The Climate Nerd Chronicles

The Climate Nerd Chronicles seek to address climate change issue through pop culture references in order to bring out the epic side of global warming.

Have you ever been lost in debates about whether it’s better to introduce a carbon tax or a carbon market, in lectures about radiative forcing or in conferences about the latest news from the negotiations? I have. Don’t get me wrong, I find those topics fascinating; I just feel that sometimes, they are presented in a little too serious way. And sometimes, I just prefer to watch my favorite series’ latest episode, to open an easy-reading book, or to idly surf on the internet. The Climate Nerd Chronicles are a way to remediate to that problem. Open to any climate nerd out there, it will mingle our favorite fictions to the latest climate topics.

Follow the White Rabbit.

Chronicle 22:

Dumbledore’s Army of COPs : YOUNGO

When the magical world is at risk and the politics ignore it, young people get their wands out and get it done. Here in COP-warts, they joined their powers to fight against the rise of the Dark Carbon. TAll Houses gathered and they are ready to fight for a safe and sustainable magical world.

Chronicle 21:

Welcome to Green Zone Alley

You tapped the registration form three times with the help of your computer. Three times, or maybe more if you were not soon enough familiar with the COP22 rules. And you waited. One letter of confirmation after, you got accredited, accredited to the Green Zone¹! Congratulations, the world of COP22 is just few step away from you now.

Chronicle 20:

“Trumpetus”, the rise of the forgotten curse

Imagine you were working so hard for something so important. Imagine after years of involvement, international work, scientists research and negotiators involvement, we were slowly reaching the final line. Everything seemed to evolve slowly but everything was, at least, evolving. We did believe in the future because it was the only thing we could do. We were acting, tirelessly, hoping that each small step will be a huge step forward for magical COP-eration. However, we may not have expected one small, tiny and forgotten curse, which may have a huge effect: “Trumpetus”.

Chronicle 19:

On board the COP-warts Express

Being a climate activist isn’t easy everyday. It feels like being part of a community that can do magic but needs to stay hidden from the regular world. But besides casting disguising spells around their home to make them look normal instead of ecological, they embark every year the COP-warts Express, back to learning a bit more of magic altogether.

Chronicle 18:

Star COP21 Episode 6: The return of climate ambition

Well. This is the end. COP21 is over, and our Star Wars Special is coming to its end as well. Those negotiations were a rollercoaster experience for us all, but its issue refilled our hope for the future of the galaxy. Last saturday, a new climate agreement was released that put an end to an endless intergalactic war. Twenty-three years after Rio, the Jedi Order is now reestablished and the global climate agreement saves us all from self destruction.

Chronicle 17:

Charlie and the Agreement Factory

Year 2015 – one of the biggest international events ever is happening in Paris: the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21). This conference, organized under the jurisdiction of the UNFCCC (United Nations Factory for Convention on Chocolate Conservation), aims at finding a global agreement to avoid the disappearance of chocolate through climate change. For example, the delegates have to find consensus on the very controversial chocolate mousse recipe. Before the beginning of negotiations the related paragraph looked like that:

Chocolate mousse [shall]/[should] be made with [milk products]/[vegan products] with [white]/[milk]/[dark] chocolate and [shall]/[should]/[may]/[must] be preserved in a [plastic box] [glass box] [can] [reusable box].

Chronicle 16:

Romeo and Juliet at COP21

He was American, she was from the Marshall Islands and more than an ocean separated them. More than anything Gods could create. Under the lights of the Conference Of Parties,while the world looks intently toward Paris as the climate slowly changes, they were looking at each other. In the corridors filled with journalists, in the rooms fooled by greying diplomats and government leaders, through the windows of different universes…

First meeting in Copenhagen

Chronicle 15:

Star COP21 Episode 5: Self interest Strikes Back

After the text was released yesterday, late in the evening, a wind of hope blew across the entire galaxy. The last draft of the Paris agreement was quite ambitious and the Uncertainty Bearers brackets were scarce. The COP21 outcome seems now very close and looks better than most observers would have dreamed of even before its beginning. However, the text still has to be accepted by the Parties, and therein lies the rub.

Chronicle 14:

Star COP21 Episode 4: A new COP

After one week of intense UN climate negotiations, Luke Skywalker finally reaches the much sought-after “blue zone”. By the end of the two weeks, twenty thousand people from all over the galaxy will have entered there. Who are these accredited people of the blue zone? What are they doing here? Here’s an inside look.

Chronicle 13:

The COP21 Northern Lights – Part 1

Inspired from the Trilogy His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

Chronicle 12:

Star COP21 Episode 3: the revenge of the negotiators

A fierce battle is happening in the Gallactic Senate. Delegates from all around the galaxy argue on different blocking points as the future of all their citizens is endangered by the colossal amount of green house gases released in the universe by the Power Plants and the imbalance it creates in the Force.

Chronicle 11:

Star COP21 Episode 2: The Attack of the Power Plan(e)ts

The Force is troubled

For more than twenty-one years, Queen Amidala has declared her small Island of Naboo to be in danger, but very few in the Senate have been paying attention to her warning. Still, eight years ago, some group of Developed Planets, decided after a special meeting on the Kyoto Moon to show to the Queen that they were fighting on her side. Sadly, this was not enough to prevent the Dark Side of the Force from expanding its power.

Chronicle 10:

Star COP21 Episode 1 : The Phantom agreement

For 21 years, the United Nations Parties have gathered to manage the climate crisis. The trading coalitions and big firms have successfully delayed action to decrease green house gases emissions and stop climate change.

The Parties have not yet managed to find a common agreement and as the climate situation, the delegates meet once again in Paris…

Chronicle 9:

The Hunger games : the climate change arena

Here we imagine Katniss and Peeta faced with a climate change arena.

Chronicle 8:

The Hobbit : The desolation of El Niño (2/3)

Once upon a time, on a blue planet, lived two twin dragons, El Niño and his sister La Niña. One could never be woken up while the other was. They regulated the climate of the great ocean, the first making the lands of the East wetter and the lands of the West dryer, the second doing the opposite.

Chronicle 7:

Back to the future we want

Today Marty McFly just arrived in the DeLorean and discovered a whole new future. We all have expectations about the future. Either shark holograms coming at us in front of a movie theatre, hoverboards or 100% clean energy in the long-term, we aspire for things to be greater. Young people inside climate negotiation are no strangers to these aspirations. Come aboard our DeLorean and discover the future we want.

Chronicle 6:

Are the ADP co-chairs rather Hufflepuffs or Slytherins ?

ADP co-chair, what a job to do! The co-chairs are the two persons in charge of creating the best negotiation environment to achieve an ambitious agreement in Paris at the end of 2015. Here we bring a little bit of our favorite psychology test…

Chronicle 5:

Alice’s adventures in ADPland (2/2)

In the next room Alice entered, all the Kings and Queens were solemnly sitting around a large table, so large that it went from one end of the room to the other. Stuck in a tiny corner, speccy people were preparing their fingers to write each and every word that would be said…

Chronicle 4: