Day 4 – The Books Arrived!

Tuesday 1st Dec. started with an email from our friend Julie, who told us that 13 boxes (1,000 copies) of books had just been dopped to her doorstep! Finally, we could get down to business! So off we went to get them.

But, as often is the case, all did not go according to plan. The address was at Rue Voltaire. I had googled it and marked it on my map beforehand (back in Finland). I got instructions for the public transit from google maps, and we hit the subway (eith Eric giving a small opera performance on the way). Half an hour later, we were standing where google maps told us where we needed to be. The thing was, there was no such address there.

Apparently, there are multiple Rue Voltaire’s in the wider Paris area. And we had the wrong one. My bad. Of course the guys with the cameras were there, mercilessly recording my failure…

Anyway, we got an Uber, and 50 minutes later were got to the actual place with the books. Another Uber (there were no taxis available nearby) with luckily a big trunk, and we were heading back to our place. That blew the midday for us, but at least the deed was done – we had the books. When we got to our place, Janne, my co-author, had arrived as well, so things were starting to pick up nicely.

During that first evening, we managed to give out 200+ books at Place2B, where a lot of activists and COP21 –visitors are staying. We had some nice discussions about the subject with people, and a handful of not so nice ones. That is understandable. If the book would not be controversial to some people, I dare to say there would not have been much point in writing it at all.

Naomi Klein (sorry for the louzy pic, the lighting was horrible from my angle)

Later in the evening, there was a presentation and Q&A session with Naomi Klein. She had some good points that I agreed with, but when it came to solutions she was a disappointment. Not because she doesn’t like nuclear. It was because she had just 5 minutes ago repeatedly told the audience that we need to follow the best science on the climate change matter. And when it came to the solutions she recommended, she dug out one of the most fringe climat/energy scientists there is, Mark Jacobson, and gave him as an example of a scientist who we should be listening. The thing is, we should not cherry pick the scientist whose message rubs us in the best way and declare his science to be the right and correct one. I mean, we could perhaps also follow what mainstream science, the reports from IPCC for example, have to say about the matter.

James Hansen after his talk

We also got to hear a presentation live from James Hansen, perhaps the most famous climate scientist in the world. We hope to meet him later. The presentation was another wakeup-call. James kept it rather polite to the audience perhaps, and concentrated more on his carbon Fee And Divident -scheme instead of talking about nuclear as a solution (which he could have done as well).

To end the day in a awesome and positive note, we went out to eat to an amazing restaurant. I don’t have the words to describe it. Simply amazing.