Observing at COP28 Day 2 – Friday Dec 1

An ocean of black suits, waves white thoubs, 
greeting women in liputa, abaya, sari–
scores of young men from Trinity College in Hyderabad, in matching polos, 
embroidered emblem over their hearts, men with ink black chins, beads sculpted into a tiger, 
her head adorned with feathers, 

Cameras on tripods, microphones, bags slug over shoulders, 
climbing on benches to peer over the wall at the world leaders posing 
for group pictures. Temporary dams set up today to redirect the flow of bodies, 
to protect the dignitaries from the throngs

And what of the girls cleaning the bathrooms,
selling sandwiches and coffee at the kiosks,
pushing a cart down the long hallway moving 
a barricade, and moving it again. 
Gesturing to use the ramp or the escalator. 
pointing a scanner at badge after badge
all this talk of talking about climate.

How do we take stock of our responsibility? 
Assign blame, make calculations
and what of the degrees rising past 1.5. 
Or 2.7, or 3 degrees 
When the impacts are catastrophic but start far away?
What of carbon colonialization, a new word for an old practice?
An old practice with new tricks?
Fossil fuel? The US touts turning away from coal when some countries depend on it
know energy poverty 
but we ignore the oil and gas we are drinking, not that kind of bone energy

What accounting is required? What of accountability? Of responsibility? 
Fiscal and otherwise
The global north obligating the south to lead from down there, 
From less
4% of the world’s population making the rest pay for its 24%

Erin Sharkey is a writer, arts, and abolition organizer, cultural worker, and film producer based in Minneapolis. She is the editor of A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars (Milkweed Editions ’23). Erin is a founding coop member of the Fields at Rootsprings, a retreat and respite space in central MN, and co-founder, with Junauda Petrus, of an experimental arts collective called Free Black Dirt. She is the producer of film projects, including Sweetness of Wild, an episodic web film, and Small Business Revolution, which explored challenges and opportunities for Black-owned businesses in the Twin Cities in the summer of 2021. Sharkey has received fellowships and residencies from the Loft Mentor Series, VONA/Voices, the Givens Foundation, Penumbra Theatre, Coffee House Press, the Bell Museum of Natural History, Black Visions, Headwaters Foundation and the Jerome Foundation. She has an MFA in creative writing from Hamline University and teaches with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop.

Erin is a Climate Generation Window Into COP delegate for COP28. To learn more, we encourage you to meet the full delegation and subscribe to the Window Into COP digest.

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