attack back in 2001. What is stunning about this is that after 8 years, security measures have not been improved to a more satisfactory degree. Over the past years there has been so much talk about amendments and new levels of security. This news article tells us a different story. The attempt failed due to the explosive device failing and the passengers around the terrorist being precautious. Rather than security or technology detecting what was taped to his leg, passengers on the Northwest Airlines survived through pure luck.

A complete failure for humanity? A death penalty for millions of people?

This is how many NGO’s as well as national governments express their feelings after the failed negotiations here in Copenhagen. The discussions have been intense these last days and finally all countries agreed to a very weak paper, far away from something that the earth really needs. The paper that has been signed does not mention any targets in terms of numbers, and experts estimate that the signed paper will increase the Earth’s temperature to 3 degrees Celsius, a big difference from the 2 degrees target. United States and China has not been willing to compromise their stance towards the climate change issue and many are now blaming these two polluting giants as the major block from a more substantial paper here in Copenhagen.

We are of course very disappointed that these historical negotiations did not lead to any legally binding commitment and as youth, we cannot be anything else than worried for our future. During our time in Copenhagen we have learnt that negotiations in the UN is not simple, and the process that took place here in Copenhagen is slow and inefficient.
On the positive side, Green Advocates have had a very interesting time in Copenhagen. Although we were restricted from the negotiations at the Bella Center during the last days we have meet with many interesting people, especially other youth and students from all over the world. We have made progress and connections with youth from Australia, United States, Europe and Asia, we have created a mutual awareness that we together as youth will suffer from the consequences of this week’s failed negotiations. Even though we are not satisfied with the outcome from the negotiations, we are very happy that we have created such a network around the globe with other youth and we know that at least we stand united.

During the time here in Copenhagen we have listened to leaders such as Al Gore, Hugo Chavez and Desmond Tutu, we have been inspired by some nations’ commitment to tackle climate change and have been disappointed by others that have failed us. We have listened to inspiring talks and have become more aware about climate change. Now we hope that we can use our knowledge and contacts to continue to spread awareness about tackling climate change and how we can act together for fighting for peoples’ survival.

Philip Hafstad for Green Advocates

First of all, I shall address the title; The “weak paper that has been agreed to” should be seen as a success for your side. No government is glorious (or dumb) enough to pay economical prices at this very time. As long as nothing is lost, that government will not mind being the villain. If “death penalties” are what what concerns you, I suggest you focus on more sensible issues like warfare or resource shortages.

China “have not been willing to compromise their stance towards the climate change issues” and “are now blamed as the major block for a more substantial paper” is the most senseless piece of reasoning. Just by referring to the Made in China tags, anyone with half a brain will understand why. Most commercialised countries feel it is safe to order from China while playing innocent.

All this talk about pride and it really comes down to this political agenda called global warming. Did the heavens just part for you and the light come shining down? Why have we gotten so far away from the simple truth of it all? Carbon emissions are not the cause of climate change. Notice the term climate change has now been used ever since “global warming” had been disproved. Statistical graphs and Al Gore’s theories have been severely misleading. Mother nature produces most of the greenhouse gases (gases that trap the heat and create a rising temperature). Almost all the infrared radiation is absorbed by water vapour.

Put it this way: if I were to tell you the climate is changing primarily because of water vapour and the sun heating up, would there be any excitement in that? Moreover, would there be the same amount of funds going into this research? *Remember the world we live in today is a capitalist system.

So yes… there is climate change, it’s being caused by greenhouse gases, and the ice caps are melting on which planets? Earth, Mars, and more. In other words, we are experiencing “solar system warming”. Rather than waste 3-5% of GDP on this research, there are so many other obvious issues that need to be worked on.

There is no reason for governments to argue over how they would handle nature’s climate change, sustainability, or population control. What they have to worry about is when a Stalin or Kim Jeong Il decides to something about it.

In the last 1500 years, the Vikings inhabited Greenland. They weren’t wiped out, nor did we lose the polar bears.

1. L driver’s license – Finally I was able to take the test after going to the centre a total of 5 times. Had to get my bank statement to prove my address…

2. Buy a new domain – My old domain had expired for a long time and I have chosen to use a European Union one this time. The links connecting with this blog are now updated to match http://andrewchau.eu. Nevertheless, I still need to update the actual site and fix some things.

3. Uploading pictures on Facebook… Will probably add to the collection as the year goes on.

The rules and legislations in Australia are also stricter. Having paid and booked a time for the driver’s knowledge test, I was unable to take it on the day. Apparently my school letters and details were not acceptable proofs of where I live. Thus I was forced to change the booking to another day and try setting up a bank account in the mean time… Hopefully they won’t make me pay another $37AUD for changing the date.

My current work load is pretty minimal mainly because I already have a foundation on what they are teaching. Programming class today was undoubtingly the worst programming class ever. I couldn’t believe after listening to 30 minutes of the lecturer talk about our assessment on Visual Basic, a student was “smart” enough to raise his hand and ask what programming language it was. I have no idea why there are students who are clueless about computers taking this course. Enjoying the ability to surf the web and play PC games are not the same as enjoying what a computer really is and does. More importantly, this specific lecturer goes through the steps and details as though we were in elementary school. My high school computer teacher Ms. Chan would cover triple the amount. *Sigh* Talk about this being a university…