By Ben Wessel, SustainUS.org
COPENHAGEN — Fifty young Americans took over a climate denier conference hosted by a prominent conservative organization this evening in Copenhagen, rushing the stage and telling the live TV audience that a clean energy future is the real road to prosperity in America.
The young people, merely a fraction of the more than 350 U.S. youth in Denmark for the UN climate negotiations, entered a session of the Americans for Prosperity "Hot Air Tour" speakers series and were able to drop two banners and gain access to the conference’s stage.
The event was being webcast live to more than 40 climate denier rallies in cities across the United States.
The students entered the event in small groups, joining a paltry audience of five conference attendees, who had come to hear British climate denier Christopher Monckton speak about the Copenhagen climate negotiations.
After the first five minutes of the event, student representatives from SustainUS, the Sierra Student Coalition, the Cascade Climate Network and other American youth NGOs displayed banners reading "Climate Disaster Ahead" and "Clean Energy Now." After security agents at the event took the banners, the young attendees began a chant of "Real Americans for Prosperity are Americans for Clean Energy." The chant lasted five minutes, as the youth took the stage and displayed their message for the live video feed being sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, despite evasive action on the camera crew’s part.
As they left the stage, Monckton repeatedly called the activists "Hitler Youth."
"Clean energy creates jobs," said Rachel Barge, a 24-year-old entrepreneur from San Francisco, who was the first young person to raise her voice at the event.
Laura Comer, 21, of Strongsville, Ohio, seconded Barge.
"These climate action delayers and science deniers are stealing bold, new economic opportunities from the American public," Comer said. "We’re representing the majority of Americans on this, particularly young Americans. The real America wants clean energy — not more fossil fuel-funded lies about the science."
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The “Danish text” brouhaha, double-counting loopholes, waiting for Obama, and a look at what could get done this week: The Climate Action Network offers its daily summary of the day’s Copenhagen Summit events in video.
Also …
Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson rounds up the day’s events.
TckTckTck provides a daily mix of stories from bloggers and reporters at Copenhagen.
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