Explosive events ending in despair, and you know what I mean if you have been following the news.  It's terribly confusing and difficult to get information here - more coverage on CNN than from ground zero.  So I will tell you what I know and hopefully it is mostly correct.

First of all, a violent confrontation between protestors and police final happened, as it was bound to.  It was on one of the access driveways to the Bella Center, the main location where diplomats are a working, near but not even close to the building which is surrounded by concrete barriers, chain link fencing, and cops with guns and clubs.  The image I saw on television, as you probably did, looked like one or two hundred angry youth in jeans and jackets against a squadron of cops in black riot gear.  At the seam were these two entities made contact, the protestors were being clubbed and pepper sprayed.  I think of the storm troopers in Star Wars, vicious killing-machines - impossibly long odds against the frustrated citizens.  The complaint from the protestors is that the conference negotiators are not asking for enough, that the damages from climate disruption are happening now, will steadily get much worse, and need to be stopped immediately.  Pretty simple and obvious sentiment, and easy to sympathize with if you are trying to help like I am.  And God bless guerilla theater.  But this is not where the real solutions will be forged.  It's an appropriate side show.  

In the mean time, back in the Bella Center, the truly meaningful disruptions were occurring.  There are so many confounding and conflicting aspects of the situation, and it is important to attempt some unified approach to understanding.  One unifying issue is (surprise) money.  

There are three categories of monetary consideration in this vast attempt to get the nations of the world to collaborate in reversing terminal environmental degradation:

Reparations

Funds would be given by the developed countries to primarily developing countries for repairing the damages caused by the economies, the industries, of the developed countries.  When Exxon Valdez went aground and spilled oil into the adjacent fisheries, it had to pay the fisherman compensation.  The Maldives are on the verge of becoming uninhabitable because the sea level has been rising.  The people of the Maldives will have their relocation expenses paid for by the developed nations, whose CO2 release is causing the warming that melted the glaciers that has caused the sea to rise.

Mitigation

Developing countries have declared their intention to mitigate their current degradation of the environment, including emitting green house gases and cutting down forests.  Funds would be provided by the developed countries to help developing countries achieve these goals.

Adaptation

Developing countries will need to change existing practices and develop new ones to adapt to the requirements of a sustainable world.  The developed world will pay for this, including the establishment of alternative energy industries.  

The initial amount offered by developed countries, primarily the US, for these three purposes is $10 billion annually.  This has been decried as being woefully and ridiculously inadequate by several parties to the process including a consortium of African nations and the World Bank.  This latter opining that the appropriate figure is well in excess of $100 billion annually.  Yesterday, the Africans threatened to walk out.  

Then there are the issues of transparency and binding legality, neither of which do the US or the Chinese want to abide.  

Finally, logistical conditions have become intolerable.  Two relatively extreme groups, Avaaz and the Friends of the Earth, were today kicked out of the Bella Center and their badges revoked.  And in anticipation of the arrival of the senior diplomats tomorrow and Friday, only 1,000 individual NGO members (non-government groups, i.e. environmentalist's) will be allowed into the Bella Center tomorrow and only 90 on Friday.  This is extremely frustrating and essentially inappropriate because the NGO's have been the driving force behind initiating, promoting, and developing this entire process.  Their constant advice and guidance to the politicians is critical.  

There is deep despair now and the fear that the hopes of a successful outcome are useless.  In the late evening I went to a gathering of primarily young people in a local funky bar.  The level of protest and frustration was flagrant, palpable.  Several panel discussions were held successively, and the intelligence, passion and commitment of the participants was amazing and deeply inspiring.  Exactly what I went through during the Vietnam War years and the civil rights struggles.  The highlight was a discussion lead by Kathryn Goldstein (Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katherine-goldstein/to-hate-like-this-never-f_b_127788.html), George Monbiot (The Guardian, UK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/georgemonbiot ), and Naomi Wolf (author: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Wolf ).  Here are some photos of them and the place:This report is now long enough.  But I also want to mention that I went to a 3 hour presentation of deforestation.  This is responsible for over 15% of green house gas emission, more the cars, trucks, airplanes and ships combined.  Participants included Tom Friedman, Jane Goodall, Sir Richard Branson, Wangari Maathai (2004 Nobel Peace Prize, Green Belt Movement), Hon Jens Stotenberg (Prime Minister of Norway), Thomas Vilsack (US Secretary of Agriculture), Kevin Knobloch (President of the Union of Concerned Scientists), Brian McClendon (Co-founder of Google Earth), Robert Zoellick (President, The World Bank).  Norway has begun releasing a pledge of $1 billion to various countries to reduce deforestation.  The Norwegian citizens have approved this, and the funds will be released in stages as the deforestation is actually reduced.  I believe I mentioned in a previous report that Brazil has declared its intention to reduce deforestation of the Amazon by 80%.  This is truly amazing and way beyond anything any other country has offered.  

Prospects seem very, very bleak.