During one of yesterday’s side events, a woman sat on the floor with a baby on her lap. The baby occasionally giggled loudly, dropped her bottle, and a few times started crying, which was pretty distracting for those of us on that side of the room. Initially I was annoyed that someone would bring a toddler to a climate conference and allow it to disrupt the meeting. But when I gave it some more thought, I realized that she served as an important reminder of the future generations who don’t have a say in this conference, but who will likely spend more time on a climate-changed Earth than I will.

How will the decisions made at this event impact her?

Now I wish there were more children running around the Bella Center, to remind negotiators to make stronger commitments, since the “future generations” they talk about that will live in a different world than we have known are arriving daily.