An e-mail message confirmed I would take part in the Th!nk About competition about climate changes with other 80 bloggers from 40 different countries. I had a bag with a few clothes and 2,5 ton of carbon,  emited in the 13000-km flight from São Paulo to Copenhagen.

It was a Sunday and Copenhagen was sunny that December 20th. The place is gourgeous – it is impossible not to like the buildings in which you can see the bricks, and the clean subway with plenty of information one can easily get. There are only a few cars in the streets and what calls the attention is how silent the Danish capital is. In the end of the afternoon, a walk downtown with Deborah Goldemberg, Diego Casaes and Enzo Voci. A little before, I had met Letizia Gambini and Peter Sain Berry. The night came and we got back from Tivoli Park.

Monday morning we went to Bella Center, where the COP15 meeting would happen, from December 7th to 18th. It is the same place where the 2016 Olympic Games were chosen to take place in Rio de Janeiro. An english and two romenians girls, two brazilians and me were my group.

Svend Olling, that represented the Ministry of International Affairs, made the first speech of the day. He said the event was going to be absolutely sustainable and that the C02 emited by the transportation the participants used to get there – airplanes included – would be compensated.

From the 40000 participants, half of them are from NGOs. The arrival of these people represented a 2,5% increase in the population of Copenhagen. That makes the event's logistic and sustainability efforts even more respectable.

Journalism was the issue in the debate with Tasha Eichenseher (National Geographic), Gerald Traufetter from the german magazine Spiegel, Ramesh Jaura from IPS and Asbjorn Jorgensen, who teaches in the Journalism School of Arhus. Environmental Journalism challenge is translate climate changes to the public. Or as Wilfried Rütten, from EJC, stated in unsophisticated words: "Bloggers, you must give voice to those which voice is more weak than yours”

That shows us that the climate changes are an issue that is also related with dialog and communication, not to mention the political and economic aspects. For those who are not into economy, I recommend the “Environmental Economics” blog. Climate changes imply also a great visual impact and that is the reason why I like photos the best (see this NG gallery) when it comes to showing the way global warming is already affecting our lives. Besides that, multimedia platforms allow both creative and interesting narratives about sciences. The most interesting example I've seen - ironically is – a whale hunt story.

But being creative is just a first step. Good information relies on good sources and because of that it would be a good idea to keep in touch with what the researchers in climate changes have been doing. I suggest Eurekalert.org – a website that compilates scientific papers around the world even before they are published.

This shows from now on journalists are going to be more important than politicians when it comes to enviroment discussion. The issues the media brings are going to be discussed and this discussion can bring people together or tear them apart. In order to bring them together, we must use the content and the knowledge they offer us – that is, putting collaborative Journalism in practice. That is, showing the interests involved in this subject and how it can affect people's everyday.

The next two speeches brought up the role of European Union in fight against the climate changes. Although they do have good plans, their actions need to be global and extended to all of the nations. It's only by doing this that we 'll  be able to have an effective deal in COP15. An interesting question: why should we charge a greater efficiency in the production of consumable goods in China? It is easy to cut our CO2 emissions and devolve the production to China and India. By the way, both countries have already compromised with the deal. The difficulty is to get strong attitudes from both Brazil and USA – what really disappoints me.

Fighting against global warming will require more or less 1% of the world GDP (US$ 600bi/year), according to Stern report. Mas  remaining motionless is even worse: there can be a downturn in the world PIB until 2050 if we don't take effective attitudes against climate changes. The positive effect of this veredict is that it is probably going to make businessmen pressure their countries' governements  until December.

In the end of the first day of activities, a glimmer of hope: Soren Hermansen came to talk to us about Samso, a Danish island which is totally sustainable. Since 1977, Samso has decided to change the way of obtaining energy, because of rise of oil prices. Both Guardian and Wikipedia have written about this project. The endeavour was so successfull that the Time magazine chose Hermansen as the climate hero in 2008.

 I find “hero” is not a good word to define this inventive – passionated would be a best choice. He speaks loudly and the jokes he tells make the 80 bloggers laugh. Vibrantly, he shows the reasons for the sucess of Samso Island: green jobs, local economy, energetic democracy and independence of governamental loan and, of course, long-term planning.

 Nonetheless, Hermansen knew how to be suspenseful e kept in secret the main reason – in my opinion – until the end of his speech: envolving the community in the financial investment and in the process of making decisions about the project. “That makes them feel integrated and responsible for each one thing in Samso.” This one was one of the best speeches I've ever seen and the danish government should sponsor Hermansen so that we could talk about Samso all around the world.

It was with this hope spirit I left Bella Center auditorium, with the blowing wind at the time of sunset in Copenhagen. The next day, we would visit the Dysselkilde ecovillage, 35 km towards the North. There I was going to see  in practice all the concepts that Hermansen had explained. (To be continued).