Crashing and documenting parties is often not strictly allowed, but generally isn't as prohibited as it was for this particular party.

The party I crashed was the Governor's International Climate Summit, taking place in the Beverly Hilton. A quick Internet check of the convention informed me that it was likely to have a combination of political figures (our esteemed Californian governator presiding, of course, plus other governors, and a brace of ambassadors), plus, more interestingly, climate policy experts. I'm interested in climate change and its policy solutions, and wasn't doing anything that day particularly, so when someone told me the Summit was happening a short bus ride from me, I decided to task. It was not open to the public, the notice saying so added comfortingly that it could be watched on news channels, but I wanted to watch without media interpretation and also don’t own a functioning TV.

First I put on in camouflage; formal wear and a notepad, bused to the Hilton, and walked in trying to look as though I belonged there and wasn't avoiding the hordes of security personnel who kept checking everyone's name tags. I quickly realized that my camouflage was lacking in two areas: I didn’t have the name tags everyone was sporting and I was about forty years too young. The crowd in the lobby was extremely heterogenous – I got talking with a guy who was wearing a beautiful suit, waist-length hair, gigantic earrings, and a bone decoration through his nose – but nearly everyone there had hair that was grey, dyed, or absent. Youngsters like me were either security (many of whom were wearing inexplicable cowboy hats) or organizers in lime-green polo shirts bearing the worrying legend “Arnold’s Assistants.”

I wandered around for a little while and then made a play for the main auditorium where a panel on “Sectoral Cooperation to Combat Global Warming
” was showing. All the entrances were guarded by Arnold’s Assistants, I couldn’t slip by unnoticed. So I started talking to a group of young and bored-looking Assistants. I wish I could say I dazzled them with some devious lie, but I actually just told them the exact truth: I was not registered but I was interested and really harmless. I think I actually made up an Arnold quote about our yunk peeple beink the fruture of America, and they kindly agreed to look the other way while I slipped in. Once inside, everyone including the security guards ignored me. I acted and was dressed as though I was intended to be there, and I was there, so clearly I was meant to be there. I also didn't look like The Press, who were being scrutinized suspiciously by the guards, mostly because The Press were all abiding by the Pocket Principle. (The more pockets you have on your pants and vest and shirt, the better a journalist you must be). That is why I, regrettably, didn't get any decent photos - I had to sneak pictures while no one was watching, and they were all blurred.

But I can tell you the panel was fascinating. Discussion ranged widely over the role of developing countries in CO2 control to ‘carbon leakage’ (the problem of industry simply moving to another country when you tax its emissions in one), to considering certain industries. The main point of the panel is that cap-and-trade schemes are not enough; transportation, construction and its sub-industries, and building maintenence must be each considered and dealt with individually. They talked at length about the stringent environmental construction requirements in China and mentioned, slightly ominously, the vast Chinese urbanization that is taking place right now. The rest of them covered, over two hours, Israel’s scheme to put gasoline-consuming cars out of business by taxing them at 75% rates and electric cars at 10%, California’s extremely good forestry standards which should be adopted by the rest of the US and world, the problem with unilateral climate control, and many technical details about the steel and construction industries. Crashing a party is rarely so informative.

Unfortunately, that was as far as my good luck took me. When the panel ended, I tried to follow the press of people to the next event and was nabbed by an older and less-friendly Arnold’s Assistant who noted my lack of name tag. She had a list of attendees to hand, so I couldn’t lie easily about my 'misplaced' badge, and security was eyeing me thoughtfully, so I thought it best to leave.