I'd be lying if I said everything was merry here at the climate talks in the Mexican city of Cancun. Many of the old arguments are being rehashed, progress is scant, and a fair number of people seem a little despairing.
Maybe that's why there's a big crowd around the 350 booth at all hours–it really is the center of the Cancunmesse, the giant warehouse where the NGOs from around the world are holed up. Everyone wants to look at the pictures from the eARTh project, and most of them walk away with a 350 sticker on their shirt. (Or, if they're delegates ignoring the 'relaxed dress code' rules promulgated by the UN, a 350 necktie). It's good fun, and the volunteers manning the operation are doing a great job, leaving the rest of us free to do interviews, lobby delegates, and so on.
Still, we keep saying to each other that we want to be back home soon, back doing the real work–which is building this movement big enough that someday soon it really sets the terms for the politicians. I was reminded of how much fun that is when I got back to the youth hostel (not just for youth!) tonight, and opened up the email to find this video. It comes from Nashville, Tennessee in the southeastern United States, which is the center of the country music industry. Songwriter Kent Agee said he'd stumbled across the pictures of your efforts, and wanted to set them to music. Just watching the images scroll past fired me up for the work ahead!