Senators and Sights

COP28 Travelogue

Yesterday was a long day. I left the hotel at 8:30am and got back a little after 11pm. I thought my sleep cycle had about caught up with the nine-hour jet lag, but then woke up at 3am and didn’t really go back to sleep. So I decided not to push it too hard today.

I still left at 8:30am with rest of the group because there was a session I wanted to see at the USA pavilion. There was a group of seven senators who showed up here in Dubai, along with the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack. In all honesty, before today if you had asked me who the Secretary of Agriculture is, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you. Now I know, and I’ve been quite close to him (but if you’re going to quiz me after I’m back, don’t wait too long!). Fun fact: he’s ninth in the presidential succession list. As old as most politicians are these days, there’s a non-zero chance he could be called on to serve! Vilsack spoke to a packed pavilion (I’d estimate 120 people in the room) since today was Agriculture Day at the COP.

Secretary Vilsack walking right toward me, but his eyes look a little blurry and I don’t think he saw me properly.

Then the senators came in. They were all smiles and promises of two chickens in every pot if the country would just pass the legislation they’re proposing. They were six Democrats and one Republican, the latter being Lisa Murkowski, who is one of the rogue Republicans who doesn’t always follow the crowd. Afterwards she walked right past me and I shook her hand, thanking her for voting her conscience rather than blindly following party politics. She looked intently at me and thanked me for my comments. I suppose politicians have to be good at making you think they are sincere, even if they’re not. Or maybe some of them are just really good about being sincere at everything. Either way, it was a pretty cool brush with significant power.

It kinda looks in this picture like she’s totally snubbing me and looking over my shoulder at something more interesting. But I promise that Sen. Murkowski looked me square in the eye and was (seemingly) very sincere. Photo credit to my roommate Mark.

After that I ate at the plant-based protein food truck with some other CCOPers, as we were in solidarity with the Agriculture Day of the COP, trying to lower our carbon footprint. The fake meat kabab wasn’t too bad. Then I went to a session at the faith pavilion (it was Sunday today, and I still feel slightly guilty about not going to church on a Sunday morning!), but I had a couple things I had to write that I couldn’t get off my mind. So I went off to a quiet place with desks and coffee to do that (I quietly whistled a hymn while I walked, hoping that would easy my guilt… it didn’t).

Then, sticking to my promise of having an easier day, I left the Blue Zone by mid-afternoon and decided to stop on the way home to see the giant palm tree housing development in the Persian Gulf. Here’s what it looks like from far above:

Here’s what it looks like in a selfie from the 52nd floor of a skyscraper next door:

They said that 70,000 people live out there, each with a private beach. It is very cool to look at, but given the energy required to create this out of the ocean, I feel slightly guilty thinking it’s cool. So let me say instead that the face I’m making is really one of disgust (that’s also my smile face).

OK, that’s all I’ve got for today. There are two more days of the COP, and the negotiations have really been heating up. And they announced yesterday that COP29 is going to be in Azerbaijan next year, which has all the petrostates happy, and all the rest of us nearly in despair that Big Oil is winning. Pray that it isn’t so.