Some people had to wait for a very, very long time to register for the UN climate talks at the Bella Center in Copenhagen where the meetings are being held. The Danes are very democratic so VIPs stood in line with the rest of us.  I ran into Frances Beinecke, president of The Natural Resources Defense Council. Temperatures were in the 30s, and tempers were rising.

The UN did not enhance its reputation for efficiency or crowd control today.

Frances and NRDC founder John Adams ended up waited for eight hours, according to her blog, where she wrote:

Little matter. After three decades at the climate change ramparts, I figured, what was another eight hours at the Danish barricades?

An insider told me later that the only thing that made the long wait bearable was that Fred Krupp of Environmental Defense was waiting behind them in line.