Congressman Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Select Committee  
   on Energy Independence and Global Warming, has linked up with
   OneClimate’s 'Virtual Bali' initiative to participate in the UN’s Climate Change
   negotiations currently underway in Bali, Indonesia - even while he remains
   in Washington DC to press for passage of the final Energy Bill in Congress.

   He will be harnessing the power of the interactive window opened for the duration of the UN negotiations (December 3-14) by OneClimate, working with Cisco Systems, designed to allow conference participation without the carbon cost of flying.

Congressman Markey will deliver an address to the United Nations and the world using a 3-D animated version of himself (an "avatar"). He will address the conference from a virtual Bali stage provided by OneClimate’s archipelago on Second Life.

His speech will be replayed all week at the conference, demonstrating an extremely low carbon way to encourage stronger US government support for climate action. Criticism of the carbon footprint of the UN conference has been rife. Congressman Markey’s decision not to fly but attend virtually will stand as an example for many future participants who want to interact without emitting flight-generated carbon.

In addition to transmitting Congressman Markey’s address to participants present at the UN conference, the OneClimate team is also transmitting out to the world the views of participants who have elected to be present in person at the UN conference.

Further, they are enabling citizens all over the world to interact with these participants – live – in an embryonic new form of democratic communication that allows an ever-widening range of people to engage with key political processes, without having to be formally included by conference organisers or being able to afford the cash or the carbon to fly.

Citizens in avatar form have been arriving each day on the OneClimate archipelago from 12.30 to 2pm GMT to take up the opportunity to pose questions and offer their comments to climate activists and experts present in Bali. Dr John Holdren, the distinguished climate scientist from the Woods Hole Research Center in the US was one such expert, and M.J. Mace, Program Director for FIELD, standing as advisor to the Pacific Island states, was another.

The avatars “fly” in from all over the world.  So far their locations include the UK, Canada, Italy, Australia, Japan, China, the US, South Africa and Belgium, but the list grows daily. Many stay on after the interactions with the Bali delegates to continue discussing climate issues amongst themselves.

Yoe May, an avatar who has been participating from Japan in the daily broadcasts on OneClimate said: “You know, I've been talking about [Virtual Bali] a lot today to people outside Second Life, and many of them said something like: ‘A-ha! Finally I understand what's so great about this virtual reality thing!’.”

When Congressman Markey’s decision was announced to the Virtual Bali crowd, there was a round of applause from the avatars present.

WHO: Edward Markey's Avatar, Virtual Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming

WHAT: Address to UN Bali Climate Change Conference in Second Life

WHERE: One Climate Island in Second Life

or on Virtual Bali on OneClimate.net·        

WHEN:

·         UK: Wednesday, December 12^th - 1.30 am GMT/UTC

·         US: Tuesday, December 11^th - 8:30 pm EST