You can read a full press release about Congressman Edward Markey participating in Virtual Bali here.

Financial Times - "American congressman Edward Markey ... has been detained in Washington and so cannot attend the United Nations’ climate change negotiations on the Indonesian island of Bali. To overcome the problem he is instead “travelling” to OneClimate Island in Second Life, an internet-based virtual world. From there he will address the conference using an avatar."

Reuters - "Instead of jetting over to Bali for climate talks, Edward Markey (a Democrat from Massachusetts) will use a 3-D animated version of himself to address the conference at 9.30 am on Wednesday Bali time. It is estimated Markey will save 5.36 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by doing this. His address will be streamed live at www.oneclimate.net/virtualbali"

AFP on Yahoo - "Hoping to widen the debate and cut down on carbon emissions from air travel, Oneworld.net, a left-leaning website, has taken the UN conference here on climate change to the online virtual world Second Life.

The website has brought together everyone from a US congressman, who travelled virtually as a 3-D animation, to anonymous participants hailing from Japan to Turkmenistan and Romania."

Washington Post - "Markey said he was confident that his avatar -- which will speak from a virtual Bali stage provided by the British nonprofit group OneClimate -- will persuade other delegates that he and other U.S. politicians care about global warming" and a further mention here

Virtual Bali Participants

Image by Jamie Walker of Oneworld-UK

Sarah Phillips has a full article on Guardian Unlimited saying ... "there has also been a genuine buzz around OneClimate activities, as virtual delegates experience this new form of communicating."

The Boston Globe says "A live audience in Bali will hear Markey's speech. In theory, the audience will be able to ask the congressman questions, and Markey will be able to respond instantly over the Internet"

New Consumer magazine asks "If you feel like you have your tuppence worth to add to the UN’s Climate Change Conference, why not get your virtual self to Bali?"

Virtual Bali is also featured on Second Life's own blog New World Notes, and has posts on Indymedia and Oxfam . Bernhard Drax posted a very sharp video about it that was picked up by SL's own tv show Life4U.

More too in the blogosphere at www.rikomatic.com and a nice piece at tech.blorge.com saying "Now your congressman has no excuse not to attend important world summits - not when he can send a virtual avatar in his place."

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