COP18

This past week, my master’s project team attended the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Doha, Qatar. By most accounts, the week was a huge success. We presented a poster at Forest Day, represented Michigan at our booth, made scores of professional connections, and were praised by one organization as being “the most employable people at the conference”—a compliment that went immediately to our heads and into the “W” column against Yale and Duke. I left the conference feeling invigorated, with a stack of business cards in my suitcase and (offset) carbon in my wake. It wasn’t until after I arrived back in Ann Arbor on December 3rd and went for a run outside in shorts and a tank top that I realized our metrics of ”˜success’ for attending the conference might have been a bit distorted.