One thing you can say about the politics of climate change — people are getting hotter about it.

As we approach the Copenhagen world conference (Dec. 6 – 18), those close to the negotiating progress are becoming more frustrated with the plodding pace of official change.

This week in Barcelona, where negotiators met for pre-talks, activists and leaders of African nations demonstrated to try to win more concessions from industrial nations.

Student activists staged a sit-in at the doors to the conference to press for greater reductions in greenhouse gas targets, beyond even the 30 percent reduction by 2020 proposed by the European Union. What this portends for the US, which hasn’t yet put numbers on the table, is anyone’s guess.

The African group pleaded for wealthier nations to commit more money to helping poor countries fight global warming. Their disgust was evident; their vulnerabilities well known: Africa stands to suffer drought, increased water shortages and increased disease if global warming is left unchecked.

“There is no progress whatsoever being made in these negotiations, there is no need to continue like this,” said Gambian chief delegate Pa Ousman Jarju, at a news conference after African leaders walked out in protest, shutting down several planned meetings.

While emotions flared in Barcelona, the US also felt the heat. In Boston, students announced they’ll continue sleeping out on Boston Common to press the state government to commit to running Massachusetts on 100 percent clean energy by 2020.

In DC, people were protesting too, but it was like stepping into a time warp, with several lawmakers fuming over whether we need to take any action on climate change — a debate many would say was settled in the early 1990s.

A handful of Republican senators chose to boycott Senate committee hearings on the Kerry-Boxer climate action and jobs security bill. But instead of boycotting for a change to the status quo, the usual course of boycotts, this one was about maintaining the status quo (or maybe that’s a quid-pro-quo, considering all the oil and coal money greasing this debate).

These senators see no need for action, or at least significant action or expenditures, on this problem.

Tragic. No, earth shattering.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

At a time when most 15-year-olds are thinking about sports, learning to drive and dating, Alec Loorz is trying to stop global warming.

The Ventura, California teen is the creator of Kids vs. Global Warming, a non-profit group dedicated to getting youth involved in the fight against global warming. “As young people, we are the ones who have to face the consequences of global warming,” he says, in an interview from his home. “We need to get involved now.”

Alec says he was 12 when he was first introduced to the topic. His mom, Victoria, had rented An Inconvenient Truth. “She tried to persuade me to watch it. I thought it was going to be a boring documentary. Instead, it changed my life forever. I watched it two more times, including the special features.”

“I knew then that I wanted to do something about it. The next day at school, I talked about the movie to my friends. One of my friends said, ‘global warming was a hoax and Al Gore is a psycho.’”

Just to prove his friend wrong, Alec went home that night and researched everything he could about global warming. “That was when I realized that I could do something about it.”

He applied to be trained as a presenter for Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth programs, but they rejected him. “I was still 12 and you had to be 14,” Alec says. “It bugged me a little, so I decided to do it on my own.”

Alec began giving his own global warming presentations to area schools, churches, colleges and adult environmental groups. A few years later, Alec says, “Al Gore personally invited me to his next training session in Nashville. He felt bad. He had learned about my rejection.”

Like many environmentalists, Alec agrees, that by not becoming president, Al Gore has made a bigger impact on the world. “If he had become President,” Alec says, “I’d probably still be playing video games.”

Now, at the ripe old age of 15, Alec has met the former Vice President five times. At a presentation in San Diego, Gore brought Alec up on stage with him. “Whenever I’ve been with him, he always includes me in his presentations.”