What was the message of the demonstrators in Copenhagen? Some groups, such as Bill McKibben’s 350.org, were pushing for nations to agree to ambitious goals to get carbon dioxide levels down to 350 ppm. According to environmental journalist Zoe Cormier, many were trying to get the word out that we cannot get CO2 levels down as long as we remain hooked on growth – clinging to a system that doesn’t know the meaning of the word enough.

Zoe, the brains behind www.AxisOfEco.com was the eyes and ears of the GrowthBusters project during last month’s climate talks. My apologies for only now posting her final report, taped on December 23. My schedule; my bad. Her analysis, however, is both good and timeless. . . .

In my film, Hooked on Growth, I’m charting fairly unoccupied territory in linking the growth-addictive behavior of cities with global unsustainability. Sure, some cities are making efforts to reduce their carbon or overall ecological footprint, but most expectations of sustainable behavior focus either on individual behavior or national policy. Discussions of overpopulation, for example, tend to deal with either the global total or the couple’s decisions about family size – and nothing in-between. There is some discussion of national population policy (frequently discussion is as far as it ever gets), and almost no discussion of sustainable population size for cities. . . .

As we enter the homestretch to complete the GrowthBusters documentary, I’m going to offer more frequent updates and behind-the-scenes glimpses of the production process. This week we’ve been joined in the office by assistant editor and production associate Lynsey Jones. Lynsey left home in Oakland, California to spend a month at what we lovingly call “GrowthBusters World Headquarters.” She’s been pitching in virtually for the past few months, helping us obtain important historical film clips. She arrived here in a snowstorm while the temperature was on it’s way down to -2 degrees Fahrenheit (-19°C). We hope she won’t get homesick! . . .

One of the benefits of getting Copenhagen reports from environmental journalist Zoe Cormier has been a quick education about Canada’s gigantic tar sands project. (See also Are Canadian tar sands the answer to our oil needs? and Pumping in Dirty Oil From Canada’s Tar Sands) It helps Canada rank as the biggest supplier of oil to the U.S. It is also among the world’s dirtiest projects. In an informative blog post at New Internationalist, Zoe notes that “production of this oil releases up to five times more greenhouse gases per unit than conventional extraction,…” Here is her report on the tar sands from last week’s Klimaforum09 in Copenhagen. . . .

Wednesday was a wild day in Copenhagen. Our embedded environmental reporter, Zoe Cormier gives us a peek behind the scenes at the U.N. Climate Change Conference, and offers her perspective on what the demonstrations proved.