Post-COP reflections: we gotta take the power back

Imagine 74 people are trapped in a pub and this pub starts to go up in flames. Meanwhile, 26 people stand on the outside smoking. A couple of them see smoke coming from out a window. They tell the others and start discussing how best to stop the fire, who should do it, or even how they should treat the wounds of those who are inside.

They’re all very hesitant to go near the fire because they may get burnt and so take their time talking about it so they don’t have to do anything themselves. The pub burns down, with the 74 people inside, and then it spreads, if not actually killing all of the remaining 26 people then burning down their houses and destroying their way of life.

For me, although massively simplified, (the person who started the fire should have also been outside, for instance), this was the Copenhagen summit that has been going on for the last two weeks. After an awful lot of talk, we're no closer to a strong deal to secure the future of this planet and its inhabitants than we were with the Kyoto protocol in 1997.

For me, this demonstrates the impotence of the current political system and affirms and justifies my belief that grassroots movements and direct action are the best tools that we have to stop this world from going up in flames. The world’s political leaders have been talking up Copenhagen as the solution to catastrophic climate change for months now, and if it has failed - and no amount of spin can make it seem like anything but - then their plans for tackling climate change are in disaray.

They have had their chance, and now it’s ours. Those proper political channels that we have been urged to adopt so often have well and truly failed us. By failing to reach a deal at Copenhagen, politicians have abidcated their responsibility for solving the problem. It's up to us now; it's time to take the power back.