How’s this for toilet reading at climate negotiations?

IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report printed on a toilet paper as part of #giveashit campaign. Photo by Kristine Sabillo/INQUIRER.net

PARIS — A funny thing happened on the way to Day 9 of the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) in this city. As I was interviewing someone at the entrance of the Le Bourget convention center, a woman approached me with two rolls of toilet paper.

“Can you do me a favor?” the woman, in her 30s or 40s perhaps, asked me.

I gave her my full attention.

“I printed the IPCC report on toilet paper.”

“The IPCC report? How did you do that?” I asked as she showed off the roll filled with small print.

“Oh, you order it online,” she answered, seemingly uninterested in small talk. She said they needed people to put rolls of toilet paper inside the restrooms of the COP21 venue at 12:30 p.m.

“Can I interview you and take a video?” I said.

“No. It’s supposed to be anonymous.”

The encounter piqued my curiosity, to say the least. I asked for her card and she gave a piece of paper with the words #giveashit and the address www.giveashit.nu.

With less than an hour left before I had to do the deed, I checked their website, which features a prominent button with the words SEND A ROLL.

“While current politics fights to maintain the current economic system, the world is heading towards dangerous and irreversible climate change. Send this toilet paper roll with the latest IPCC report to world leaders, politicians and policy makers to remind them that they should be acting upon the science. The perfect toilet read!” the website intro said.

At 12:30 p.m., I went to the nearest restroom and left the toilet paper roll with the card. The other women smiled patiently as I took photos of the toilet stall. At least the next in line would be curious enough to check what the fuss was all about. Who knows? One of them might be a negotiator or a minister.

I learned later that the campaign website allows patrons to send a toilet paper roll with the excerpt of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report to their “most uncooperative local politician” for 10 euros.

The IPCC or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific body that produces reports in support of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It’s most recent report shows that global warming is “unequivocal” and that human influence on climate is “clear.”

Currently, negotiators and ministers of different countries are working on a legally binding agreement to address climate change and limit greenhouse gas emissions by at least two degrees Celsius below pre-industrial levels.

While the person behind the toilet paper campaign remains anonymous, the website features blog posts, one titled “Creating a Myth.”

The author said it was difficult to actually place the toilet paper in the restrooms of the convention center and that he or she is rethinking the idea. Nevertheless, the author said “the toilet paper myth has started to spread across many different groups” including members of the UNFCCC who think “science on toilet paper is a cool idea.”

IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report printed on a toilet paper as part of #giveashit campaign. Photo by Kristine Sabillo/INQUIRER.net

IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report printed on a toilet paper as part of #giveashit campaign. Photo by Kristine Sabillo/INQUIRER.net

IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report printed on a toilet paper as part of #giveashit campaign. Photo by Kristine Sabillo/INQUIRER.net