Blog Action Day 2009

I have a stack of notes ready for blogging. I've been away and out of signal range. Nothing more exciting than the north Norfolk coast but just enough to stop me blogging or tweeting (@andybodycombe). So what better reason to come back to a full signal and get writing again than the Blog Action Day 2009. This year's topic - climate change.

I've written before about the challenges of motivating a change in behaviour and that challenge remains. I'm going to be in Copenhagen in December, documenting the stories of people outside of the main COP15 talks. These may be climate change deniers operating at the periphery. They might be representatives of communities already affected by the impact of climate change. What do I hope to achieve by being there? I hope to put across the range of motivators. What makes people decide to make the journey to Copenhagen? What are their hopes and fears for the COP15 fortnight?

I don't want to fly to Copenhagen. I've already forfeited a friend's wedding in Barcelona in the last year as part of my pledge to cut out short-haul flights. What's the cost of not flying? It's ridiculous! A £51 fare on EasyJet from London to Copenhagen is up against a £320 foot passenger ferry ticket from Harwich to Esbjerg (you get to share a cabin with five strangers for that tidy fare) or roughly £250 on various train tickets to get from St Pancras to Copenhagen. No wonder people opt to fly when the price scales are tipped so far in favour of budget air travel. How do you go about prizing people away from RyanAir (don't get me started) and EasyJet and onto high speed rail when ticket prices fail to reflect the TRUE environmental costs of air travel?

So, more posts coming soon - please keep reading. Generally on the theme of "what does it take to get people to take responsibility and take personal action" rather than "what should somebody else (generally a politician) do". Some great pieces on food security in Sunday's Observer Food Monthly to get you in the mood.