嚮往正義 / Facing Towards Justice

NEW! Youth-led research report: Six Years After the Storm, Six Public High Schools

2011-09-09T13:36:00.001-07:00

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2311336/VAYLA%20-%20RYHC%20Full%20Report.pdf

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism

Environmental Colonialism in the Climate Struggle?

2011-07-31T19:36:00.001-07:00

Environmental Colonialism in the Climate Struggle?

July 21, 2011

By Editor

What’s in a number? In the case of 330 ppm, a whole lot. “Imperialism, not human nature, has caused this global crisis; anti-imperialism and solidarity are the only paths out.”

by Macdonald Stainsby

Though the arguments made in this article appear to be about the numbers set as targets in parts per million [ppm] of carbon in the atmosphere, it is not the numbers alone that has made this debate necessary. It is, at the essence, how we come to the positions we do that says the most about what kind of organizing we are truly undertaking. It goes far beyond parts per million, even though the highlighted versions of the debate will often come in exactly the ppm debate, posted in a twitter-like condensed version that obscures instead of simplifies.

Evo Morales

Yes, 300ppm is the goal sought by the Bolivian government as well as many other south Pacific island states and social movements from all over the so-called developing world. Indeed, the call for a target of 300 ppm along with the need to calculate a form of climate debt mechanism that will not punish the Global South that has not constructed this crisis– the greatest crisis humanity has ever faced, and is already facing– and instead offers both development and possible survival. Imperialism, not human nature, has caused this global crisis; anti-imperialism and solidarity are the only paths out.

The number 300ppm is not arrived at in order to pose as “radical”. This number comes from a position of solidarity.

With 300ppm (and an accompanying one degree Celsius rise in global temperature averages) the survival of the water supplying glaciers in Bolivia are possible; the food producing agricultural regions of central Africa may yet produce again; the home supplying land of islands such as the Maldives may continue to exist. Solidarity by definition cannot make a target based on the destruction of some peoples, sacrificed for the expediency of ‘realpolitik’ for rich regions of the world. Yet the movement does not end there, and demands mechanisms that seriously curtail the emissions first of nation-states who created the crisis for their own narrow development while not punishing the (artificially) impoverished regions being decimated atmospherically.

Despite this, larger first world ENGO’s are setting targets that have nothing to do with the survival of people who are already watching their very homes disappear underwater. The concerns in North America are weaker and have nothing to do with power relations between Global North and South. If the need to immediately collapse any further c02 emissions into the atmosphere will mean a drastic reduction in energy use as a starting point– ending fossil fuel production– the “what is possible” arguments about “politically feasible” immediately must end. The arguments are not figuring out:

A) what has a scientific chance of success, but even more so

B) Ignoring the plight of the struggling Global South– already seeing droughts, floods and fires– is seen as ‘natural’ because the only constituency that apparently matters is an amalgam of all North American residents (themselves also seen as all “equal”).

In appeasing the American ‘birthright’ of over-development, concepts of a false “green shift” and “transition to a green economy” are regularly touted as the way forward for North American environmentalists. In fact, not one of the large and powerful environmental groups has ever challenged the notion of a capitalist led growth economy in a time when any growth is inherently suicidal for dealing with climate change– and genocidal in the implications of billions of human beings living with an already unbalanced atmosphere.

We have two major stumbling blocs on the path towards the goal of a green shift.

A): it is an economic non-starter. This green development would be based on the laws of capital accumulation and carried out under a market based economy. You cannot deliberately shrink such an economy without starting an economic freefall.

B): under basic capitalist laws of accumulation when any energy is added to the grid one actually expands the economy– which by the very rules of capitalist production also expands the demand for energy.

In the US and Canada we have the “just transition” version of the same “simultaneous growth and survival” model. This goal itself presupposes a static energy grid in the most unstable economic system, and in the most unstable economic decade in a century. Energy demand goes up when the economy recovers, and the least c02 producing versions of energy still increase the emissions into the air while they also facilitate the increase in more production of fossil fuels.

This campaign is one giant exercise in realpolitik that sacrifices reality in order to facilitate the chance of popular support for a plan of action that will fail. Sadly, the Global North ENGO definition of success is measured in public support not tangible environmental survival.

The approach taken in North America (far less than Europe) is based on consumption guilt, consumption legislation and the imaginary world where we simply stop buying gasoline and ride bikes everywhere with only good argumentation and eco-friendly bank sponsored picnics against climate change. The entire structure of North American society is constructed towards fossil fuels more than anywhere on the planet, while there is already a major shift in energy underway.

With pilot plants for coal to liquids under conceptualization in the US and continued investment into ways to produce oil shale into petroleum in several places (most notably Colorado) and the continued expansion of the largest industrial development in human history in the Albertan tar sands, the energy shift is taking place not at a point of consumption deliberately but in fact at the point of production.

Carbon taxes– even at the level that may actually have a tangible effect on emissions– undermine the need to reduce carbon emissions in a just fashion and rely instead on trying to use economics to deal with what is essentially a political problem. The notion of making the consumer of fossil fuels pay for consumption is a climate version of having you and I pay to ‘rescue’ the banks– when we did not make this mess in the first place. The strengths of the campaigns against developments like the tar sands are when the campaign focuses on the impacts on Fort Chipewyan immediately and across the planet ultimately. When people use arguments about “slowing down” production or how one can consume cosmetics to fight against climate chaos, the message is lost in feel good pointless solutions, or worse– diversion into consumer choices that have no effect but to make one falsely believe they did their part.

The real threat posed by the Albertan tar sands is starting to bleed across the planet and is locking all of humanity into a mode of production that utterly defeats any possibility of realistically tackling climate change. No matter how many “green energy alternatives” get built, if production of bitumen continues to expand in Canada and starts becomes a norm worldwide we have no chance to address the atmospheric levels. No other energy source simultaneously being built will slow that, but in fact speed up the destructive process. We must never call on corporations like BP and TOTAL to “invest in alternative energy”. They just might actually do it.

From Colombia to Scotland and parts of Canada the development of the least climate damaging energy supplies have been used to build new coal mines, power possible shale gas extraction as well as to greenwash energy giants like Suncor and even give them carbon credits to make their legal operation continue. The green shift may take away the only window left to tackle climate change.

Internationally the movement that came out of Cochabamba& Tiquipaya, Bolivia last April called for 300ppm as a target, but with the caveats of no false solutions and that the main needs were to both power down the industrial world and to provide mechanisms for the over-exploited mass of humanity to be able to develop a decent standard of living while tackling the odious task of protecting their own environments. Basically, it’s a global “you broke it, you bought it” to the imperialist countries of North America and Western Europe. But the real kicker is that it is a call that allows all of the human residents of the planet to be valued on the same level, and applies the principles of environmental justice to the international stage. Let’s be clear– the fight will be internationally won or lost.

When 350.org went to Cochabamba, they not only argued for their position of 350ppm despite that the Global South led, initiated and hosted conference had differing positions. They made the same tired arguments around what was “politically feasible”, what was “achievable” and that there was so little support for real action in the US and Canada that this path was at least tenable. In environmental circles, “politically feasible” and bad deals that allow business as usual for industry. Going well beyond parts per million, the people from Africa pointed out that such a call condemns their continent to permanent protectorate status, unable to feed itself and as a mass of humanity treated as a continental invalid. Countries from Southern Pacific Islands point out that the temperature rise associated with 350ppm would leave them underwater and permanent refugees as a modern day series of nations with Atlantis like status.

Let us, however, leave aside the numerical points and talk about what way a movement in the interests of environmental justice will operate. When a pipeline is being proposed the community next to it gets full messaging control and overwhelming precedence. The voices that must be amplified are those of the community whose traditional territory is under siege. Sadly, the history of environmental NGO organizing has been to use their struggle as a great fundraiser, to put some colour on the colourful brochures, to make posters with sayings from elders– sold and used to claim a profit for already well-financed ENGO’s. Now we must apply these principles to what came out of Cochabamba.

The plenaries heeded the voices of the Global South and agreed to endorse no false solutions, power down not power up, no trading the air and the land for carbon credits, and to take the voices of the already suffering as a unified voice to Cancun in December 2010. But what of 350.org? From places of using ‘facilitation’ of plenary sessions to try and manipulate demands downward to falsely taking notes [after the fact], trying (on two separate occasions) to change the text of the agreed upon declarations– and ultimately refusing to sign onto and agree to uphold the principles of the Peoples Agreement that came out of the conference. Instead we have reality distorting pictures of Bolivian children posted during their 10/10/10 “Global work party” with “350.org” painted on their faces.

Note that 350.org is funded by unaccountable foundations that have historical ties to industry, and that 350.org itself steadfastly refuses to list any solutions, but instead delivers solar panels to the White House for stunt effect.

Meanwhile Bolivia (and the social movements that built the People’s Agreement) were hung out to dry in Mexico at COP16. That didn’t happen overnight. At meetings in advance of Cancun, 350.org “backed” small island states into a corner, “helping” them once they dropped “silly” demands and adopted the 350.org platform (or lack of one). Among other ENGO’s at Cancun were the usual competing voices, all demanding different things from almost all the governments in the world. The declarations from the Peoples Agreement had already been delivered to the UN, and were being demanded by hundreds of social movements from all over the Global South and dozens of nation states to be presented for real discussion and legally binding enforcement on the global level. ENGO’s didn’t promote the agreement (many actively undermined such, with Greenpeace promoting REDD and the Mexican government) and such demands collapsed.

Silence on this dynamic runs counter to organizing an international resistance movement based on solidarity. Big money and slick advertising campaigns are trying to silence the voices emerging from all those gathered last April 2010 in the shadows of the melting glaciers of the Andes. It is the path to justice to fight to make certain that this legitimate voice for transformation is not turned into another prop of coloured peoples on a “professional” campaign. It is often accurately pointed out that this kind of division over the numbers 300 vs 350 is silly when we are almost at 400 already. That is agreed in the abstract, but this debate is not about the numbers. It is a struggle for recognition on a global scale– one that goes way, way beyond parts per million debates. It is pointed at a revolutionary approach.

Macdonald Stainsby is a social justice activist, journalist and professional hitchhiker looking for a ride to the better world. He is the coordinator of http://OilSandsTruth.org and can be reached at: mstainsby@resist.ca

http://politicalcontext.org/sci-tech/2011/07/environmental-colonialism-in-the-climate-struggle/

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism

La Via Campesina Africa Declaration

2011-07-12T08:59:00.001-07:00

This just in my inbox this morning. I have similar outcomes of meetings in South East Asia, on REDD, a declaration of the GenderCC Women for Climate Justice on REDD+ from last year, and new fact sheets released by Carbon Trade Watch, with the Global Justice and Ecology Project and Indigenous Environmental network, on REDD+ - what it is, key players, and key problems. Quite a lot of debate on this issue, heating up!

Looking forward to seeing you all in Durban again ..

~la editora
* * * *
La Via Campesina Africa Declaration
1st Encounter of Agroecology Trainers in
Shashe Declaration
12-20 June 2011
Africa Region 1 of La Via Campesina
Msvingo, Zimbawe

We are 47 people from 22 organizations in 18 countries (Zimbabwe,
Mozambique, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Angola, Uganda,
Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, South Africa, Central African Republic,
Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Portugal, USA, France, and Germany). We are
farmers and staff representing member organizations of La Via
Campesina, along with allies from other farmer organizations and
networks, NGOs, academics, researchers, interpreters and others.

We have been meeting at the Shashe Endogenous Development Training
Centre in Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe to plan how to promote
agroecology in our Region (Southern, Eastern & Central Africa). Here
we have been privileged to witness firsthand the successful
combination of agrarian reform with organic farming and agroecology
carried out by local small holder farming families. In what were once
large cattle ranches owned by three large farmers who owned 800 head
of cattle and produced no grain or anything else, there are now more
than 365 small holder peasant farming families with more than 3,400
head of cattle, who also produce a yearly average of 1 to 2 tonnes of
grain per family plus vegetables and other products, in many cases
using agroecological methods and local peasant seeds. This experience
strengthens our commitment to and belief in agroecology and agrarian
reform as fundamental pillars in the construction of Food Sovereignty.

Threats and Challenges to Small Holder Agriculture and Food Sovereignty

Our region of Africa is currently facing challenges and threats that
together undermine the food security and well-being of our
communities, displace small holder farmers and undercut their
livelihoods, undermine our collective ability to feed our nations, and
cause grave damage to the soil, the environment and the Mother Earth.

These include local and regional manifestations of the global food
price crisis and the climate crisis that have been produced by runaway
neoliberal policies and the greed and profit-taking of Transnational
Corporations (TNCs). Cheap subsidized food imports brought by TNCs,
made possible by misguided free trade agreements, lowers the prices we
receive for our farm products, forcing families to abandon farming and
migrate to cities, while undermining local and national food
production. Foreign investors, invited in by some of our governments,
grab the best farm land, displacing food producing local farmers, and
redirecting that land toward environmentally devastating mining,
agrofuel plantations that feed cars instead of people, and other
export plantations that do nothing to build Food Sovereignty for our
peoples, and only enrich a few.

At the same time, uncontrolled greenhouse gas emissions and air
pollution from Developed Countries and from the global corporate food
system based on long distance transport and industrial agriculture are
changing the climate in ways that directly affect farmers. Our lands
become more arid, with water ever more scarce, we face rising
temperatures, and increased extreme weather conditions like severe
storms, floods and droughts. The dates of the rainy season have become
completely unpredictable, so that nobody knows when to plant anymore.
The changing climate is also implicated in epidemics of communicable
diseases of humans, crops and livestock. All of this hurts farming
families and affects food production.

We face TNCs who want to force GMO seeds into our countries, whether
or not we currently have GMO bans, and agencies like the Alliance for
a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) who conspire with TNCs like
Cargill and Monsanto and with our governments to buy off national
research and seed systems in order to sell GMO seeds. These seeds
threaten the integrity of our local varieties and the health of our
consumers. The same companies even manipulate regional farmer
organizations to push GMOs, and we call on such organizations to
resist being used in such ways.

While our soils, agroecosytems and forests are ever more degraded by
industrial agriculture and plantations, and local seed biodiversity is
lost, the costs of production under the conventional “Green
Revolution” model are more expensive and out of the reach of small
holder farmers. The price of chemical fertilizer on the world market,
for example, has risen more than 300% in the last few years.

Faced with this bleak situation for small holder agriculture and Food
Sovereignty in our region, as members of organizations belonging to La
Via Campesina we take the following positions:

Positions of La Via Campesina in Africa Region 1

We believe that…

• Agroecological farming as practiced by small holder farmers, and
Food Sovereignty policies, offer the only reasonable and feasible
solutions to these multiple challenges facing our Region.

• Only agroecological methods (also called sustainable agriculture,
organic farming, ecological agriculture, etc.) can restore soils and
agroecosystems that have been degraded by industrial agriculture. Even
chemicals do not work after severe degradation, but with agroecology
we can restore soil organic matter and fertility, along with
functional agroecosystem processes and services like nutrient
recycling, soil biology, natural pest control, etc. We have seen that
small holder agroecological systems have much greater total
productivity than industrial monocultures, with little or no purchased
inputs, reducing the dependency and increasing the autonomy and
well-being of rural families while producing abundant and healthy food
for our peoples. Global research by La Via Campesina demonstrates that
Sustainable Peasant Agriculture Can Feed the World, based on
endogenous knowledge and agroecology.

• The global food system currently generates between 44 and 57% of
global greenhouse gas emissions, almost all of which could be
eliminated by transforming the food system based on the principles of
agroecology, agrarian reform and Food Sovereignty. Sustainable Peasant
Agriculture Cools the Planet, and this is our best solution to climate
change.

• In order to adapt to a changing climate we need the greater
resiliency of diversified agroecological systems (and water
conservation and harvesting, watershed management, agroforestry,
ground cover, etc.) and the genetic diversity of local peasant seeds
and peasant seed systems. We demand that our governments withdraw
support from the corporate seed industry with it’s standardized and
often genetically modified seeds, and instead support peasant seed
systems based on recovering, saving, multiplying, storing, breeding
and exchanging seeds at the local level.

• Our national education and research systems are heavily biased
toward the very industrial agriculture practices that are killing our
planet and contributing to the failure of Africans to feed ourselves.
We demand the reorientation of research toward farmer-led methods and
agroecology, and the transformation of curricula at primary and
secondary schools levels, and in higher education, to focus on
agroecology.

• We call for an end to trade liberalization and the renewed
protection of domestic markets so that African farmers can receive the
fair prices that will enable us to boost production and feed our
peoples.

• We call on governments to create comprehensive programs to support
agroecological farming by small holders and to rebuild Food
Sovereignty, including genuine agrarian reform and the defense of
peasant lands from land grabbing, the reorientation of government food
procurement from agribusiness toward purchasing ecological food at
fair prices from small holders to supply schools, hospitals,
institutional cafeterias, etc., as a way to support farmers and to
provide healthy food to children, sick people and government
employees, and programs of production credit for small holders engaged
in ecological farming instead of subsidies tied to chemical
fertilizers and pesticides.

• At the COP-16 in Cancun, Mexico, the governments of the world
(except Bolivia) met to conduct business with TNCs who traffic in
false solutions to climate changes like agrofuels, GMOs, carbon
markets, REDD+, etc., instead of meeting to seriously and effectively
reverse global warming through real emission reductions by Developed
Countries and the transformation of our global food, energy and
transport systems. We demand that our governments behave more
responsibly at COP-17 in Durban, South Africa, refusing to sign
agreements imposed by the North and by TNCs, instead supporting the
Cochabamba Principles on the Climate and the Rights of the Mother
Earth.

Commitments of La Via Campesina

While we demand that our governments act in all the ways mentioned
above, and will turn up the pressure on them to do so, we will not
wait for them. Instead we pledge to continue to build agroecology and
Food Sovereignty from below. We pledge to take the following practical
steps:

• We will build organizational structures in La Via Campesina at the
regional level to support our national member organizations in their
work to promote agroecology among their member families. This includes
regional training programs, exchange visits, the production and
sharing of educational materials, and the identification and
documentation of successful cases in the region so that all can learn
the lessons they offer. Among the structures we will build is a
network of agroecology trainers and practitioners in La Via Campesina
in our Region.

• We will promote the creation of agroecology training programs and
schools in our organizations, and farmer-to-farmer and
community-to-community agroecology promotion programs.

• Through our own organizations we will promote the creation and
strengthening of local peasant seed systems.

• We will document the experience in Zimbabwe of agrarian reform and
organic farming by beneficiary families, as successful steps toward
Food Sovereignty that we who are in other countries can learn from.

• We will work to “keep carbon in the ground and in trees” in the
areas under our control, by promoting agroforestry, tree planting,
agroecology, energy conservation, and by fighting land grabs for
mining and industrial plantations.

• We will engage and pressure governments at all levels (local,
traditional provincial, national and regional) to adopt Public
Policies that favor agroecology and Food Sovereignty.

• We will build a powerful small holder farmer and peasant voice to be
present with other sectors of civil society at COP-17 in Durban, and
at Rio +20 in Brazil, with the message that we oppose false solutions
to climate change and demand the adoption of the Cochabamba
Principles. We will insist on Small Holder Sustainable Agriculture and
Food Sovereignty as the most important true solutions to climate
change.

Africans! We Can Feed Ourselves with Agroecology and Food Sovereignty!

Sustainable Agriculture by Small Holder Farmers Cools the Planet!

No to the Corporate Food System, GMOs and Land Grabbing!

Yes to Agrarian Reform and an Agroecological Food System!

Globalize Struggle! Globalize Hope!

Masvingo District, Zimbabwe, 20 June 2011

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism

Paulina Hernandez, SONG, on La Onda Bajita!

2011-07-02T13:20:00.001-07:00

20110701-Fri2000.m3u Download this file

Paulina Hernandez, Co-Director and Co-Founder of Southerners Organizing on New Ground, Atlanta, GA
on La Onda Bajita, 9 pm, Friday July 1, 2011, on the eve of the National Day of Noncompliance!

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism

Open Letter to My Sisters (originally posted Jun 22, 2011)

2011-06-28T19:16:00.001-07:00

Sisters,

I strongly support the call by NWSA members to honor the GA travel, conference and tourism boycott due to the recent passage of HB87.

At this moment in time, we all see the crisis in governance, the crisis of capitalism, of identity in our country. As any astute scholar or practitioner of justice-making change knows. there are moments when it is clear that a line in the sand has been drawn. That line, in terms of human rights, wimmin's rights, and migrant rights, was SB1070 in Arizona.

As people of conscience, peoples whose very existence in the academy, whose very voices in public discourse are only possible because of social movements and other people in previous generations who took risks and hits to do what was clearly the right and just thing to do, we *must* stand with our sistren and brethren, and our members who are the targets of this legislation to fight injsutice, as well as take a clear stand against those who perpetrate hate crimes through so-called legal systems.

In addition, like the forced sterilizations of eugenics science policy from the 1920s through the 1960s that targeted poor white, Black, Latin@ and native Americans in the US and in places including Puerto Rico, El Salvador and Nicaragua, racist policies are often carried out with a particularly brutal force on systemically vulnerable groups of women and children. These are the sisters who have taught me, mentored me, challenged and supported me over the years.

As sisters, we must stand in strong solidarity with each other, now. We are more powerful than I think we know. This is the moment to honor the words of June Jordan, immortalized by Sweet Honey in the Rock, that honored the sisters in struggle against apartheid in the townships of South Africa. We are the ones we've been waiting for. These, and other reasons, are why I support the call to honor the travel ban and the boycott.

In addition, I know that many things are not what they seem. In the spirit of openness and transparency, as I know that in general we in NWSA share the values of justice and fairness, I would like to hear from the NWSA leadership:

(1) What steps did you take to explore the option of honoring the travel boycott and moving the conference out of Georgia before they sent us the email on May 16?

(2) What steps are you taking to substantively meet the call by Georgia organizations to meet with the organizers if an organization cannot or will not honor the travel boycott?

Thank you.

In loving, powerful sisterhood,

Diana Pei Wu

Antioch University Los Angeles

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism

... "But some of us are brave." :: NWSA and the GA Boycott of HB 87

2011-06-28T19:01:00.001-07:00

... "But some of us are brave."

Sisters, these are the moments when we are called, not only to be brave, but to be bold in doing so.

Today is the anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, when transgender women of color led the fight against unjust police repression and surveillance of trans and queerfolk in Greenwich Village, New York City.

Today, courageous youth and young people "came out" in the Georgia City Capitol and in the streets near the Gold Dome. They have come out as undocumented and unafraid, as has Jose Vargas, the queer Filipino Pulitzer Prize winning journalist formerly with the Washington Post, in the New York Times and last night on the Maddow Show.

This fight, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, is against the re-institution of Jim Crow legislation in the South and throughout the nation. The target is "migrant"-looking people right now - that means many of us, our families, loved ones, communities.

And if not now, history shows that unjust means of surveillance and state-sponsored violence often start off with a test population and then expand the technology to the general population once the technology of repression is honed and ready to be implemented at scale. That's the rest of us.

History shows that the impacts on women of color in these kinds of times can particularly inhumane: women have had their children taken from them and put under CPS even as they are put into deportation proceedings.

A woman who called the local police in a DV case found herself put under deportation proceedings. There are several documented such cases across the U.S.

When we look back, will we, NWSA, have stood against fear and hatred, or will we have done nothing in the name of financial expediency and procedural ease?

I urge us to begin and continue, publicly, the deeper process necessary to be able for us to honor the boycott of HB87 and to stand with love and justice, now, and in the future.

* * * * *

To summarize a few hours of research, here are some of the options thus far, most of which have not yet been explored, to the best of our collective knowledge:

I sent this list of options in a different version of this email to the NWSA Staff and Governing Council and have not received any reply, so I am posting it publicly.

Additional resources for moving the conference:

Other conferences that moved from Arizona last year:

* MALCS

* and a good 50 or so organizations who have said that they will not go to AZ as long as SB 1070 is on the books. http://altoarizona.com/az-boycott.html

Other conferences that moved their conference for another reason:

* American Studies Association (San Antonio, TX) - to honor a labor boycott of the hotel

What happened to a conference that didn't move AND didn't treat their membership with respect when asked:

* American Bar Association (bad publicity for the Association AND for the hotel: this has been used successfully in other conference negotiations to convince a hotel to allow an organization to break the contract without losing the deposit)

INMEX: www.inmex.com

* INMEX is a social justice event planning service that helps organizations negotiate contracts that can be re-negotiated in the event of labor, environmental and social justice boycotts; started by some folks who used to work with UNITE HERE. We (NWSA) could contact INMEX and ask for help. In addition, I would offer that NWSA could consider always using INMEX in the future.

Current organizations honoring the GA Boycott: http://www.wearegeorgia.org/action-center/boycott-signon-supporters/

Paulina Hernandez (Southerners on New Ground, one of the lead organizations calling for the boycott and Somos Georgia) and Lisbeth Gomez. Email: paulina@southernersonnewground.org

We can do this! We must.

If in good faith, NWSA has exhausted all the above options after carefully exploring and considering them, and only then finds that we cannot move the conference, the community organizers and many of us would be down to help NWSA make the conference a true support to the many multi-layered struggles happening in Georgia and the region, in principled, just, loving, brave and bold ways.

In sisterhood, love and justice,

Diana Pei Wu, PhD

Antioch University Los Angeles

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Half of the World's refugees are running form US Wars

2011-06-24T17:01:00.001-07:00

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/06/24/253135/half-of-worlds-refugees-are-running-from-u-s-wars/

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism

Untitled

2011-06-24T16:04:00.001-07:00

Response-_Species_Extinction_and_Human_Population.pdf Download this file

The Center for Biological Diversity is making disturbing claims about the relationship of human population growth to species extinction rates and also to climate change.

According to this graph, they attempt to make the claim that increases in population growth have led to increases in species extinctions since the 1800s.

In high school and college calculus mathematics courses, you learn that more than the actual number of any phenomenon, it is often, when looking for causality, important to actually look at key points where the slope of the graph is changing – to look at the rate of the phenomenon, as well as the changes in the rate, or slope, of a graph. The idea is to look at points in time where things are accelerating or decelerating and look for system drivers at those points.

If we look at this graph, you actually see the following trends:

Although the rate of population of human beings was increasing since the 1800s, the rates of species extinctions are not significantly changing until somewhere between 1920 and 1930.
Somewhere between 1930 and 1940 the species extinction curve starts to trend upward. What’s going on in that time globally? The end of the Great Depression, the massive expansion in land use for agroindustrial uses, and the expansion of the use of buses and privately owned cars, as well as exploration and drilling for oil.
The species extinction rate starts to increase during WWII.
The species extinction rate starts to decrease right at the end of WWII.
The human population growth rate slows during WWII.
By 1950 the human population growth rate is increasing again.
Around the beginning of the 1970s, the species extinction rate starts to pick up. This is the era, in international development, of the “Green Revolution” and of large industrial infrastructure projects – roads, dams, and the like.
In the beginning of the 1990s, we enacted NAFTA, and this is the place where the extinction rate kicks up again.
There is a slight, final kick up in the rate of extinctions in the late 2000s.

Now, I assigned the arrows to the graph based on the rates of change in the graph, before I knew what the related dates were.

When I look at the points where the arrows identify conjunctures, correlated with my study of international development and world history, you find that perhaps that changes in species extinctions rates are more related to changes in resource use patterns, in particular of extensive land uses, including industrial agriculture and oil, coal and other fossil fuel exploration, extraction, and development, are more correlated to changes in the rates of species extinctions, than to human rates of population growth, or changes therein.

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Shocking ICE Raids the Strawberry Days Festival in Glenwood Springs, Two Fathers Detained While Waiting for Kids at the Bouncy Castle.

2011-06-22T18:05:00.001-07:00

ICE Raids the Strawberry Days Festival in Glenwood Springs, Two Fathers Detained While Waiting for Kids at the Bouncy Castle.

Father’s Day Festival Raid by Local Law Enforcement and ICE Chills Relations with Latino/a and Immigrant Communities; Hurts Business and Safety.

Glenwood Springs, CO — The Strawberry Days Festival in Glenwood Springs is usually remembered as a treasured summer family event. This year, some children will also remember it as the day their family was ripped apart by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

As the Alvarez family was waiting for their children to come out of the Bouncy Castle, they were approached by a couple of Garfield County Sheriffs deputies who led the men away behind the carnival rides. While there, 2 plainclothes ICE agents approached, checked, and detained both men. Brothers Cesar and Julio Alvarez were then taken to an ICE van in the back of the fair, while their 4 children waited with their aunt and mother.

Lorenza Alvarez, Julio’s 7-months pregnant, US born wife, came looking for her husband and her brother-in-law and was treated poorly by agents as she explained that Cesar was the only caretaker of twin 11-year-old girls. Following an extended conversation, Cesar was released but Julio was taken away for processing at an ICE detention center in Glenwood Springs. The stress was almost too much for the pregnant Mrs. Alvarez, and she had to be taken to Valley View Hospital for emergency care.

Teaming up with the Garfield County Sheriff’s Department, undercover ICE agents conducted this dragnet operation at a family fair on Father’s Day, in violation of their own operating regulations — which call on them to “refrain from conducting enforcement actions or investigative activities at or near sensitive community locations, such as schools, places of worship... and venues generally where children and their families may be present.”

“This operation has revealed the Glenwood Springs ICE office to be a rogue agency operating outside of clear ICE directives to not conduct operations in “sensitive locations.” said Brendan Greene, Rocky Mountain Coordinator for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition,“ The fact that ICE and local police went after dads at the carnival on Father’s Day has been spreading throughout the immigrant community. This has the potential to negatively impact the success of Strawberry Days for years to come; not to mention erode what little trust remains between the immigrant community and the Garfield Co. Sheriff’s office.”

Adds Greene, “The local ICE office and the Garfield Co. Sheriff, by irresponsibly targeting the city’s flagship summer event, has hurt not only the City of Glenwood Springs, but also any other town in the Valley that is hoping to have a successful festival this summer. They should be ashamed of themselves for hurting the Valley’s businesses in this way.”

Local Spanish language DJ, Axel Contreras, heard about ICE’s presence at the carnival and went to investigate. “I have lived in the Valley and attended Strawberry Days for 20 years…in all of my years here, even when there were terrible storms, I have never seen Strawberry Days as empty as it was on Sunday after word had spread in the community that ICE was conducting an operation.”

This type of enforcement operation is often extremely disruptive to small towns like Glenwood Springs, where the Latino/a community has grown to become a major supporter of the Festival over the last decade.

CIRC has been receiving complaints from the immigrant community about how the Garfield County Sheriffs Departments has been closely collaborating with, and in the case of last weekend’s raids at the carnival, taking the lead in ICE enforcement operations.

“I can’t think of a better way to ruin community policing than having local law enforcement troll for undocumented workers at community events like Strawberry Days.” said attorney Ted Hess, who is representing one of the detained men, “ This unholy alliance of ICE and local cops destroys trust between the community and the police.”

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Breaking news from Bonn on climate negotiations: Bolivia & Tuvalu

2011-06-06T09:27:00.001-07:00

Special to Climate Connections from Tina Gerhardt,
independent journalist

Bolivia has taken a firm stance at the opening of the UN climate negotiations in Bonn today, stating that it opposed the Cancún Agreement in Mexico and refuses to negotiate it now in Bonn until its concerns, particularly vis-a-vis the fundamental issue of REDD, are addressed. Discussions will resume this afternoon, taking up this topic.

Tuvalu - calls bluff on lack of transparency in Mx in "facilitator groups" that made decisions

- calls attention to conflict of interests and "material" motivations for decision-making on REDD

- demands transparency and that Annex I and Annex II party representatives be consulted
- demands representation of the interests of indigenous groups
Requests the chair of the SBSTA reassure Bolivia in expressed concerns.

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California Assembly Approves Domestic Workers Bill of Rights

2011-06-02T21:23:00.001-07:00

A big week for progressive legislations:

this, the TRUST Act and the CA DREAM Act are on their way ...

---------- Forwarded message ---------

California Assembly Approves Domestic Workers Bill of Rights

Assembly approves sensible, clear guidelines for domestic workers and employers
Bill will improve quality of care for families

SACRAMENTO

- The California Assembly approved AB 889 today, the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, sponsored by Assemblymembers Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) and V.M. Pérez (D-Coachella) passed. The bill now heads to the Senate for approval. Co-sponsored by Assemblymembers Allen (D- Sonoma), Cedillo (D- LA), Ma (D- San Francisco), Monning (D- Carmel) and Senator De Léon , the bill would improve the quality of care for children, families and seniors by expanding basic labor protections for household workers and setting industry-wide standards. While current exclusions for domestic workers are confusing and leave well-meaning employers vulnerable to liability, the standards AB 889 provides will create clarity and strengthen an industry which is vital to many Californians.

“Today’s vote was a historic step forward for the rights of domestic workers in California. For decades domestic work has been excluded from both state and federal labor laws and worker exploitation in this industry has remained invisible and unmonitored. AB 889 will end that by establishing the same basic protections under the law that many of us take for granted,” said Ammiano.

“This legislation helps us to bring a critical workforce out of the shadows and into the light of day. Domestic workers must be assured the rights and protections that all California workers deserve,” said V. Manuel Pérez, chair of the Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy.

The Assembly vote follows last year’s successful passage of a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in New York. Domestic workers have historically been exempted from laws governing the rights afforded to other workers -decent wages, a safe and healthy workplace health, workers compensation and other labor protections. Domestic workers are among the most isolated and vulnerable workforce in the state. The unique nature of their work requires protections to prevent abuse and mistreatment from occurring behind closed doors, out of the public eye. This bill provides domestic workers with industry-specific protections to use kitchen facilities and cook their own food, and creates standards for sleep, sick days, living wage increases, and paid vacations.

"Pues esa victoria significa que vamos poco poco en el camino de luchando para ganar estos derechos que no han sido reconocidos en este trabajo digno," said Maria Reyes of Mujeres Unidas y Activas. "This victory signifies that we're moving step by step on the path to victory to win rights that have never been recognized in this dignified work."

"The Bill of Rights creates helpful guidelines for employers of domestic workers. Employers have a vested self-interest in this campaign- by working to support the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, we are investing in building communication and trust with workers who support some of the most intimate parts of our lives, providing home care to people with disabilities and elders, or caring for our children and our homes." Jessica Lehman, employer of a personal attendant in her home and a member of Hand in Hand: Domestic Employer Association.

###

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UPDATE: EJ lawsuit vs. CA carbon trading + Chiapas REDD scheme

2011-05-25T11:24:00.001-07:00

http://climate-connections.org/2011/05/23/new-ruling-puts-california%E2%80%99s-cap-and-trade-on-permanent-hold/

New Ruling Puts California’s Cap and Trade on Permanent Hold

Implications Unclear for Chiapas REDD Program

- by Jeff Conant

San Francisco, May 23 – San Francisco’s Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment (CRPE) announced today that it received the judge’s writ in its lawsuit against the California Air Resources Board (CARB); the writ gives the green light to most of the policies advanced under AB32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act, but puts a permanent hold on cap and trade.

“Judge Ernest Goldsmith of the San Francisco Superior Court ruled that CARB violated CEQA (the California Environmental Quality Act) when, among other things, it failed to properly consider alternatives to a ‘cap and trade’ program in its Scoping Plan to implement AB 32,” CRPE’s statement says. “The Court’s Writ, issued Friday, enjoins, or stops, all implementation and actions in furtherance of cap and trade until CARB completes a lawfully adequate CEQA review.”

CRPE’s Brent Newell, the lead council on the case, called this “the best possible outcome we could have hoped for. The Judge essentially gave us the writ exactly as we submitted it.”

“[CARB] are enjoined now from doing anything on cap and trade,” Newell told me, in a mood that can only be described as giddy, immediately after receiving the news on Friday.

The ruling, Newell said, “allows the good parts of AB32 to go forward.”

Beyond its now defunct cap and trade provision, AB32 contains sixty-eight other regulations, from motor vehicle fuel standards to renewable energy mandates, aimed at reducing California’s greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020.

While cap and trade failed in Congress last year, and the European carbon market has shown itself to be ineffective at actually reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the California Air Resources Board chose in 2008 to make cap and trade – which CRPE has called “a Wall Street trading scheme” – the center piece of the state’s plan to confront global warming, rather than requiring major greenhouse gas sources like refineries, power plants, and factories to reduce their emissions.

Bill Gallegos, Executive Director of Communities for a Better Environment, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said, “We are encouraged that the Judge is now requiring CARB to take a hard and honest look at cap and trade. We have even more evidence now that cap and trade does not work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the European Union, emissions have increased by 3% in the past year under their program, and we also know that cap and trade has the worst impact on health in low income communities and communities of color.”

CARB must now look at alternatives to cap and trade; according to Newell, CRPE’s position is to push for direct regulations, to cut emissions directly at the source.

A major question hanging in the air upon announcement of the ruling is, what does this mean for California’s agreement with Chiapas, Mexico and Acre, Brazil?

Last November, then-Governor Schwarzenegger signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with both foreign states to begin advancing direct carbon trading mechanisms predicated on the emerging, and highly embattled, forest carbon scheme known as REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), and, in its more comprehensive incarnation which includes protections for biodiversity and accounting of carbon sequestration in soils, as REDD +.

Since late March, when the program in Chiapas began to come under intense scrutiny by local community-based organizations and international environmental and indigenous rights advocates, the governor of Chiapas, Juan Sabines, has grown increasingly vocal in his promotion of the program. The governor has made several highly-publicized visits to communities in the Lacandon Jungle to hand out funds associated with REDD+, but until last week it was unclear where the money was coming from, given that the deal with California was still in the pipeline.

It is unknown whether his administration is aware of the lawsuit, which has now effectively put an end to the promise of funds from California in the foreseeable future.

In a May 17 article in Mexican daily La Jornada, Sabines elaborated on the REDD+ program: “We made an agreement with California, the most polluting state in the world. The objective of the polluting governments is to clean their consciences by paying for carbon credits under REDD+.”

Sabines told La Jornada that a forest inventory is being prepared with the participation of the environmental organization Conservation International, and that inhabitants of the jungle will be trained to participate in this inventory, to define “how many trees there are and how many tons of Greenhouse Gases they can capture.” The Lacandon jungle, along with the Amazon, are the areas of the Americas that capture the most Greenhouse gases; therefore, said Sabines, “the international resources will go directly to the communities.”

In February of this year – three months after signing the MOU with Schwarzenegger – Governor Sabines began distributing payments of 2000 pesos a month to members of the Lacandon Community (as reported here). The payments, Governor Sabines said at the time, were “to allow the completion of the forest inventory so that [members of the Lacandon Community] can access federal and international funds, as well as complement these funds with projects such as agricultural conversion outside the Reserve with species such as oil palm and rubber.”

“You conserve the earth, and I pay you to conserve it,” Sabines told the recipients of the first REDD + payments. “I don’t buy the land; I commit you to conserving it.”

La Jornada reported last week, that “the 2000 pesos a month [per land-owner within the designated Lacandon Community] come from a tax on vehicle registration, because, as of yet, California is not able to put up the money.”

“Our goal,” Governor Sabines told La Jornada, “is that the entirety of the surface of Chiapas will enter into the market for carbon credits and methane credits, beginning through agreements with polluting sub-national states, like California.”

Last Friday’s writ on AB32, however, prevents any such agreement from going forward. What this means for the Chiapas state government and its plans to put the entirety of its forests into sub-national carbon markets remains to be seen. With no money forthcoming from California, it is unclear how, and whether, the governor of Chiapas will be able to continue paying the Lacandon Community.

Late on Friday afternoon, as Newell celebrated CRPE’s court victory in his San Francisco office before heading home to spend the weekend relaxing with his family, I asked him what it was about cap and trade that persuaded him to take on the crusade.

“Poor people are getting screwed on both sides of the transaction,” he said. “Only the polluters are benefitting. It’s just [expletive deleted] wrong.”

# # #

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism

Judge issues order staying Cap and Trade only (not whole Scoping Plan)

2011-05-20T17:40:00.001-07:00

AIR v ARB 52011 plaintiffs press release.pdf Download this file

CLIMATE: Judge stays Calif. cap-and-trade program (05/20/2011)

Debra Kahn, E&E reporter

SAN FRANCISCO -- A California judge today blocked the state's cap-and-trade program until regulators provide sufficient justification for imposing a market-based system for curbing emissions.

The decision by Judge Ernest Goldsmith of San Francisco County Superior Court could upset state plans for starting a cap-and-trade system next January under a landmark law that mandates lowering emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

Goldsmith ruled that the state Air Resources Board (ARB) violated the California Environmental Quality Act by not adequately exploring alternatives to cap and trade, like a carbon tax or direct regulation.

The board must set aside its December 2010 decision approving the trading system for emitters over 25,000 metric tons per year, and must cease all rulemaking activities related to cap and trade until it complies with the law, Goldsmith ruled. The trading program was designed to cover 85 percent of the state's industrial emissions by 2020, including emissions from power plants, oil and gas refineries, transportation fuels and other heavy industries.

The plaintiffs -- led by the Association of Irritated Residents and other environmental justice groups -- had alleged that a cap-and-trade system would hurt low-income communities by allowing emitters to avoid local limits on greenhouse gases by buying credits or offsets (E&ENews PM, April 25).

The agency's "functionally equivalent document" that it released in December 2008 to explain its selection of cap and trade was insufficient, the judge ruled.

"ARB committed a prejudicial abuse of discretion when it failed to proceed in a manner require[d] by law by inadequately describing and analyzing project alternatives sufficient for informed decision making and public participation," Goldsmith wrote.

ARB will have 15 months to comply with the order.

Goldsmith ruling didn't go as far as it could have under two proposals submitted by the plaintiffs. One of the plans would have stayed California's entire suite of greenhouse gas reduction policies -- 69 in all, including a low-carbon fuel standard, local development and smart growth guidelines, and emissions reductions from ships and trucks.

But the judge also could have allowed the market to move forward while requiring ARB to redo an alternatives analysis, as the state requested.
Look for more details in Monday's edition of ClimateWire.

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism

theory of love

2011-05-19T14:30:00.001-07:00

i'm all twisted up about a conversation i had recently and needed to write to think more about the matter.

i think i'm finally articulating that i'm just not really excited about the whole "being in love" frame. it happens. it's exhilarating when it does. but it also is a lot, in my experience, reliant on some types of blinders.

i like: love, loving kindness, beloved community, justice as the public practice of love, revolutionary, unconditional love, liberatory love, respect, dignity, as some other kinds of love, as practice and as concepts.

i like the kind of love that comes from knowing and seeing clearly another person or organizations strengths and faults and inconsistencies and contradictions and accepting that's how they are and deciding to continue to be in love and struggle and relationship with them anyway.

and i'm interested in happiness, connection, inspiration, cooperation, mutually supportive and respecting relationships that may become interdependent without becoming co-dependent, over time,

"in love" and even romantic love in the U.S. popular cultural context, without having been excavated and reclaimed, hold lots of patriarchal and hetero and colonial/imperial relationship structures and expectations, including when between two queer women of color. and i think fundamentally i'm not interested in that project or that practice.

and this love i'm writing about can be between friends, lovers, comrades, colleagues, students and teachers, familial relationships, neighbors, and even, occasionally, strangers.

do you have a theory of love?

* * * * *

"Your task is not to seek love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." -- Rumi

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james baldwin / nothing personal

2011-05-19T12:56:00.001-07:00

"If a society permits one portion of its citizenry to be menaced or destroyed, then, very soon, no one in that society is safe. The forces thus released in the people can never be held in check, but run their devouring course, destroying the very foundations which it was imagined they would save.

But we are unbelievably ignorant concerning what goes on in our country--to say nothing of what goes on in the rest of the world--and appear to have become too timid to question what we are told. Our failure to trust one another deeply enough to be able to talk to one another has become so great that people with these questions in their hearts do not speak them; our opulence is so pervasive that people who are afraid to lose whatever they think they have persuade themselves of the truth of a lie, and help disseminate it; and God help the innocent here, that man or womn who simply wants to love, and be loved. Unless this would-be lover is able to replace his or her backbone with a steel rod, he or she is doomed. This is no place for love. I know that I am now expected to make a bow in the direction of those millions of unremarked, happy marriages all over America, but I am unable honestly to do so because I find nothing whatever in our moral and social climate--and I am now thinking particularly of the state of our children--to bear witness to their existence. I suspect that when we refer to these happy and so marvelously invisible people, we are simply being nostalgic concerning the happy, simple, God-fearing life which we imagine ourselves once to have lived. In any case, wherever love is found, it unfailingly makes itself felt in the individual, the personal authority of the individual. Judged by this standard, we are a loveless nation. The best that can be said is that some of us are struggling. And what we are struggling against is that death in the heart which leads not only to the shedding of blood, but which reduces human beings to corpses while they live."

http://radicalprofeminist.blogspot.com/2010/05/portion-of-nothing-personal-by-james.html

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PBS's Black in Latin America

2011-05-18T13:08:00.001-07:00

here: http://video.pbs.org/video/1915580662

and,

The Freedom Riders!
http://video.pbs.org/video/1925571160

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Which "Green" Organizations Are Benefiting from (developing) Carbon Markets, Offset and REDD Initiatives?

2011-05-03T18:03:00.001-07:00

About a month ago I posted on this blog about the major arguments I get from environmental science "studies" people on my presentation of the climate justice movement is what they perceive as a peculiar view against markets.

And I responded, I don't see why those people have such peculiar attachments to markets and such aversion to thoroughly examining the many options that we have as a society. Their reluctance to discuss all the options is akin to monopoly corporations setting the standards for product development and regulations on a product that they exclusively make.

And I say, that given the experience of the peoples and communities I work with, am aligned with, come from, our experience of markets is more than negative. This knowledge and wisdom is what Guha calls the "environmentalism of the poor" and what DuBois and hooks called "double consciousness" and Pulido, Haraway and Butler have called "situated knowledge" or "strategic essentialism" and so forth.

And one of the questions that many of my colleagues have had for me, is "which ones?"

Which of the Big Greens, or "mainstream environmental organizations," are positioning themselves to profit from these carbon marketing, offsetting, schemes?

The big ones are, to the best of my knowledge, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), World Wildlife Federation (WWF), Conservational international (CI), World Resources Institute (WRI) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). At least one intergovernmental agency is also pushing REDD and offsets (IUCN) and at least one Scandinavian government is attempting to buy off women's organizations and youth organizations to be in support of REDD and other market-based offset mechanisms in advance of this year's upcoming COP17 talks in Durban, as they attempted, with partial success, in Cancún at COP16.

In the United States, these Big Greens are also instrumental in drafting US climate change policy - certainly, a conflict of interest if they are also in the business of selling carbon credits for projects that are still waiting to take shape, for a maret that is not yet developed.

The Nature Conservancy

For instance, the Nature Conservancy "partnered" with Dow Chemical - to the sum of $10 million - to help Dow incorporate "valuing nature" - ecosystem services and biodiversity - in its corporate business practices.

And, by the way, Mike Tercek, the CEO of TNC, is a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, where he headed the firm's Environmental Strategy Group and Center for Environmental Markets. Goldman Sachs are the men who brought us the economic meltdown and financial crisis that led to millions middle and low income homeowners losing their houses through foreclosure in the last two years.

Environmental Defense Fund

EDF makes no attempts to hide what it is doing. On their "Environmental markets" page, EDF describes potential markets, likely markets (California is one), and operating markets. The page also trumpets that EDF was "the first nonprofit to use markets for environmental progress."

EDF propaganda notwithstanding, a recent research report by Carbon Trade Watch found that the cap-and-trade market in the EU has failed to reduce emissions!

Additionally, the EU and potential emerging markets are already well known for structural problems:

1. vulnerability to fraud and scams in the market / verification of credits

2. the creation of a global land grab, especially on the lands of peasants, small farmers and indigenous peoples

Here is a video produced by SommerFilms from an interview from the Upper Xingu (Amazonas, Brasil) - showing the problems with REDD programs in relationship to indigenous peoples:

similar stories abound in Papua New Guinea, Ecuador, Indonesia, the Atlantic Forest of Brazil and other places and are documented in the No REDD Reader.

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Japan's Radioactive Nightmare Hits Home for Navajos

2011-04-28T11:05:00.001-07:00

Once in a while I get off facebook because what I repost on facebook should actually be permanently archived somewhere I can access it later.

Reposted from Censored News --

* * * * *

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Japan's Radioactive Nightmare Hits Home for Navajos

Japan's Radioactive Nightmare Hits Home for Navajos

By Groundswell Films
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As Japan struggles to contain radioactive contamination, Groundswell is reminding Americans that over a thousand abandoned Cold War-era uranium mines still contaminate the American Southwest. The US Department of Energy will feature The Return of Navajo Boy project as a case study in film, media, public engagement and measurable impacts at its State of Environmental Justice Conference on April 28th and 29th in Washington, DC. This month, the US Environmental Protection Agency began clean up at Skyline Mine, the site featured in the documentary.

Since 2000, when the film's cautionary tale stunned Sundance Film Festival audiences, Groundswell Educational Films has brought it and Navajo activists across the country to advocate for a clean up of radioactive waste in the Navajo Nation. The filmmaker, Jeff Spitz, and Navajo participants triggered a federal investigation into uranium houses. Many Navajos, including the grandmother in the film, Elsie Mae Begay, built their homes with uranium rocks from the abandoned mines. The US government failed to warn Navajos about the dangers of radioactive waste.

Decades after ceasing operations, the radiation from more than 1,000 abandoned uranium mines continues to impact homes, livestock, land, and water across the 27,000 square mile reservation. The Navajo Nation is home to approximately 200,000 people. It holds the largest uranium deposits in the United States and suffers from the highest cancer rates in the Southwest region.

Partially as a response to the Groundswell advocacy campaign, the US Environmental Protection Agency has now begun to clean up the area around the abandoned Skyline Mine, including Elsie Mae Begay's yard spotlighted in the documentary. This month tractors and heavy equipment rolled into Elsie's yard eleven years after the film's debut.

"Americans have been rightfully horrified by the unfolding nuclear disaster in Japan. But we forget that there is highly dangerous radioactive waste poisoning communities right here in America," said Groundswell co-founder Jeff Spitz, who directed the film. "This clean up of the Skyline Mine and Elsie Begay's yard offers a ray of hope to other families living in remote areas hoping for the same attention. We show how to get it."

Groundswell's unique model of film and public awareness campaign empowers Navajos to get attention by equipping them with Flip video cameras, multi-media tools, and opportunities to speak at film events, conferences, on campuses, and in the media nationwide. Navajos upload footage and Groundswell edits short videos that allow thousands of followers to stay engaged in the story unfolding online at www.navajoboy.com/webisodes.

"Using our own video cameras to document what we are struggling with every day gives us hope that the world has not forgotten about us. It gives us a voice," said Mary Helen Begay, Elsie's daughter in law and creator of two recent webisodes. "Our hearts go out to the people of Japan. We hope that they won't have to live with radioactive waste as we have for more than 50 years now."

About Groundswell: Groundswell Educational Films is a nonprofit organization with a mission to collaborate cross-culturally in all facets of documentary filmmaking, transfer media skills into disadvantaged communities, and partner with stakeholders to leverage changes that address the social justice issues raised in our films.
Groundswell Educational Films, NFP
100 N. LaSalle St, Suite 300
Chicago, IL 60602

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Women and Climate Change

2011-04-08T09:30:00.001-07:00

GenderCC, the progressive women's organization that helped to found and anchor the Women's Caucus at the UNFCCC talks every year, released this statement on the current state of the proceedings.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

PRESS STATEMENT:
7 April 2011
Contact person: Nina Somera, nina@gendercc.net, +63 9218122066

http://www.gendercc.net/
http://www.gendercc.net/metanavigation/press.html

Still A Frozen Pie:
GenderCC – Women for Climate Justice on the Bangkok Intersessional Meeting 2011

As the Bangkok climate talks are about to end, there are more reasonsfor women to be worried about, not only on substantive issues but the very direction where the talks are heading. Efforts of developed countries in keeping the Kyoto Protocol and the Bali Action Plan in oblivion are quite apparent while discussion on the Long Term Cooperative Action has been stalled. We fear that we are stuck with a half-baked pie from Copenhagen and Cancun.

Moreover, we find the flour hardly sifted as commitments of developed
countries continue to evade their historical responsibility, the heavy
reliance on false and risky solutions and the other pending tasks to
avert the current climate crisis.

Mitigation - The level of ambition among developed countries in
cutting down their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is way below what science prescribes. And because most of them are so dependent on the carbon economy, developing countries are likely to account for at least 70 per cent of mitigation pledges to be done by 2020.

It is alarming that mitigation efforts include a shift to nuclear
energy that has recently demonstrated its devastating impact that even a very advanced and prepared country like Japan could not control. Despite the dearth of gender differentiated data, some studies have shown that women are more keen towards renewable energy sources rather than nuclear. In two surveys in the 1995 and 1997, more Korean women rejected nuclear power. In 2005, only 22 per cent of women favored the delay of Germany’s nuclear power’s phase out.

“Clean energy” likewise still includes large-scale hydropower, despite
its long history of forcibly evicting communities in the Mekong and
other areas, and degrading river flows and biodiversity, regardless of
the “safeguards” funding agencies particularly the multilateral
development banks have adopted.

And however important to integrate gender in the carbon markets and
REDD Plus, the latter are still false solutions which can lead to a
poisonous scramble for resources and engender danger, displacement and disempowerment.

Technology Transfer - There are also no signs of the “intellectual
property” regime of being tempered at the very least, making the more
appropriate and strategic technologies available and affordable to
communities whose climate resiliency needs to be built and
strengthened. The same regime saw on many occasions, seeds and plant varieties grown for generations by women and their communities have been taken by companies, if not destroyed by the genetically-modified ones.

Adaptation - We welcome some countries’ call for gender balance in the adaptation committee. However, there is still no clarity on whether
gender will remain as a criterion in the selection of adaptation
initiatives. There is also no assurance yet whether 50 per cent of the
funds will go to adaptation. Even the very constitution of the Green
Climate Fund (GCF) remains unclear. We ask for at least 30 per cent
allocation of the GCF and so-called innovative sources for women and gender-focused adaptation initiatives.

Finance - But we are not merely asking for a share of the pie:
Financial resources for the GCF must be additional, scaled-up, public, grant-based, directly accessible, adequate and predictable. Also developing countries must have a huge stake in the governance and operationalization of the Fund.

With the outcome of Bangkok, we feel that many opportunities were
missed. We therefore urge governments particularly developed countries especially the United States to move forward in a way that respects a multilateral process and act on the interest of women and communities.
###

------------------------------------

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NEW FIGURES: POOR COUNTRIES LEAD RICH COUNTRIES IN REDUCING EMISSIONS

2011-04-08T09:27:00.001-07:00

News from Bangkok, where one of the intersessionals in preparation towards this year's Durban COP ...

PRESS RELEASE
8 April 2011

For Immediate Release
Contact:
bolivia.climate.media@gmail.com

NEW FIGURES SHOW DEVELOPING COUNTRIES ARE LEADING RICH COUNTRIES ON CUTTING EMISSIONS

BANGKOK - Today, as the UN climate talks came to a close in Bangkok, Ambassador Pablo Solon of the Plurinational State of Bolivia released UN statistics that showed, contrary to conventional wisdom, that developing countries are taking more climate action than developed countries.

"What's on the table in these negotiations is that 65% of emission reductions happen in developing countries and just 35% happen in developed countries, even though it is they who caused the problem of climate change. This is like someone burning down your crops, making you do all the work to replant them and then acting like a hero when they give you a tiny discount on the seeds . " Ambassador Solon said.

"Developed countries have decided that a limitation of a 2 degree temperature rise should be the object of the climate negotiations, despite that goal being unsafe for millions of lives and livelihoods across the world." Ambassador Solon said.

"Nevertheless, to achieve their inadequate goal, countries across the world would need to cut their emissions by 14 gigatonnes per year by 2020." Ambassador Solon said.

"At best, countries of the world have currently pledged to do 8.7 gigatonnes of emission reductions and at worst 6.6 gigatonnes - which shows how far we are from achieving an outcome that reflects the science and preserves life." Ambassador Solon said.

"Of these inadequate pledges, in the worst case scenario, only 3 gigatonnes are included in rich countries pledges, in contrast to 3.6 gigatonnes in developing countries- giving up the lie that it is developed countries which are "leading" emission reductions." Ambassador Solon said.

"Rich country promises are even more hollow when the use of 'offsets' are included to their low pledges, those offsets transfer 1.1 gigatonnes of emission reductions from developed countries to developing countries." Ambassador Solon said.

"In total this analysis shows that, with the use of offsets 3.6 gigatonnes of emission reductions will happen in developing countries in contrast to just 1.9 gigatonnes in developed countries." Ambassador Solon said.

"To spend five days discussing an agenda seems insane but what is behind the discussion of the agenda is what kind of outcome we will have in South Africa." Ambassador Solon added in answers to questions.

NOTE TO EDITORS - A copy of the presentation is available here.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | SAN JOSE LGBT IMMIGRATION FORUM

2011-04-06T16:56:00.001-07:00

RSVP to: ben_deguzman@nqapia.org

PRESS ADVISORY:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Ben de Guzman, NQAPIA

Phone: 202-422-4909; E-mail: ben_deguzman@nqapia.org

The National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance and

The Asian American Center for Advancing Justice present an

SAN JOSE LGBT IMMIGRATION FORUM

WHAT: Join Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA) and a distinguished panel for a special discussion about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) immigrants’ rights. Panelists will provide an update on developments from both the federal level in Washington, D.C. as well as in San Jose; how immigration reform may affect LGBTQ individuals, and how the audience can get involved.

Cost is FREE! Light refreshments will be provided.

WHEN: Saturday, April 9, 2011

Reception and Networking: 1:30 PM, Program starts at 2:00 PM

WHERE: Asian Americans for Community Involvement

2400 Moorpark Avenue

San Jose, CA

WHO: SPECIAL GUEST: Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA)

Ben de Guzman, NQAPIA Co-Director

Chris Punongbayan, Asian Law Caucus

Marta Donayre, Love Sees No Borders

Amos Lim, Out4Immigration

Activist and Author Judy Rickard will also be invited to talk about her book, Torn Apart: United by Love, Divided by Law.

HOW: To RSVP:

ben_deguzman@nqapia.org (e-mail)

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=191621290876261 (facebook)

Co-Sponsors:

National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA)

Asian American Justice Center (AAJC)

Asian Law Caucus (ALC)

South Bay Queer and Asian (SBQA)

Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI)

RSVP to ben_deguzman@nqapia.org

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G77+China and ALBA Back Bolivia in Climate Change Negotiations in Bangkok

2011-04-05T14:05:00.001-07:00

News from Bangkok

* * * * *

(Español abajo)

Communiqué

April 5, 2011

Bangkok, Thailand

G77+China and ALBA Back Bolivia in Climate Change Negotiations in Bangkok

“We would like to express our profound worry due to the fact that two decisions were adopted in the framework of the Cancun climate negotiations despite the formal and explicit objection made by a Member State. We consider this a dangerous precedent that should not be repeated under the Framework Convention on Climate Change,” said Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela in the name of the regional group ALBA (the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our Americas) at United Nations climate talks in Bangkok today. The countries emphasized that “these illegal practices are affecting the Plurinational State of Bolivia, a country that has the same rights as all others, and tomorrow, any other country present here could be affected.”

During the inaugural session of the climate talks, the G77 and China, a group comprising 131 developing countries, said that “as we move toward Durban [for the next annual climate change conference], the path should be to ensure a multilateral process that is transparent, open, and driven by the Member States, and also brings us toward consensus.” The statement alluded to the fact that the adoption of decisions without consensus in Cancun should not be repeated.

In its speech, ALBA backed the positions of Bolivia, saying: “We do not consider the results of Cancun a step forward for the Working Group on the Kyoto Protocol, but rather, a step backward.”

On behalf of the Bolivian delegation, Ambassador Pablo Solón thanked countries for their support and offered the following analogy: “If we compare global warming to a wildfire, we would say that the process of negotiation in Cancun resembled a long meeting of firemen who decided to throw a single bucket of water onto the fire, while declaring, ‘one bucket is better than nothing,’ ‘ the perfect is the enemy of the good,’ and ‘this is just the first bucket’ – then held a press conference to announce that gradual progress was being made, and that they had ‘saved the process of negotiation among the firemen’ while the flames engulfed a town. Solón concluded: “Cancun saved the firemen and their bosses, and now in Durban we have to save the climate and humanity.”

In order for Durban to be a success, and to avoid a catastrophic rise in global temperature of 4° to 5° Celsius during this century, developed countries must make real, domestic emission reduction commitments of 40 to 50%.

G77+China y ALBA respaldan a Bolivia
en negociaciones de cambio climático en Bangkok

(Abril 5, Bangkok, Tailandia) “Queremos expresar nuestra más profunda preocupación por el hecho de que dos decisiones fueron adoptadas en el marco de las negociaciones de Cancún, sobrepasando la objeción formal, expresa y explicita de un Estado Parte. Nosotros consideramos que esto es un precedente peligroso que no debe repetirse dentro la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre Cambio Climático” manifestaron Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, y Venezuela a nombre del ALBA, quienes enfatizaron que “estas prácticas ilegales afectan hoy al Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, un país que tiene los mismos derechos que todos los demás. Mañana puede afectar a cualquiera de los países aquí presentes.”

Así mismo, en la sesión inaugural de la reunión de negociación sobre cambio climático el G77+China que agrupa a 131 países en vías de desarrollo, señaló que “mientras avanzamos hacia Durban (donde será la próxima Conferencia de Cambio Climático) el camino debe asegurar un proceso multilateral transparente, abierto, dirigido por los Estados Parte e inclusivo que nos lleve al consenso”… en alusión a que no se debía repetir lo ocurrido en Cancún con la adopción sin consenso de estas dos decisiones.

El ALBA en su discurso respaldó las posiciones de Bolivia y señaló que: “Nosotros no consideramos que los resultados de Cancún fuesen un paso hacia adelante en el Grupo de Trabajo de Protocolo de Kioto, sino mas bien un paso hacia atrás.”

Por su parte la delegación de Bolivia agradeció el respaldo y dijo que “Si comparamos el calentamiento global con una pradera en llamas que amenaza con arrasar un poblado, diríamos que el proceso de negociación en Cancún fue la culminación de una larga reunión de bomberos que decidió echarle un solo balde de agua al incendio mientras decían: "un balde de agua es mejor que nada", "lo perfecto es enemigo de lo posible", "este es el primer balde". Y mientras hacían una conferencia de prensa para anunciar que avanzaban gradualmente y que habían "salvado el proceso de negociación de los bomberos"... las llamas del incendio se acercaban al poblado.” Y el Embajador Pablo Solón a nombre de la delegación de Bolivia concluyó: “Cancún salvo a los bomberos y a los anfitriones, ahora en Durban nos toca salvar al clima y a la humanidad.”

Para que Durban sea un éxito se necesitan compromisos de reducción de emisiones de los países desarrollados de un 40% a 50% de manera real y domestica. Solo así se podrá evitar un incremento catastrófico de 4° C a 5° C en la temperatura en este siglo.

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Syphilis and Forced Sterilization: Righteous Anger and teaching adult BA classrooms about the legacies of an intersectional, institutional racism and sexism

2011-03-22T18:33:00.001-07:00

I recently brought up the idea of righteous anger (bell hooks, among others) in the context of talking about the forced sterilization of women in Central America, in the South, of Puerto Ricans and Nicaraguans, of African and Native American women, especially during the rise of the eugenics period and Jim Crow and scientific racism, to a class of entering students at the small private B.A-finishing university where I teach. the students were shocked! And I keep rolling back what I assume they might know, or at least some of them might know. So I have to do a little background research .. but here is a recent article that describes a new development in the legal treatment of these cases:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/03/15/guatemala.syphilis.lawsuit/

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Asians aim for 'Ya es hora'-style citizenship push

2011-03-22T17:50:00.001-07:00

Asians aim for 'Ya es hora'-style citizenship push

By Amy Taxinm Associated Press

San Jose Mercury News (March 19, 2011)

LOS ANGELES-Inspired by a highly publicized Latino naturalization drive, Asian Americans are fanning out to help immigrants across California-and eventually the country-become U.S. citizens.

Asian American advocates say getting more immigrants to naturalize is crucial to flex the political muscle of the state's fastest-growing ethnic group and give the community a louder voice. And it has become even more pressing since the country ramped up immigration enforcement, making citizenship a requirement to get more government contracts and to avoid deportation if convicted of a crime.

The task is daunting. In California-home to a third of the country's Asian population-dozens of languages are spoken, in addition to dozens of dialects, and myriad often-competing Asian-language media outlets reach diverse segments.

"Everything we have to do is multiple in terms of the amount of resources and effort," said Karin Wang, vice president of programs at the Los Angeles-based Asian Pacific American Legal Center, which is spearheading the drive.

The campaign-which starts next week with a workshop in the San Gabriel Valley's sizable Chinese and Vietnamese communities- is modeled after the "Ya es hora" citizenship campaign launched by a close-knit partnership between community groups, Spanish-language media giant Univision and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

That program, which consists of in-person workshops broadcast on television, has helped nearly 40,000 people fill out their naturalization applications and nearly 100,000 get their citizenship questions answered via a bilingual hotline since 2007.

Since then, Wang said she has often fielded questions about why Asian-American advocates can't mount a similar campaign, which led her group to draft a plan to create a naturalization network.

Under the program, Asian-American advocates will host six large-scale workshops across California to offer free assistance in multiple languages filling out naturalization forms. The goal is to initially help several hundred immigrants apply for citizenship, and have local community organizations help hundreds more after getting training from immigration lawyers on how to process the paperwork, said Connie Choi, an attorney with APALC's immigrant rights project.

California is home to about 5 million Asians who account for about 13 percent of the state's population.

Advocates hope to eventually expand the effort to other states with large Asian communities such as Texas, Georgia, Nevada and Ohio, said Karen Narasaki, president of the Washington-based Asian American Justice Center, an APALC affiliate.

Asian immigrants are already more likely to naturalize than Latinos and more than 60 percent become U.S. citizens within a decade of getting a green card, according to 2005 statistics from the Department of Homeland Security.

But advocates say many still need help with forms that are closely scrutinized by immigration officials, especially older immigrants who may have difficulty with English.

Peggy Santis, a 59-year-old Thai immigrant who became a citizen last month, said having someone help fill out the paperwork makes a big difference. The insurance agent from Anaheim applied to naturalize last year after living in this country for decades when she realized she felt like an American.

"It is better to become a citizen," said Santis, who got help filling out the paperwork through a local citizenship program. "You work and you pay taxes and then you don't have a right to vote."

Janelle Wong, a political science professor at the University of Southern California, said once Asian immigrants naturalize, they are relatively high-propensity voters. They are also more likely to get involved in politics in other ways, for example, by contacting their elected officials.

One of the challenges to getting a naturalization or civic engagement campaign off the ground in the Asian-American community is that immigrants often identify more closely with their distinct ethnic background, and often care about different issues, she said.

"The more ground work that is done, the more of a voice they will have in future elections," Wong said. "The only issue is: what will that voice be saying? ... there's not necessarily a shared political agenda across every community."

Advocates say the children and grandchildren of Asian immigrants who arrived after immigration rules were relaxed in the 1960s have a stronger tie to the community beyond their ethnic group since they grew up here and many have married across immigrant groups.

Many immigrants, from all countries, are reluctant to apply to become citizens, fearing their English isn't good enough. Others are thrown off by the $680 expense-often more if they seek help from a lawyer.

Narasaki said Asian-Americans have led naturalization campaigns in the past. In the 1990s, advocates ran a program to help people naturalize when the country scaled back the public benefits available to immigrants.

But they didn't follow up to see what happened after people naturalized. In the California drive-which is funded by $250,000 in private donations-advocates plan to follow up with new U.S. citizens to make sure they are registered to vote.

Asian immigrants have shown a strong interest in learning how to become citizens, though many are skeptical about asking questions of the U.S. government. That's one of the reasons federal authorities rely on community organizations trusted by immigrant communities to help promote naturalization, said Jane Arellano, district director for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Los Angeles area.

"That is how we reach our ethnic communities," she said. "They trust their leadership."

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EJ - Cali's Cap-and-Trade Program - Procedural FAIL!

2011-03-21T17:54:00.001-07:00

~ this just rolling through my Inbox. :) Big decision! ~

NOTE: Many of these groups stopped a Chevron Tarsands refinery expansion recently

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release Contact:

Adrienne Bloch, CBE (510) 484-6298

March 21, 2011 Alegría De La Cruz, CRPE (661) 370-5775

Bill Gallegos, CBE (323) 573-5310

Caroline Farrell, CRPE (661) 586-2621

Tom Frantz, AIR (661) 910-7734

Angela Johnson-Meszaros, (323) 229-1145

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE GROUPS WIN - CAP AND TRADE PLAN ILLEGAL!

CALIFORNIA AIR RESOURCES BOARD FORCED TO REVISIT ALTERNATIVES TO UNJUST POLLUTION TRADING SYSTEM

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - On March 17, 2011 a San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled that the California Air Resources Board violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when it failed to properly consider alternatives to a "cap and trade" program in its plan to implement AB 32, the California Climate Solutions Act. Cap and trade is pollution trading that allows the worst polluters to continue or increase their pollution by buying "reductions." These polluters are disproportionately located in low income communities of color. Instead of reducing pollution and creating jobs in California, dirty facilities, like oil refineries, get to buy credits from often unverifiable projects in other states and countries.

"Allowing the most entrenched polluters to increase pollution violates our environmental rights and is not the way to stop poisoning our air and slow catastrophic climate change," said Bill Gallegos, CBE's Executive Director. “ARB was dogmatic in its focus on cap-and-trade even though it is not effective in reducing greenhouse gases, increases pollution in heavily polluted low-income communities and communities of color, and misses the opportunity to create jobs in California. Now the ARB has a chance to do it right and consider real alternatives to pollution trading. We continue to be willing to work with the ARB to make the whole plan work for everybody."

Environmental justice and air quality organizations have been fighting for years to get ARB to protect low-income communities of color in its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In 2009, these groups filed suit to enforce their rights under AB32 and CEQA.

Judge Ernest Goldsmith’s ruling rejected ARB’s rationale for choosing a pollution trading scheme, stating that the law requires more than “a discourse on cap and trade justification.” The decision requires ARB to fully analyze alternatives to the cap and trade program, and stops all implementation of the program until ARB complies with the law.

“ARB refused to do its job so we were left with no other choice but to sue to protect public health,” said Caroline Farrell, Executive Director for the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment. “The court’s decision ensures that ARB fully understand how its decisions impact the most vulnerable of Californians and avoid unintended negative consequences as we move forward with this groundbreaking and transformative measure.”

In addition, the court ruled that ARB violated a key CEQA protection when it prematurely moved forward with its plan before completing environmental review, stating that ARB “interpreted its regulation in a way that undermines CEQA’s goal of informed decision-making.”

“ARB jumped the gun and failed to respond to the thousands of public comments it received before it approved and implemented its plan,” said Tom Frantz, President of the Association of Irritated Residents. “This ruling will compel ARB to fully consider those of us most affected by its decisions, and not just move forward in its haste to make major polluters happy.”

Communities for a Better Environment represented itself and its members; the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment (CRPE) represented Association of Irritated Residents, Coalition for a Safe Environment, Society for Positive Action, West County Toxics Coalition, Angela Johnson-Meszaros, Dr. Henry Clark, Jesse Marquez, Shabaka Heru, and Tom Frantz; Angela Johnson-Meszaros represented Martha Dina Arguello, Caroline Farrell, and California Communities Against Toxics.

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Imagination and the Ability to Dream: On Markets, Capitalism and Proposed Solutions to Global Climate System Disruption

2011-03-09T15:00:00.001-08:00

Why don't you like markets?

When i give my talk on how the global climate justice movement contains the knowledge and practices to save us from global climate chaos, and in fact are doing it already, environmental studies people often ask me, "You seem to have an aversion to markets, why?"

Thanks to Gopal Dayaneni, and the social movements, including the good folks at Global Exchange, this has been clarified for me - it's not all markets per se. It's capitalist markets and continued or increased penetration of the commodification of the sacred which the movements i work with and support are against, primarily because capitalist markets are fundamentally exploitative. It is possible to envision markets that are not fundamentally based on the commodification of nature, and on exploitative, unequal, unjust relationships, and i would like to see us collectively as a global society build on those solutions.

The problems with the continued or increased commodification of the sacred should be self-explanatory.

And then solutions? if not cap and trade and markets then what?

The Impoverishment of Our Collective Imagination and Political Will

The people who ask me, as if surprised, about what they perceive as my aversion to markets, are in fact misunderstanding: what I have is a deep and committed aversion to exploitation and injustice.

They also seem to believe that cap-and-trade is the only solution to global climate chaos that can work and they are hell bent on pushing - shoving - that policy down people's throats. What surprises me is the fact that so many environmental studies professors believe it. Unfortunately many of the so-called big environmental organizations and individuals have a fundamental conflict of interest. Many of these organizations stand to make money and profit off of a cap-and-trade and/or offsetting scheme.

In terms of mechanisms in the US that are based on some monetary incentive or penalty, but that do not increase the commodification of life and that hopefully do not create such perverse incentives such as the current options being debated at the UNFCCC proceedings, there are some more progressive solutions on the table (tax and dividend, e.g.).

If in all of human history we have only had this particular kind of capitalist market system for less than 200 years why do we think that we can't do better and/or do different?

Why would anyone think that any one single solution could ever begin to solve a problem that is as complex, far-reaching, wide-ranging and path-dependent and diffuse as global climate disruption and chaos?

Even still - we can do better. We must. Given the amazing, powerful, creative and just minds and imaginations that we have as a global human society, I trust that we can: that alternative workable solutions that meet the scale of the problems we have created already do exist.

They will be many, they will be different, they will be context-sensitive and appropriate - and that will be their power. They already are (for more, see an earlier letter to 1Sky, "Grassroots Organizing Cools the Planet.")

We can do better than just leave it to a market to work its invisible hand.

The Killing Death Grip of the Invisible Hand

And, If you happen to be a community that has been on the sharp, killing end of that invisible hand's stick, or of the weapon of mass destruction that's in the other hand that killed your people that no one talks about, then you know that capitalist greed fueled:

the expansion of the transatlantic slave trade and the horrific, insane practices that made possible markets in their commodified bodies and the commodity markets in what was produced by their labor, including cotton and sugar;

the genocide and expropriation of native lands and colonization in general fueled and grew the commodity markets in gold and silver;

the trafficking of poor irish, italian, polish, portuguese women and of poor chinese and indian men across the pacific in the same slave boats that moved Africans across the atlantic fueled and exacerbated and the markets for their labor or what they produced: cloth, clothes, railroads, electronics, food;

the destruction of forests worldwide is the result of the growth in global commodity markets for timber and pulp and paper;

the extinctions and near-extinctions of beaver, manatees, sea turtles for their meat, furs and other commodity markets;

increased asthma and childhood developmental harm in particular (racialized, poor) communities for markets in energy;

the destruction of traditional farmers, their subsequent displacement into being farmworkers and exposure to the effects of deathly poisons for global agribusiness and the development of markets in foodstuffs-become-commodities like corn, wheat, rice, soy;

the ever-increasing wealth gap and its disastrous, perverse consequences ..

Really do i have to go on?

This is why WEB DuBois, in 1910, wrote that the failure of the US democratic project was due to the combination of colonialism, racism and capitalism, and that its primary effects were felt on Black and Brown bodies and the natural environment. True then and still true now.

it is also why it is imperative that we look to the communities that have survived in these systems of domination and subordination, that have created solutions that uphold the sacredness of Mother Earth and of rights and dignity, because often, in those communities, the solutions and survival mechanisms are complex in their ability to tie and re-wind human individual and collective well-being with the restoration of the natural world.

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27 Arrests at Secret Meeting of Major Climate Denial Funders

2011-01-30T20:38:00.001-08:00

See the full gallery on posterous

The Koch brothers are major funders of climate denial organizations and right-wing front organizations.

New blog post here: http://ruckus.org/blog/?p=655

Hi-Res photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/uncloakthekochs/pool/

~ español abajo ~

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 30, 2011

CONTACT: Samantha Corbin -- 203/470-8675 -- srcorbin@gmail.com

For photos, videos and updates, see: http://pitch.pe/121259

For archived live video of the action: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/quarantinethekochs

Media update: Dozens of People Arrested to Protest Billionaire Koch Brothers Secret Meeting

RANCHO MIRAGE, CA -- Today, over two thousand everyday Americans from across the country – including San Diego, Los Angeles and Organce County - converged at the Rancho Las Palmas Resort in Rancho Mirage, CA to protest a secret right-wing strategy meeting held by billionaires David and Charles Koch. Attendees, deputized as members of the "People's Center for Disease Control", occupied the intersection of Bob Hope Drive and Rancho Las Palmas as part of the demonstration to voice opposition to the Koch's funding of climate denial groups, far-right political candidates, and anti-health care reform efforts. The entrance to the Rancho Las Palmas Resort was blocked off by several dozen members of a quarantine squad dressed in hazmat suits, holding banners and a 140 foot police tape marked "Quarantine the Kochs". Twenty-seven arrests were made as part of the peaceful demonstration.

Groups organizing today’s protest included: The Other 98%, Ruckus Society, Courage Campaign, Common Cause and the California Nurses Association. The Other 98% is a voice for the vast majority of Americans who are tired of corporate control of Washington and the Tea Party extremism that—wittingly or unwittingly—works to protect it.

* * * * *

Para difusión inmediata

Contactar: Samantha Corbin 203/470-8675, srcorbin@gmail.com (inglés)

AVISO: Decenas de persons fueron arrestados en protesta contra la reunión secreta de los hermanos billonarios Koch

Para fotos, videos y más información, chequea: http://pitch.pe/121259

Para ver cobertura en vivo de la accion: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/quarantinethekochs

RANCHO MIRAGE, CA -- Hoy, meas de dos miles de personas de todo los Estados Unidos de Norte America – y residentes de San Diego, Los Angeles y Orange Conty - vinieron al Rancho Las Palmas Resort en Rancho Mirage, CA, para llamar atención a una reunión secreta de planeación estratégica del extremo-derecho, llamado por los hermanos billonarios David y Charles Koch (pronunciado “Coke” en inglés). Las y los participantes, deputizados como miembros del “Centro Popular para el Control de Enfermedades,” llenaron la intersección de Bob Hope Drive y Rancho Las Palmas Drive en frente del hotel exclusivo, en contra del papel de los Kochs en dar dinero de grandes cantidades que niegan al cambio climático, de políticos de extremo-derecho, y en contra de los esfuerzos para la reforma de salud. Luego, decenas de personas vestidos como un equipo de cuarantena cerraron la entrada al complejo hotelero, con banderas de 140 pies pintados como señales de advertencia “Materiales Peligrosos” y cinta amarilla señalando, “Cuarentena de los Kochs.” 27 personas fueron arrestados como parte de las manifestaciones pacificas.

Las organizaciones en carga de la manifestación incluyen: The Other 98%, Ruckus Society, Courage Campaign, Common Cause and the California Nurses Association. The Other 98% is a voice for the vast majority of Americans who are tired of corporate control of Washington and the Tea Party extremism that—wittingly or unwittingly—works to protect it.

# # #

http://ruckus.org/blog/?p=655

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Letter from a Young Observer (Original Text by Ahmad Abdelhammed, of the RNN Observation Network)

2011-01-28T09:42:00.001-08:00

Letters from the Egyptian Revolution-in-Progress

carta de un observador (texto original por ahmad abdelhameed, de la red de observación r.n.n)

Acabo de volver de la manifestación, demasiado cansado y con mucho frío a causa del agua que nos han echado. Pero todo eso no importa, lo que vi debe ser contado y transmitido entre la gente.

(No tengo fuerzas ni para escribir en un lenguaje culto...)

Lo que he presenciado hoy ha sido una serie de sorpresas impresionantes, muy impresionantes.

La primera sorpresa fue la cantidad de gente que había, tal y como se vio por la televisión. Todo el mundo se creía que iba a ser el único en salir a la calle; pero no fue así.

La segunda sorpresa fue que la mayoría de los que estaban fuera eran jóvenes, jóvenes de hoy en día, de los que usan el Facebook; se les veía que disfrutaban de una situación relativamente holgada. También había mucha gente de distintos oficios: he visto compañeros míos de la facultad a los que no había visto en diez años. Me llamó la atención que salieran a la calle personas que aparentemente no lo estaban pasando tan mal como el resto del pueblo egipcio.

La tercera sorpresa fue que pese a que la mayoría de la gente eran jóvenes, también hubo mucha gente mayor y señoras cincuentonas andando a paso lento muchos de ellos, incluso algunos salían con sus hijos.

La cuarta sorpresa fue que nos acompañaban chicas, o para ser más concreto, había más chicas que chicos en nuestro grupo... Eran chicas muy educadas, esas que ves por la calle y piensas que son de buena cuna(¡) y crees que nunca pasean solas por las calles. Pero eran chicas muy valientes y tan fuertes como los mejores hombres allí presentes. Aquello me llamó la atención.

La quinta sorpresa fue temíamos que alguien incordiara a las chicas que iban en nuestro grupo; pero no fue el caso. Todo el mundo fue muy respetuoso, cuidando especialmente a las chicas. (Eso indica que las molestias que sufren las chicas en general cuando van por la calle son por parte de personajes infiltrados de Interior).

La sexta sorpresa fue que no hubo violencia, para nada! Cuando la gente empezó a atacar las patrullas de la Seguridad Central que nos habían atacado con chorros de agua, todo el mundo empezó a gritar: “marcha pacífica, pacífica, pacífica”

La séptima sorpresa fue que cuando la marcha llegó a la Plaza de la Liberación y allí se instaló, hubo gente que empezó a limpiar restos y basuras, para que la gente se entere que somos un pueblo civilizado.

La octava sorpresa fue que al mirar a mi alrededor, me di cuenta de que efectivamente eso estaba limpio!

La novena sorpresa que me llevé fue cuando una de las chicas que iban con nosotros y la cual yo no conocía, empezó a jurar por el Corán y por su Profeta. Lo curioso es que luego me enteré que esa chica era cristiana; pero eso no importó. Y no importó porque al fin y al cabo todos amamos nuestro país y gritamos para que esté mejor. No importan esas pequeñas diferencias.

La décima sorpresa fue el grado de orgullo y satisfacción que uno siente cuando grita con todas sus fuerzas en nombre de Egipto; “Gran aplauso para Egipto, gran aplauso...” Gritas el nombre de tu País, el País que siempre soñaste vivir en él para el resto de tu vida, sin que nadie te tilde o que tú mismo te tildes de sensacionalista o de loco.. Y finalmente anuncias que amas a tu País y sin ningún asomo de vergüenza!

La undécima sorpresa fue que en medio de todo el miedo y la preocupación por lo que pueda hacer los aparatos de Seguridad, alzas la mirada al cielo y con otras veinte o treinta mil almas gritas: “¡Alá es grande. Oh, Dios!, y te quedas satisfecho, tranquilo, porque Le has vitoreado, y porque sabes que El te hará vencer. Y ya lo hizo...Gracias, oh, Dios!

La decimo tercera sorpresa que me llevé fue que me di cuenta de que los jóvenes de Egipto son de lo mejor, y sin exagerar: son caballerosos, valientes, amantes de su país, muy conscientes y con Dios en su corazón.

La decimo cuarta fue que los mayores gritos que la gente aclamaba al unísono fueron aquellos dirigidos a Mubarak y al Régimen. Los jóvenes son muy conscientes y saben perfectamente cuál es el problema. Los otros gritos no tenían tanto entusiasmo.

La decimo quinta sorpresa que me llevé fue que vimos a Ibrahim Issa llevado a hombros de los manifestantes con un amor puro y claro. También me encontré con Nawara Negm, la saludé y vi cómo en sus ojos había lágrimas de felicidad de la belleza del acto que estaba presenciando. Efectivamente, el que es respetuoso lo es en todos los niveles, y aquél que obedece a Dios y no a sí mismo, Dios le guía y le guía muy bien.

La decimo sexta sorpresa fue que abordamos Giza, y siempre que intentaron pararnos, nosotros, con todos los que éramos, nos abríamos paso: pasamos por la avenida Mustafa Mahmoud, por la de la Liga Árabe en ambos sentidos, por la avenida del Héroe Ahmed Abdelazeez, por la Plaza Duki, por la avenida de la Liberación, por Ópera llegando a la Plaza de la Liberación.

A menudo sentía miedo a que me pasara algo, pero no hay otra opción. Tenemos que luchar contra la injusticia. Dios nos manda luchar contra todas las injusticias... Él no nos creó sólo para adorarle y para disfrutar de sus virtudes; Dios nos creó para habitar la Tierra y para usar todas sus Bondades para luchar contra los injustos y también para difundir la Justicia. Desde siempre Nos dijo que nuestras vidas dependen tan sólo de Él, sólo tenemos que mostrar nuestra voluntad, Él ya nos ayudará.

Tienes que romper con el miedo y unirte a aquellos que defienden la Justicia, musulmanes y cristianos. ¿Acaso no sueñas con que nuestro hijos crezcan en una Patria, y que desarrollen grandes proyectos en grandes universidades, o que escriban un complejo libro? Siempre será mejor que esta vida que nos consume, y el trabajo que nos atonta; sí, porque desempeñamos trabajos triviales.. porque el que tiene un doctorado sabe perfectamente que cualquiera de fuera es mucho mejor que él; o que un ingeniero como yo no sueña siquiera en crear algo complejo, todas sus tareas se reducen a hacer cosas que ya se han hecho antes mil veces, salvando pequeños detalles sin importancia. Y si alguien quiere conseguir dinero, tiene que dedicarse al comercio o al marketing... O como aquellos profesores de universidad que saben perfectamente que aquello que están impartiendo está ya más que visto y que es casi inútil, y aunque tengan un buen grupo, saben perfectamente que sus alumnos no aplicarán en su trabajo ni la mitad de lo que aprenden en las aulas.. Saben perfectamente que si el día de mañana sus alumnos trabajasen, lo harían en algo banal, tal y como lo hacen ellos. No tenemos la NASA, ni Harvard, ni Cleveland, ni tampoco disponemos de un MIT (Instituto Tecnológico de Massachusetts)... hay que olvidarse de todo eso...

Cuando miro a mi hijo de un mes pienso que aun dándole una buena educación, probablemente acabará como yo, preocupado por tanta repugnancia existente... Probablemente, también se asociará a algún movimiento, para así desahogarse... y entonces, sólo Dios sabrá qué es lo que le podrá ocurrir... También está la opción de educarle de cualquier manera, y entonces probablemente será un delincuente o pertenecerá a algún partido nacionalista... O a lo mejor emigre y entonces le veré sólo una vez por año. Pero también esta la opción de ponerme manos a la obra y construir para él un país digno.

Dicen las noticias que la Seguridad ha conseguido vaciar la Plaza de la Liberación de los manifestantes. Personalmente no sé qué es lo que va a ocurrir mañana, o pasado o después de un mes. Esa gente es como nosotros, se manifiestan porque la injusticia duele y hace daño. Hay gente que murió, otra que fue arrestada; pero seguirán adelante porque la Libertad y la Dignidad saben muy bien. ¡Sal y únete a ellos, únete a la Justicia, ya sea en la Plaza de la Liberación o en cualquier parte! No te olvides que todo está en manos del Señor, tu riqueza, tu salud, tu vida... Y tampoco te olvides de que todos aquéllos que dieron sus vidas en las manifestaciones, hoy son mártires... probablemente hubiesen muerto en el mismo momento en un accidente tonto, o por cualquier estúpido motivo por el cual muere la gente en Egipto.

La última sorpresa que me quedó por mencionar, ustedes perdonen, es que Egipto es un país respetuoso, con un pueblo vivo, y se revoluciona por su Dignidad. Recientemente apareció la imagen de este pueblo en Al-Jazeera mientras gritaba abierta y directamente: “¡El pueblo quiere derrocar el Régimen!”

Links de videos relacionados:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRitpxliJ-w

(traducido por imán moutaouakil, grupo decolonial de traducción)

English translations forthcoming here: http://www.decolonialtranslation.com/

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism

Today's UNFCCC Gone Wrong post: The Carbon Market Goes Missing - Again!

2011-01-24T16:16:00.001-08:00

So, after Cancun, the current UNFCCC proposed solutions to climate change rely almost entirely on carbon markets to reduce emissios - and voluntary reductions - because not only are they currently trying to gut the Kyoto Protocol, they are trying to implement the so-called Copenhagen Accords (which the first stage are the Cancun Agreements passed last year). Yes, I'm simplifying.

Like Where's Wlado, but not nearly as much fun or educational.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2011/jan/24/carbon-market-c...

The carbon market – gone in a puff of smoke?

The loss of carbon credits worth €28m to cyber attacks lays bare the faults of a highly flawed trading system

Sabina Manea

guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 January 2011 14.00 GMT

The carbon market has grown to gargantuan proportions – worth €92bn in 2010.

Photograph: John Giles/PA

He wears a fine cloak, sword at his side, clearly a gentleman of standing. Behind him, representatives of the church expectantly peer out of heavy fur-trimmed garb. Once the money is paid (and it is, as always, a substantial sum), the gentleman's transgression, be it on the battlefield or in the local bawdy-house, will be forgiven. This is how indulgences were bought and sold in the 16th century all over Europe. The Catholic church would dispense whatever forgiveness was necessary in return for cold cash, saving many tortured souls from eternal damnation.

Carbon trading does a similar job, whereby money thrown at developing countries can somehow absolve polluters from their sins against the planet. In a bid to encourage companies to reduce pollution and fight climate change, they are forced to buy credits to cover their annual emissions. The less pollution they produce, the more unused credits they can sell back in the market. Even better, people like you and me can get involved too. Flying to Barcelona for the weekend? Just click the offset carbon emissions button, and wipe away any guilt.

Carbon credits can be traded in the EU's emissions trading scheme (ETS), but unlike other commodity markets, it's not clear that carbon credits are tied to something that will have value tomorrow, or next year. Can the credits be owned, like a piece of property, or can they just disappear into thin air?

And disappear they may. The entire EU trading system was shut down last Wednesday, with credits worth €28m missing following a series of highly effective cyber attacks that have plunged the still emerging carbon market into chaos. To make matters worse, the EU's ETS is a serial victim; eco-activist hackers shut down the EU carbon exchange website only six months ago. The European Commission's decision to suspend trading was taken in the wake of break-ins into online accounts in a number of European countries, with the Czech Republic being the latest casualty. The chances of recovering the stolen credits are slim, even more so once the criminals have sold them on. Unlike the money paid for indulgences, carbon credits are nothing more than records in an online account.

Where this leaves the man in the fine cloak is unclear. Those who dabble in the carbon market are vulnerable – whether industrial plants governed by the EU trading scheme or financial speculators wanting a piece of the carbon action. They thought they were buying real goods like oil or gas, which don't just exist on a computer screen. Right? Wrong.

Whether the market participants actually own the credits like any other piece of private property, or whether hackers sitting in their bedrooms can just wave their wand and make them disappear, is something that the EU ETS is strangely silent on. This is despite the fact that the carbon market has grown to gargantuan proportions – worth €92bn and accounting for 7bn tonnes in 2010 – and is the fastest-growing commodity market in financial history. But oil and gas are not hot air, and cannot be dissolved by a snap of the fingers (or a click of the keyboard). If the carbon market is to function effectively, its participants need to know what their rights are when they get involved in carbon trading. Simply issuing rights in air which may never be seen again is not good enough, and the commission should start addressing the dangers of a Pandora's box that's lying wide open.

On the other hand, if Europe were genuinely concerned about the environment, why should we cry over a few lost credits? Fewer credits in the market could do wonders for the environment, but would wreak havoc on financial markets, which could come tumbling down. But if millions of stolen credits flood the market, this won't help in the battle against climate change. It may be time to think about scrapping carbon trading altogether. The commission should have thought of these problems when peering out of its fur-trimmed garb and pocketing the cash.

This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 14.00 GMT on Monday 24 January 2011. It was last modified at 14.05 GMT on Monday 24 January 2011.

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Guardian: Why Bolivia opposed Cancun deal

2010-12-21T16:43:00.001-08:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2010/dec/21/bolivia-oppose-cancun-climate-agreement

Why Bolivia stood alone in opposing the Cancún climate agreement

We were accused of being obstructionist, obstinate and unrealistic. But we feel an enormous obligation to set aside diplomacy and tell the truth

Pablo Solon

Tuesday 21 December 2010 15.54 GMT

Diplomacy is traditionally a game of alliance and compromise. Yet in the early hours of Saturday 11 December, Bolivia found itself alone against the world: the only nation to oppose the outcome of the United Nations climate change summit in Cancún. We were accused of being obstructionist, obstinate and unrealistic. Yet in truth we did not feel alone, nor are we offended by the attacks. Instead, we feel an enormous obligation to set aside diplomacy and tell the truth.

The "Cancún accord" was presented late Friday afternoon, and we were given two hours to read it. Despite pressure to sign something – anything – immediately, Bolivia requested further deliberations. This text, we said, would be a sad conclusion to the negotiations. After we were denied any opportunity to discuss the text, despite a lack of consensus, the president banged her gavel to approve the document.

Many commentators have called the Cancún accord a "step in the right direction." We disagree: it is a giant step backward. The text replaces binding mechanisms for reducing greenhouse gas emissions with voluntary pledges that are wholly insufficient. These pledges contradict the stated goal of capping the rise in temperature at 2C, instead guiding us to 4C or more. The text is full of loopholes for polluters, opportunities for expanding carbon markets and similar mechanisms – like the forestry scheme Redd – that reduce the obligation of developed countries to act.

Bolivia may have been the only country to speak out against these failures, but many negotiators told us privately that they support us. Anyone who has seen the science on climate change knows that the Cancún agreement was irresponsible.

In addition to having science on our side, another reason we did not feel alone in opposing an unbalanced text at Cancún is that we received thousands of messages of support from the women, men, and young people of the social movements that have stood by us and have helped inform our position. It is out of respect for them, and humanity as a whole, that we feel a deep responsibility not to sign off on any paper that threatens millions of lives.

Some claim the best thing is to be realistic and recognise that at the very least the agreement saved the UN process from collapse.

Unfortunately, a convenient realism has become all that powerful nations are willing to offer, while they ignore scientists' exhortations to act radically now. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found that in order to have a 50% chance of keeping the rise in temperature below 1.5C, emissions must peak by 2015. The attempt in Cancún to delay critical decisions until next year could have catastrophic consequences.

Bolivia is a small country. This means we are among the nations most vulnerable to climate change, but with the least responsibility for causing the problem. Studies indicate that our capital city of La Paz could become a desert within 30 years. What we do have is the privilege of being able to stand by our ideals, of not letting partisan agendas obscure our principal aim: defending life and Earth. We are not desperate for money. Last year, after we rejected the Copenhagen accord, the US cut our climate funding. We are not beholden to the World Bank, as so many of us in the south once were. We can act freely and do what is right.

Bolivia may have acted unusually by upsetting the established way of dealing with things. But we face an unprecedented crisis, and false victories won't save the planet. Empty agreements will not guarantee a future for our children. We all must stand up and demand a climate agreement strong enough to match the crisis we confront.

• Pablo Solon is the ambassador of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to the United Nations.

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Photos from Cancun

2010-12-13T07:55:00.001-08:00

See the full gallery on posterous

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Youth Deported from the UNFCCC - Friday, Dec 10, 2010

2010-12-13T07:15:00.001-08:00

Featuring Kandi Mossett, Indigenous Environmental Network,

Australian Youth Climate Movement,

New Zealand Youth Climate Delegation

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism

Indigenous Environmental Network Denounces the Cancun Betrayal

2010-12-11T12:03:00.001-08:00

For Immediate Release:

Dec 11, 2010
Media Contacts:
IEN media hotline in Cancun: +52 998 108 0748 (available through Dec 11)
Tom Goldtooth in Cancun +52 998 108 0751 (available through Dec 11)
Tom Goldtooth (after Dec 12) +1 218-760-0442
Email: ienCop16media@gmail.com

***VIDEO INTERVIEWS AND PHOTOS @ http://pitch.pe/109054

Statement by the Indigenous Environmental Network
Cancún Betrayal: UNFCCC Unmasked as WTO of the Sky
Real Solutions to the Climate Crisis Will Come From Grassroots Movements

Cancún, Mexico -- As representatives of Indigenous peoples and communities already suffering the immediate impacts of climate change, we express our outrage and disgust at the agreements that have emerged from the COP16 talks. As was exposed in the Wikileaks climate scandal, the Cancun Agreements are not the result of an informed and open consensus process, but the consequence of an ongoing US diplomatic offensive of backroom deals, arm-twisting and bribery that targeted nations in opposition to the Copenhagen Accord during the months leading up to the COP-16 talks.

We are not fooled by this diplomatic shell game. The Cancun Agreements have no substance. They are yet more hot air. Their only substance is to promote continued talks about climate mitigation strategies motivated by profit. Such strategies have already proved fruitless and have been shown to violate human and Indigenous rights. The agreements implictly promote carbon markets, offsets, unproven technologies, and land grabs—anything but a commitment to real emissions reductions.

The Voices of the People Must be Respected
Indigenous Peoples from North to South cannot afford these unjust and false ‘solutions’, because climate change is killing our peoples, cultures and ecosystems. We need real commitments to reduce emissions at the source and to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Because we are on the front lines of the impacts of climate change, we came to COP-16 with an urgent call to address the root causes of the climate crisis, to demand respect for the Rights of Mother Earth, and to fundamentally redefine industrial society’s relationship with the planet. Instead, the Climate COP has shut the doors on our participation and that of other impacted communities, while welcoming business, industry, and speculators with open arms. The U.S., Industrialized nations, big business and unethical companies like Goldman Sachs will profit handsomely from these agreements while our people die.

Women and youth in our communities are disproportionately burdened by climate impacts and rights violations. Real solutions would strengthen our collective rights and land rights while ensuring the protection of women, youth and vulnerable communities. While the Cancun Agreements do contain some language "noting" rights, it is exclusively in the context of market mechanisms, while failing to guarantee safeguards for the rights of peoples and communities.

The failures of the UN talks in Copenhagen have been compounded in Cancun. From the opening day to the closing moments of the talks, our voices were censored, dissenting opinions silenced and dozens ejected from the conference grounds. The thousands who rallied outside to reject market mechanisms and demand recognition of human and Indigenous rights were ignored.

The Market Will Not Protect Our Rights
Market-based approaches have failed to stop climate change. They are designed to commodify and profit from the last remaining elements of our Mother Earth and the air. Through its focus on market approaches like carbon trading, the UNFCCC has become the WTO of the Sky.

We are deeply concerned that the Cancun Agreements betray both our future and the rights of peoples, women, youth, and vulnerable populations. While the preamble to the Cancun Agreements note a call for "studies on human rights and climate change," this is in effect an empty reference, with no content and no standards, that will not protect the collective rights of peoples. The market mechanisms that implicitly dominate both the spirit and the letter of the Cancun Agreements will neither avert climate change nor guarantee human rights, much less the Rights of Mother Earth. Approaches based on carbon offsetting, like REDD, will permit polluters to continue poisoning land, water, air, and our bodies, while doing nothing to stop the climate crisis. Indeed, approaches based on the commodification of biodiversity, CO2, forests, water, and other sacred elements will only encourage the buying and selling of our human and environmental rights.

The Cochabamba People's Agreement Points the Way Forward
There is another way forward: the Cochabamba People's Agreement represents the vision of everyday people from all corners of the globe who are creating the solutions to climate change from the ground up, and calling for a global framework that respects human rights and the Rights of Mother Earth.

If any hope emerges from Cancun, it comes from the dramatic demonstrations we saw in the streets and from the deep and powerful alliances that were built among indigenous and social movements. The Indigenous Environmental Network joined thousands of our brothers and sisters to demand real climate solutions based in the rights of Indigenous Peoples, the rights of Mother Earth, and a just transition away from fossil fuels. We will continue to stand with our allies to demand climate justice. The communities on the frontlines of the problem––those who face the daily impacts of the climate crisis––are also on the frontlines of the solutions. Community-based solutions can cool the planet!

The fight for climate justice continues. We are committed to deepening our alliances with indigenous and social movements around the world as we build in our communities and mobilize toward COP-17 in Durban, South Africa. Social movements in South Africa mobilized the world to overthrow Apartheid and create powerful, transformative change. The same mass-based movement building is our only hope to overturn the climate apartheid we now face. We look forward to working with our African brothers and sisters and tribal communities in Durban.

We only have one Mother Earth. As Indigenous Peoples, we will continue our struggle to defend all our Relations and future generations.

Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) is a network of Indigenous Peoples empowering Indigenous Nations and communities towards sustainable livelihoods, demanding environmental justice and maintaining the Sacred Fire of our traditions. IEN brought 17 indigenous leaders to Cancun as part of the Grassroots Solutions for Climate Justice -- North America Delegation uniting representatives from fossil fuel impacted communities who are on the frontlines of solving the climate crisis. A complete archive of the delegations statements and activities can be found at http://redroadcancun.org and http://grassrootsclimatesolutions.org

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism

Al Jazeera: Seeing REDD on climate change - Virginia Suarez-Pinlac from the Phillipine Movement on Climate Justice--- Seeing REDD on climate change

2010-12-11T10:08:00.001-08:00

Seeing REDD on climate change

As the Cancun summit closes, some environmentalists say the REDD scheme is a boon for financers, not forests.

Chris Arsenault Last Modified: 10 Dec 2010 15:01 GMT

Some companies think carbon trading markets could be a good investment, but environmentalists are not sure if they are the best way to combat global warming [GALLO/GETTY]

As climate change negotiations come to a close in Cancun, Birginia Suarez-Pinlac is seeing red. The environmental lawyer from the Philippines is worried that a plan for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) constitutes a land grab, transferring natural wealth from the poor to the rich under the auspices of saving the planet.

Last year, she says, an Australian coal company tried to forge an agreement with an indigenous tribe on Mindanao Island in the Philippines, a poverty stricken area known for its high mountains and lush green rainforest. "The company offered poor tribes people money in exchange for their atmospheric space. They don't want to cut their own emissions domestically. They want to find a way to profit from the carbon they produce."

Forests help take climate changing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, reducing global warming - a human induced process linked to wild weather patterns including this year's deadly flooding in Pakistan and crop destroying wild fires in Russia.

Green-washing

The world is losing about six million hectares of forests each year - an area roughly the size of Greece - due to human activities like logging. REDD is supposed to be designed to allow companies to buy clean air credits from people who live in forests to encourage them to protect the trees. But some environmentalists say that when companies buy credits abroad through what is now a voluntary scheme, they feel entitled to pollute back at home.

"The biggest buyers of REDD credits are the worst polluters - big oil and big coal," says Bill Barclay, the research director for the Rainforest Action Network in California. "They are looking for a cheap 'get out of jail free card' - it's basically green-washing."

In the Philippines, indigenous people "didn't understand that they were giving away their atmospheric space to Australians" when they were approached by a non-governmental organisation working with the coal miners, Suarez-Pinlac says.

But REDD and similar initiatives based on trading credits in carbon dioxide are not just about companies purchasing environmental legitimacy from communities who actually take care of forests; the schemes being discussed in Cancun could increase lucrative business opportunities for hedge fund traders and financers.

"There is a lot of concern REDD will be brought into a carbon offset trading scheme," Barclay says.

Carbon trading is based on the idea that a price should be placed on emissions. Companies or countries would have a cap set on the amount of pollution they could spew. Those who curtail their emissions below targeted levels could sell atmospheric space to polluters who exceed their limits.

The European Union has such legislation; the 27-nation bloc has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. And carbon trading figures prominently into this plan, as the EU is by far the world's largest carbon market.

And, while Europe has done far better than other industrialised regions in reducing its emissions compared to the size of its economy, some analysts think the moves are too little, too late.

"We still aren't seeing key reductions that climate scientists say are necessary," says Rachel Cleetus, an economist with the Union of Concerned Scientists in the US.

'Carbon cowboys'

Environmental scientists estimate that the world needs to see emissions cuts of at least 25 to 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 to 90 per cent by 2050 to stop catastrophic climate change.

While Cleetus supports carbon trading as one of many policy tools for tackling global warming, she says: "The carbon market only gets at one market failure: the lack of a price on carbon. We need to get renewable energy strategies in place."

Hedge fund brokers and the speculators Barclay calls "carbon cowboys" believe the free market is the best tool for tackling climate change and better than an extension of internationally mandated emissions targets set out by the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.

"The lack of a post-Kyoto agreement means that countries won't have legal responsibilities to reduce emissions. They will have voluntary ones," says Steven Sorrell, the deputy director of the Sussex energy group in the UK, a university based think-tank.

The 2009 Copenhagen Accord, an attempt to extend the Kyoto Protocol, does not include binding targets. However, rich countries responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions pledged to create a fund worth $100bn per year by 2020 to invest in clean technologies and to help mitigate the effects of climate change in the global south.

Eric Bettelheim, an author and CEO of Forest Landscape Development, a company that invests in products that "have a carbon and commodity value" believes turning nature into a tradable resource is crucial for protecting it.

"Everyone who is rational about this realises global warming will probably never be solved without the participation of businesses and markets," Bettelheim says. "Progress will be made on the recognition of forest carbon credits from developing countries as being good currency in the [carbon trading] system."

He accuses certain environmentalists and political leaders - specifically Evo Morales, the Bolivian president - of having an "anti-capitalist agenda".

Morales, whose country faces a major climate crisis resulting from pollution it did not create, wants reparations from the rich industrialised countries in the form of "climate debt".

Bettelheim's view on leaders like Morales is shared by politicians with some of the worst environmental records. The US refused to ratify the original agreement while Russia, Japan, Canada and Australia have indicated that they will not sign onto a second commitment extending the Kyoto Protocol past its 2012 expiration date.

Before becoming Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper called Kyoto "a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations".

'Two faced initiative'

But good capitalists, it seems, can even make a profit from a "socialist scheme". About $64bn changed hands in the emissions trading market in 2007, according to the World Bank.

Bettelheim wants environmental regulations for the same reason that General Motors believes in stop signs and other rules for driving: he says they are good for business - and for the environment. Like grain, gold and oil, he hopes trading in carbon emissions will become a fundamental activity in the global economy.

"With oil the question is scarcity, which creates a value people pay for," he says. "In the case of greenhouse gas emissions, the problem is surplus. How do you create a market from that? Legislation."

The commodities trader does not believe an extension of Kyoto is feasible because of domestic political and economic concerns in the countries which pollute the most. On this matter he may be right on the money.

Regional carbon trading markets, similar to that practiced in the European Union, are being developed in East Asia by Japan and Korea and in the western US with California's state government taking the lead in representing a "simpler way forward than having more than 190 countries sign onto rules" as Kyoto attempted to do.

But that approach does not work for Suarez-Pinlac who believes carbon or offset schemes including REDD are a "two faced initiative" from major polluters in the developed world. Even if poor people in forests are paid by polluting companies to protect the land, she wonders "how the money [will] be managed when there is so much corruption?"

Even in Europe, which has stronger institutions than other regions, carbon trading schemes have been hit by billion dollar scandals involving corruption and speculative trading which does not take carbon out of the air.

"Negotiators talk about 'safe guards' for REDD, but really these are non-binding guidelines," says Barclay. "This has Interpol [the international law enforcement agency] alarmed about the potential for corruption."

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El Pais: La Cumbre del clima pasa por encima de Bolivia para sellar un acuerdo

2010-12-11T08:30:00.001-08:00

"The Summit passes over Bolivia in order to seal a deal"

---------- Forwarded message ----------

La Cumbre del Clima pasa por encima de Bolivia para sellar un acuerdo

El texto deja para 2011 la decisión sobre si habrá un acuerdo que sustituya al Protocolo de Kioto.- Bolivia recurrirá ante instancias internacionales la decisión aprobada

RAFAEL MÉNDEZ | Cancún 11/12/2010

Todo sobre la Cumbre del Clima en Cancún en el Eskup de Rafael Méndez.

La presidenta de la Cumbre del Clima, la canciller mexicana, Patricia Espinosa, ha pasado por encima de la intención de Bolivia de dinamitar la cumbre. La delegación de Evo Morales se quedó sola en su oposición al acuerdo pero insistió en bloquear el acuerdo. La réplica de Espinosa fue pausada, calmada, serena: "La regla del consenso no significa la unanimidad. Ni mucho menos significa la decisión de que una delegación quiera imponer el veto sobre la voluntad de unas delegaciones que con tanto trabajo han venido trabajando con enromes sacrificios. Mi obligación ha sido escuchar a todas y cada una de las partes, incluyendo a los hermanos bolivianos. Ahora bien, yo no puedo ignorar la visión, las solicitudes de 193 estados parte". Espinosa golpeó con la maza y la Cumbre del Clima rompió en aplausos.

Cambio climático

A FONDO

Ver cobertura completa

La noticia en otros webs

Espinosa ha puesto fin así a horas de debate con Bolivia de protagonista. La delegación enviada por Evo Morales se quedó sola. Ni Venezuela ni Cuba salieron en su apoyo. El embajador de Bolivia ante Naciones Unidas y jefe de la delegación boliviana, Pablo Solón calificó como "atentado" que la cumbre aprobara un texto con su oposición: "No podemos romper las reglas que nos damos. Aquí, la regla para la adopción es el consenso y claramente antes de que usted martillee hemos expresado que no hay consenso y que Bolivia no apoya esta decisión. El precedente es funesto. Hoy será Bolivia, mañana será cualquier país. Consenso quiere decir que no puede haber ningún Estado que explícitamente manifieste su rechazo a una decisión. Lo que va a ocurrir aquí es un atentado contra las reglas que rigen aquí, en el marco de la convención y en el marco de Naciones Unidas". "Ni en Copenhague ocurrió algo así", sentenció. La sala permaneció muda. Ni un tímido aplauso. Tras la aporbación, Bolivia ha anunciado que recurrirá ante "todas las instancias internacionales" la decisión adoptada.

El acuerdo ha conseguido el apoyo de países que partían con posturas muy enfrentadas,como Japón , EE UU y China. También lo apoyan los pequeños estados-isla, la UE, los países menos desarrollados y la mayoría de los latinoamericanos.

Vigencia de Kioto

El pacto incluye peticiones de todos los bloques: deja para 2011 la decisión sobre si habrá un acuerdo que sustituya al Protocolo de Kioto, reconoce que los compromisos presentados hasta ahora no basta para estabilizar el clima, los países ricos se comprometen a movilizar 100.000 millones de dólares al año en 2020, incluye un pacto para reducir la deforestación y, sobre todo, incluye en Naciones Unidas los compromisos de recorte de emisiones que los países enviaron de forma voluntaria a la ONU tras la Cumbre de Copenhague.

El acuerdo apunta a una prórroga de Kioto antes de 2012, cuando expira el actual periodo de cumplimiento. Esa era una exigencia de los países en desarrollo. A cambio, como pedía Japón, esa continuidad está supeditada a que avance la otra vía de negociación abierta, en la que están incluidos EE UU y China, que, por distintos motivos, no tienen limitación de emisiones. "El texto no apunta a la muerte de Kioto sino todo lo contrario", ha declarado la secretaria de Estado de Cambio Climático, Teresa Ribera.

EE UU se da por satisfecha con cómo queda reflejada la transparencia que exigía en la reducción de emisiones de China. Habrá consultas internacionales pero no serán "ni intrusivas, ni punitivas y respetarán la soberanía nacional". Si el texto sale adelante, solo habrá consulta internacional obligatoria si las emisiones se reducen con dinero internacional. Para los países en desarrollo que limiten sus emisiones sin dinero del primer mundo -China ha dicho en alguna ocasión que no lo necesita- esa obligación de información se reduce y se convierte en una opción.

Los ecologistas han mostrado su satisfacción porque el texto incluye alusiones a la gravedad del calentamiento y alude a la reducción de emisiones que pide el Panel Intergubernamental de Cambio Climático (IPCC) . Esta mención es muy significativa de lo despacio que avanza la negociación. En la Cumbre de Bali, de 2007, la UE insistió en que se incluyera el rango de reducción de emisiones (entre el 25% y el 40%) para los países desarrollados que pedía el IPCC. La oposición de la Administración de George Bush dejó el texto en un pie de página. Ahora, tres años después, el IPCC sale del pie de página y pasa al texto del acuerdo. Aunque el texto pide limitar el calentamiento a dos grados centígrados deja abierta la puerta a que se revise más adelante para limitarlo a 1,5 grados, una petición de los pequeños estados isla.

En realidad, todo el borrador está lleno de sutilezas de ese tipo. La UE pedía el reconocimiento de que debía haber un acuerdo vinculante en 2011. No sale eso, sino que los países seguirán "discutiendo las opciones legales para llegar a un acuerdo" en la Cumbre de Durban (Sudáfrica) de 2011.

La inmensa mayoría de los países en el plenario ha apoyado el texto públicamente. Argelia, en nombre de los países africanos, ha destacado que "recupera la confianza en el sistema multilaleral" después del fiasco de Copenhague . Todo el mundo ha felicitado a la presidencia mexicana, que ha servido de puente y, al contrario que Dinamarca el año pasado, ha templado los ánimos y evitado los bloqueos. El trabajo de un año ha roto el bloque bolivariano (Venezuela, Cuba y Ecuador se desmarcaron de Bolivia). El presidente de Ecuador, Rafael Correa, había declarado en Cancún que el texto que se manejaba para frenar la deforestación era "un paso positivo". Los países tropicales esperan recibir una lluvia de dinero (público y privado) si evitan la deforestación.

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UNFCCC Gone Wild: Cancun Edition

2010-12-11T07:41:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, the UNFCCC shut down: Civil society, youth organizations, indigenous peoples, jourmalists

Not only did they pull permitted actions at the last minute this week, they confiscated badges of people expressing their analyses of the Climate Change Negotiations, they confiscated badges of people filming and photographing UN security abuses. Finally, yesterday, they also wrestled down Reuters reporter Jorge Silva and others who were blocking exit from the plenary session.

What are they afraid of?

There can be no real consensus if the world's peoples are shut out of the negotiations, nor if the media are not allowed to operate as is their role, in these arenas.

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Latif Amars, Tanzanian Civil Society on Climate Change

2010-12-11T06:57:00.001-08:00

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Bolivia Decries Adoption of Copenhagen Accord II Without Consensus

2010-12-11T06:50:00.001-08:00

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press release - history will be the judge.pdf (73 KB)

Press Release
Plurinational State of Bolivia

Bolivia Decries Adoption of Copenhagen Accord II Without Consensus

December 11, 2010 (Cancun, Mexico) - The Plurinational State of Bolivia believes that the Cancun text is a hollow and false victory that was imposed without consensus, and its cost will be measured in human lives. History will judge harshly.

There is only one way to measure the success of a climate agreement, and that is based on whether or not it will effectively reduce emissions to prevent runaway climate change. This text clearly fails, as it could allow global temperatures to increase by more than 4 degrees, a level disastrous for humanity. Recent scientific reports show that 300,000 people already die each year from climate change-related disasters. This text threatens to increase the number of deaths annually to one million. This is something we can never accept.

Last year, everyone recognized that Copenhagen was a failure both in process and substance. Yet this year, a deliberate campaign to lower expectations and desperation for any agreement has led to one that in substance is little more than Copenhagen II.

A so-called victory for multilateralism is really a victory for the rich nations who bullied and cajoled other nations into accepting a deal on their terms. The richest nations offered us nothing new in terms of emission reductions or financing, and instead sought at every stage to backtrack on existing commitments, and include every loophole possible to reduce their obligation to act.

While developing nations - those that face the worst consequences of climate change - pleaded for ambition, we were instead offered the “realism” of empty gestures. Proposals by powerful countries like the US were sacrosanct, while ours were disposable. Compromise was always at the expense of the victims, rather than the culprits of climate change. When Bolivia said we did not agree with the text in the final hours of talks, we were overruled. An accord where only the powerful win is not a negotiation, it is an imposition.

Bolivia came to Cancun with concrete proposals that we believed would bring hope for the future. These proposals were agreed by 35,000 people in an historic World People’s Conference Cochabamba in April 2010. They seek just solutions to the climate crisis and address its root causes. In the year since Copenhagen, they were integrated into the negotiating text of the parties, and yet the Cancun text systematically excludes these voices. Bolivia cannot be convinced to abandon its principles or those of the peoples we represent. We will continue to struggle alongside affected communities worldwide until climate justice is achieved.

Bolivia has participated in these negotiations in good faith and the hope that we could achieve an effective climate deal. We were prepared to compromise on many things, except the lives of our people. Sadly, that is what the world’s richest nations expect us to do. Countries may try to isolate us for our position, but we come here in representation of the peoples and social movements who want real and effective action to protect the future of humanity and Mother Earth. We feel their support as our guide. History will be the judge of what has happened in Cancun.

**********

PLURINATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF BOLIVIA IN CANCUN

Megan Morrissey
megan.morrissey@gmail.com
9981080776

Nick Buxton
nicholasbuxton@gmail.com

http://boliviaun.net
http://cmpcc.org
http://twitter.com/boliviaun

**********

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Footage from the inside actions!

2010-12-10T15:18:00.001-08:00

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RELEASE: Indigenous Groups Announce Grave Concern on Possible Cancun Outcome

2010-12-10T12:49:00.001-08:00

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IIPFCC Press Release - 10.12.10 English.pdf (9 KB)

Important updates from inside the UNFCCC negotiations

---------- Forwarded message ----------

The International Indigenous Peoples' Forum on Climate Change will be hosting a press conference at 15:00 (CET) in the Moon Palace, Azteca Building, Luna Room. Webcast available online: http://webcast.cc2010.mx/

- Please note a Spanish press release is forthcoming -

Press Release – For Immediate Release

International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC)

Indigenous Groups Announce Grave Concern on Possible Cancun Outcome

December 10, 2010 (Cancun) – As the 16^th UN Climate Change Conference winds down, Indigenous Peoples in attendance from around the world announced their grave concern with the possible outcomes of the negotiations.

“As Indigenous Peoples, we have been engaging in the climate negotiations for many years to express our great concern over the current and future impacts of changes in the climate on our peoples, our cultures and our rights. We are continuously saddened at the lack of political will and good faith to truly and effectively combat climate change with a legally binding agreement of states, which includes a second commitment-period of the Kyoto Protocol,” stated Joan Carling of the Philippines, on behalf of the IIPFCC.

“As members of the IIPFCC, we’ve come here to offer a number of proposals, but we feel as if we have been ignored. Today, on the International Day of Human Rights, we want to reiterate our determination to ensure protection of our rights, as laid out in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, our right to free, prior, and informed, consent, the recognition and protection of our traditional knowledge, and ensure the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples in all climate change processes. These proposals are not fully incorporated in the text still being negotiated,” remarked Janeth Cuji of Ecuador.

“We take note and acknowledge some of the achievements in terms of including mentions of Indigenous Peoples and our rights as well as human rights in the negotiating text, but it does not yet guarantee that our rights and traditional knowledge are protected. We welcome the support of many states to our proposals and we urge all parties to incorporate them in any outcomes from Cancun and beyond,” asserted Nanta Mpaayei of Kenya.

“We remain concerned that the carbon market, including the Clean Development Mechanism, carbon offsets, and REDD+, represents a threat to Indigenous Peoples of the world and our rights. We reject the carbon market, which proposes to commercialize nature to the detriment of the world’s Indigenous Peoples and biodiversity. We demand a strong system of monitoring and compliance of states on safeguards related to REDD to ensure the protection of our rights,” noted Ben Powless, of Canada.

“We continue to practice and offer our traditional knowledge and innovations as real solutions to climate change. We want to make clear that the protection of Mother Earth is the obligation of all of humanity. For that reason, we are committed to retain our role as stewards of Mother Earth, and all the ecosystems upon which our collective survival depends,” offered Sheena Watt, of Australia.

The IIPFCC is the representative body of Indigenous Peoples participating in the UNFCCC.

To contact: Joan Carling – English: +52-1-998-108-3505

Janeth Cuji – Spanish: +52-1-998-108-7634

Nanta Mpaayei – English: +52-1-998-108-6876

Ben Powless – English/Spanish: +52-1-998-108-0745

Sheena Watt – English: +52-1-998-108-4560

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Wrap-up from 1000 Cancuns

2010-12-10T09:29:00.001-08:00

hey everyone,

here's a link to the wrap-up blog Jen Soriano wrote: 1000 Cancuns: Growing the Roots of Systems Change

it has a slideshow with the photos folks sent me and a few photos from the march in Cancun

please let me know if there are any inaccuracies, and please forward it widely to your networks!

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New York's Cancun

2010-12-09T17:49:00.001-08:00

an update from the compas in the Bronx!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Julien Terrell <jterrell@ympj.org>

Ok So here's my third attempt to send photos. Let me know if you can open them. The photos are of Shanay Sneed, who is in her sophmore year or collage and is coordinating the EJ youth organizing campaign and myself. The second photo is of Mychal Johnson , who some of you may have met in Cochabamba, who spoke about how the Rights of Mother Earth discussion is relevant to folks in NYC's EJ communities.

We had 40 people come out in the cold ( 20 degrees) and participate in the gathering we did in Ralph Bunch Park which is directly across the street from the UN headquarters. Our speakers included Shanay who spoke about the important of involving and creating space for youth to lead in the climate justice movement, Ana Maria Quispe who spoke about the connection between food and climate change and Mychal.

We had videos and pictures that you all have been sending streaming of the wall behind our action as well in Bluestockings bookstore , a leftist book store that we've held a couple climate justice conversations since getting back from Cochabamba. We used some of the chants that GGJ delegation on the caravan sent over a couple days before that really helped. It was pretty cold so the chants were great energizers.

We also did a presentation for a group of 30 faith leaders this morning about the connection between climate justice, faith and the role of youth in addressing the crisis which turned out well.

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Civil Society Denied Entry to COP-16 UN Climate Talks

2010-12-09T12:09:00.001-08:00

GGJ/Y4CJ statements and quotes from 3 banned activists are below and online at http://redroadcancun.com/?p=1577.

Statement By Tom Goldtooth, Leader of the Indigenous Environmental Network Delegation to UNFCCC COP-16 Negotiations
“The Voices of those Who Speak for Mother Earth Must Not Be Silenced”

Dec 9, 2010
Media Contacts: (interviews available in Spanish & English)
IEN media hotline: +52 998 108 0748 Email: ienCop16media@gmail.com

I have come to the UNFCCC COP-16 climate talks in Cancun, Mexico as a member of Grassroots Solutions for Climate Justice -- North America a delegation of Indigenous Peoples and representatives from fossil fuel impacted communities who are on the frontlines of addressing the climate crisis. On Tuesday Dec 7th I spoke at a Vía Campesina press conference of social movement and civil society leaders inside the Moon Palace, hosted by our allies at the Global Justice Ecology Project. Together with my brothers and sisters from Vía Campesina, Friends of the Earth, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance and allies from around the world we expressed our solidarity with the many diverse communities and movements participating in the “Thousand Cancuns Day of Action for Climate Justice”. I also stated my deep concerns that the COP negotiations are failing to address the core issue of reducing emissions and have instead become a trade show for promoting false solutions and generating capital. We were honored to be joined by Pablo Solon, the UN ambassador from Bolivia and together we left the talks to join the thousands of people rallying outside in the streets in a People’s Assembly addressing the real, community led solutions to the climate crisis.
On the Wed December 8th when I returned to the Moon Palace to continue my role in the negotiations I was denied entry, informed that my accreditation had been suspended and then removed from the grounds. I also learned that over a dozen of my brothers and sisters from other accredited civil society organizations were also denied entry. I am please to report that due to the support of both government and civil society allies who advocated on my behalf, that as of this morning, my accreditation has now been re-instated. To everyone who assisted the Indigenous Environmental Network and myself we issue our deepest thanks and gratitude.
However, even though I have been fortunate enough to regain my personal access to the negotiations, the treatment I received is indicative of a larger and disturbing pattern in which the voices of civil society are being silenced within the United Nations process. The UNFCCC has drastically limited the number of civil society representatives allowed inside the talks and increasingly our freedom of speech and right to peaceful protest is being withdrawn. We must stand united against this type of censorship that is designed to silence the massive opposition to the co-optation of the UN process by an unholy alliance of short-term thinking, denial and greed. I have included below a statement from the members of our delegation who were ejected on the 7th of December and continue to be denied access to the talks.
Both inside and outside the UN process the voices of Indigenous peoples, social movements and the communities most directly affected by our fossil fuel dependency must continue to be heard as we reject false solutions like the carbon market mechanisms of REDD. We demand that the Cochabama People’s Agreement be acknowledged as a path forward towards addressing the real solutions to the climate crisis based in traditional Indigenous knowledge, community-based practices, Indigenous and human rights and the rights of Mother Earth.
Tom Goldtooth the Executive Director of Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) a network of Indigenous Peoples empowering Indigenous Nations and communities towards sustainable livelihoods, demanding environmental justice and maintaining the Sacred Fire of our traditions. IEN has brought 17 Indigenous leaders to Cancun as part of the Grassroots Solutions for Climate Justice -- North America Delegation uniting representatives from fossil fuel impacted communities who are on the frontlines of solving the climate crisis. To book interviews or get further background information on North American climate justice organizing contact the IEN Media Hotline: +52 998 108 0748
http://redroadcancun.org http://grassrootsclimatesolutions.org

Statement from members of Global Grassroots Justice Alliance and Youth for Climate Justice Who were expelled from COP-16

Media Contacts: (interviews available in Spanish & English)
Grassroots Global Justice Alliance & Youth 4 Climate Justice +52 998 108 0758
Grassroots Global Justice Alliance & Youth 4 Climate Justice +1 213-618-2851
http://grassrootsclimatesolutions.org <http://grassrootsclimatesolutions.org/>
We are representatives of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance and Youth 4 Climate Justice who
were a part of an organized and peaceful demonstration inside the Moon Palace on Dec. 7, to draw attention to the serious dangers of false solutions such as REDD and the carbon market. In response the UNFCCC, silenced our voices and ejected us from the Convention. All three of us are representatives of communities who are already being disproportionately impacted by climate change and the unjust social and economic conditions that have created this crisis. By penalizing and ejecting us as individuals the UN is also silencing the collective voices of our communities. We stand firmly rooted in our principles to lift the voices of women, young people, and Indigenous peoples throughout the world and to advance the real solutions to cooling the planet found in our grassroots movements. We stand in solidarity with the thousands of people who took action on Dec. 7, as part of the Global Day of Action.
Quotes from the 3 Banned Climate Justice Organizers:

“Our delegation came to the UNFCCC to bring forward our communities' solutions to the climate crisis, to give testimony about the shifts happening to create local, place-based economies and reconnect to our mother earth. What we found were negotiations that excluded our participation so we took action to ensure our voices were heard." -- Joaquin Sanchez Jr. Youth for Climate Justice, Oakland, CA, USA
“How am I supposed to register the concerns of hundreds of Asian families poisoned by the Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, CA when the UN has selectively denied me access to the convention? The UN is systematically silencing the voices of impacted communities. We are experts in our own right, we know these issues all too well. Those who are on the front line of
the problem also need be on the front line of the solutions.” -- Mari Rose Taruc, Asian Pacific Environmental Network and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Richmond, CA USA
“I came to COP16 representing the public health concerns of low-income communities of color living in Los Angeles being impacted by toxic emissions. Throughout the past two weeks I have seen how the UNFCCC meeting has systematically limited and suppressed voices of dissent to programs being promoted through the UN such as REDD which will only increase the poisoning of the communities I represent back home.” -- Sunyoung Yang, Bus
Riders Union and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Los Angeles, CA USA

###

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Toronto: Shut Tar Sands Action

2010-12-08T21:04:00.001-08:00

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Protests Inside and Outside COP-16 Climate Summit Expose the Corrupt COP Process, Uphold Cochabamba People’s Agreement as Path towards Real Solutions

2010-12-07T19:40:00.001-08:00

For more photos and video (coming soon), see: http://pitch.pe/107956

Protests Inside and Outside COP-16 Climate Summit Expose the Corrupt COP Process, Uphold Cochabamba People’s Agreement as Path towards Real Solutions

Indigenous Environmental Network and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance march with thousands in Cancun to Demand Respect for Indigenous Rights and a Rejection of REDD

Cancún, Q. Roo, Mexico, December 7, 2010 – As thousands of people marched today on the COP-16 climate summit to condemn the false solutions and backroom deals being pushed in the negotiations, solidarity actions unfolded in over 100 cities around the world. The march was organized by La Via Campesina, the world's largest federation of peasant and smallholder farmers, and was the anchor action of the 1000 Cancúns Global Day of Action for Climate Justice.

The diverse array of social movement organizations, representing Indigenous peoples, small farmers, youth, communities impacted by the climate change to call for mobilizations and actions worldwide for climate solutions based in traditional Indigenous knowledge, community-based practices, human rights and the rights of nature.

Simultaneously, the press conference hosted by Global Justice Ecology Project and organized by La Via Campesina, Indigenous Environmental Network and Friends of the Earth International turned into a spontaneous action as speakers expressed anger over the direction of the climate talks in Cancún. Following the press conference, activists from Youth 4 Climate Justice and Grassroots Global Justice led the protest out of the climate talks.

Anne Petermann of Global Justice Ecology Project opened the press conference by evoking the name of Lee Kyung Hae, the South Korean farmer and La Via Campesina member who took his life during mobilizations against the World Trade Organization here in 2003 wearing a sign saying “The WTO Kills Farmers.” “Then we were fighting against the World Trade Organization,” Petermann said. “Today we have to fight the World Carbon Trade Organization.”

Tom Goldtooth, the Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network explained why so many people around the world were taking action. “It is clear that the false solutions offered at this COP-16 and previous COPs are being used to create markets and generate capital without regard to the fundamental concern for reducing emissions. The Cochabamba People’s Agreement remains a statement of the people of the world and against the commercialization of our climate, our air, our forests, our water and our very existence as humanity but it has been unilaterally deleted in the current negotiating text. As indigenous peoples, social movements and affected peoples we reject the carbon market mechanisms of REDD.”

Mari Rose Taruc of the Asia Pacific Environmental Network and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance described the situation facing her community of Richmond, California which lives in the shadow of a massive Chevron refinery. “Our communities are already dying from pollution. Unfortunately the UN process is focused on market based mechanisms that will allow companies like Chevron to buy offsets instead of reducing emissions at their source, creating more toxic hot spots in low income communities of color.”

Representatives of ALBA countries, Miguel Lovera, Chief Adviser of Paraguay and Paul Oquin of Nicaragua also expressed their solidarity with the people and condemned the moves of developed countries to avoid their historical responsibility and climate debt.

“We are here as young people from impacted communities to make sure that our voices are heard and respected,” said Kari Fulton, founding member of Youth 4 Climate Justice. Fulton continued, “Whether you live in the forest, whether you live in the hood, you will be impacted by false solutions. And REDD, REDD+, REDD++, is a false solution that will create a market in forests at the expense of human rights and the environment. We are here to say we want you to protect the Rights of Mother Earth and the voices of the people.”

Solon stated, “What is most important is the struggle of the people and their demands for real solutions to climate change… Every year, 300,000 people die because of natural disasters caused by climate change. This will grow to millions if we do not have, here, a real agreement, instead of a Cancun-hagen”.

The youth activists went on to loudly denounce the inaccessibility and unjust nature of the talks and express outrage over having been repeatedly denied permission to hold a youth delegation protest on the UN grounds. As the youth marched away, they were accosted by UN security, stripped of their badges, put onto buses and evicted from the climate conference.

Tom Goldtooth, Pablo Solon and other delegates were later able to make their way to join the thousands-strong People’s Assembly for Environmental and Climate Justice, held in the street less than two miles from the official climate conference.

# # #

Photos available at http://pitch.pe/107956

by Orin Langelle, Global Justice Ecology Project, and the Indigenous Environmental Network Media Team.

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Photo Essay: Action! Protest Erupts In Halls of UN Climate Negotiations: Youth Delegates Ejected

2010-12-07T15:01:00.001-08:00

December 7, 2010 · 5:23 pm

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Photo Essay: Action! Protest Erupts In Halls of UN Climate Negotiations: Youth Delegates Ejected

“Thousand Cancúns” action comes to the UN Climate Conference

All Photos by Orin Langelle/ Global Justice Ecology Project – Global Forest Coalition

Cancún, Mexico, December 7, 2010—the “Day of 1,000 Cancuns” actions. A press conference hosted by Global Justice Ecology Project and organized by La Via Campesina, Indigenous Environmental Network and Friends of the Earth turned into a spontaneous action as speakers expressed anger over the direction of the climate talks in Cancún. Following the press conference, activists from Youth 4 Climate Justice led the protest out of the climate talks.

(protest description continued below photos)

: Outrage

Youth Activists Lead Protest Out of Press Conference

Bolivian Ambassador Pablo Salon Speaks at the Protest

Three Youth Activists are Evicted from the UN Conference

10 Million Hectares of Jatropha Fed the Biodiesel Buses In Which the Youth Activists Were Evicted

Continued from Above:

The press conference began with Moderator Anne Petermann, of Global Justice Ecology Project evoking the name of Lee Kyung Hae, the South Korean farmer who committed suicide atop the barricades during protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Cancún in 2003. She pointed out that it is now climate change that is killing farmers and other marginalized peoples, and that the UN Climate Conference has degenerated into the World Carbon Trade Organization.

Speakers at the press conference included Delegates from the Paraguayan and Nicaraguan delegations, as well as Tom Goldtooth, of Indigenous Environmental Network, Mary Rose Taruc of the the Asian Pacific Environmental Network and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Kari Fulton of Youth 4 Climate Justice, Josie Riffaud of La Via Campesina, Luis Enrique of the MST of Brazil, and Ricardo Navarro of Friends of the Earth International.

Following the press conference, activists from Youth for Climate Justice and the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance led a protest out of the press conference and onto the front stairs, where Bolivian Ambassador Pablo Salon spoke to the crowd and the media frenzy. The youth activists went on to loudly denounce the inaccessibility and unjust nature of the talks and express outrage over having been repeatedly denied permission to hold a youth delegation protest on the UN grounds. As the youth marched away, they were accosted by UN security, stripped of their badges, put onto buses and evicted from the climate conference.

Simultaneous to this action, La Via Campesina was holding a mass march on the highway leading to the Moon Palace–where the climate conference is taking place.

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press conferences of interest: roundup

2010-12-07T07:34:00.001-08:00

http://webcast.cc2010.mx/webmedia_en.html?id=43

http://webcast.cc2010.mx/webmedia_en.html?id=88

http://webcast.cc2010.mx/webmedia_en.html?id=97

http://webcast.cc2010.mx/webmedia_en.html?id=121

http://webcast.cc2010.mx/webmedia_en.html?id=155

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Press Conferece: Kandi Mossett, IEN

2010-12-07T07:23:00.001-08:00

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Advisory: Tribal Leaders and Indigenous Environmental Network to meet with US State Department to discuss alarm over proposed Keystone XL Pipeline

2010-12-07T07:02:00.001-08:00

Media Advisory: Tribal Leaders and Indigenous Environmental Network to meet with US State Department to discuss alarm over proposed Keystone XL Pipeline

Washington DC, Tuesday, December 7^th, 2010, On the day of global action in solidarity with the protests at the UN climate talks in Cancun, Tribal leaders have joined in opposition to Transcanada Pipeline Corporation over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. If built, the pipeline will carry dirty tar sands crude oil across US states, beginning at the Canadian border and extending to the gulf coast. Tribal leaders have expressed serious concerns about the environmental, human health and economic impacts of the proposed pipeline to the Ogallala Aquifer and tribal territories.

“I feel that the timing of this meeting between US State Department and US Tribes including the Oklahoma Sac and Fox Nation and Montana’s Fort Peck Assinaboine Dakota Nation, is a slap in the face, violating consultation policies with Tribal governments” say’s Marty Cobenais, pipeline campaigner with the Indigenous Environmental Network. “Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has already stated last month that she is inclined to approve the presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. The Tribes we work with feel this is another example of the US government trying to fast track pipeline developments without thorough consultation, oversight and input from Tribes and stake holders.”

The meeting in Washington DC is set to take place while thousands of communities, farmers, Natives and youth participate in a global action for climate justice targeting the United Nations Climate negotiations taking place in Cancun, Mexico. The Indigenous Environmental Network is pressuring the US State Department to issue a supplemental environmental impact assessment (EIS) for the dozens of communities and Tribes along the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline route. This is a necessary step for affected communities to become informed on the accumulative impacts of this mega project.

For interviews:

In Washington DC:

Marty Cobenais – Indigenous Environmental Network – Pipeline Campaigner – cell 218 760 0284

In Cancun, Mexico – UNFCCC – COP 16:

Clayton Thomas-Muller – IEN Tar Sands Campaigner +52 998 108 0748

Melina Laboucan-Massimo – IEN Media team +52 998 108 0748

Follow IEN in Cancun: http://redroadcancun.com/

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Gender and REDD

2010-12-06T14:38:00.001-08:00

Today we had a meeting with the Women's Caucus on Gender and REDD. WEDO has taken a pro-REDD stance, although they say they are anti market mechanisms. They want to meet again Wednesday.

Also it was apparently the first time the Women's Caucus was held bilingually. It continues to surprise me how surprised people are for the ease with which we can have bilingual meetings. But it was fun.

Then there was a high level women's ministers meeting - Figueres, espinosa, hedegaard, someone else from danish and the Mister of Culture / paatrimony from Ecuador. Uploading video now. Mari Rose and Michele Roberts said something about the release of the No REDDs reader and gave a copy to Mary RObinson and I got it on tape - but basically the "most powerful feminist in the world" turned her back on women of color from frontline and impacted communities. She was much more interested in meeting with other European women after the panel than either Mari Rose or Michele. I have the whole panel on video. And that pretty much sums up my experience with white women here, although there are great allies including Ana Filippini and it was clarified that the GenderCC constituency group has a strong position against market mechanisms.

Very interesting.

Download now or preview on posterous

Gender and REDD-for Womens Caucus & GenderCC.doc (300 KB)

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Photos from COP16 - KlimaForum

2010-12-06T14:00:00.001-08:00

Pictures from COP16, KlimaForum (last week) and the High Level Women Leaders Side Event in Cancunmesse Hall D today (December 6, 2010).

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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RELEASE: Canadian Youth at UN Climate Talks Call to End Offshore Drilling and Tanker Expansion

2010-12-06T13:26:00.001-08:00

Canadian Youth Delegation

For Immediate Release - December 6, 2010

Canadian Youth at UN Climate Talks Call to End Offshore Drilling and Tanker Expansion

Cancun, Mexico – The Canadian Youth Delegation (CYD) to the UN climate talks in Cancun are calling for an end to offshore drilling and oil tanker traffic. Outside of the main plenary today the group carried a banner saying, “Oil and Water Don’t Mix,” while delivering messages of impacted communities.

Offshore drilling and tanker transport are damaging to marine life and coastal communities. With peak oil behind us - non-conventional sources of fossil fuels such as offshore and arctic drilling are becoming increasingly exploited. This dangerous trend cannot continue. Local community opposition to offshore drilling and new tanker routes must be respected to mitigate the effects of climate change and coastal destruction.

“Offshore drilling and the use of oil tankers guarantees disaster,” says CYD member Robin Tress. “The question is not if there will be a spill, but when. Government and industry need to leave oil and gas in the ground.”

Spills cannot be cleaned up, and affected ecosystems cannot be restored to their natural state. The negative ecological impacts of the Exxon Valdez spill in the arctic are still suffered twenty years later and continue to show signs of contamination in local wildlife.

Adam Thomas, of the Carrier Nation of Northern British Columbia and a member of the CYD says, “Canada needs to ban tankers on the Pacific North Coast. It is the only way to protect the jobs, the environment, and above all the communities of this unique place; the last coastal temperate rainforest in the world.”

A motion in the house to be voted on tomorrow would call for an end to tanker traffic off of the BC Coast. This would be a good step in the right direction towards putting in place a legislative ban. Offshore drilling and oil tanker traffic promote the expansion of a fossil fuel economy, which is one of the root causes of climate change. As an international community we must oppose the continuation of such projects and promote community-based alternatives to fossil fuels.

-30-

For additional information, please contact:

Emilie Novaczek – (+52) 998 141 5815

Media.cyd@gmail.com

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism

Climate Activists Find Canada’s Climate Policy on Ebay - For Immediate Release

2010-12-06T13:25:00.003-08:00

On Ebay: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300501637013
Media Co-op: http://www.mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/5367

December 6, 2010

Climate Activists Find Canada’s Climate Policy on Ebay
Canadian government selling international and domestic climate policy on popular online shopping tool

Ottawa/Cancun – Climate activists in Canada, as well as those in Cancun, Mexico, were floored today to come across Canada’s Climate Policy listed for sale on Ebay Canada.

“It’s not surprising to see that they are selling our countries climate policy to the fossil fuel industry, but its definitely a shock to know they are using Ebay!” Natasha Peters, an activist from Climate Justice Ottawa currently in Cancun.

The add appears to be posted by Stephen Harper, and is selling the virtues of owning Canada’s Climate Policy to oil and gas companies.

“I knew these deals were happening, but I always thought they went down behind closed doors,” Cameron Gray, an organizer from Victoria, BC explained. “At least selling it on Ebay uses up less emissions that corporate conferences and flights to and from Ottawa.”

The add points to the Climate Prosperity initiative as evidence of its commitment to represent industry interest in climate policy. The initiative was launched this fall by Canada’s National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, and lists major tar sands developer Suncor as one of the main funders.

“Maybe we can all pool our savings and take a crack at buying this,” Daniel T’selie an organizer from Fort Good Hope, NWT stated. “Writing letters and lobbying clearly aren’t working, maybe buying the government will? It certainly has for polluters.”

30 -

Media Contacts: email for interviews
climateactionmtl@gmail.com
cjcottawa@gmail.com

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism

December 7 Day of Action: Social Movements Bring Hope as COP-16 Falters

2010-12-06T13:25:00.001-08:00

From Grassroots Global Justice Alliance

MEDIA ADVISORY

December 6, 2010

December 7 Day of Action:

Social Movements Bring Hope as COP-16 Falters

30 Events Across the U.S. and Canada to

Build Alternative Solutions to the Climate Crisis, part of the 1000 Cancuns

Global Day of Action for Climate Justice

Contact: Jen Soriano, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, 415-572-7154,

jen@ggjalliance.org
WHAT: On December 7, with the UN Climate Change Negotiations in Cancun faltering, grassroots organizations across the world will be taking the future of the planet into their own hands. 30 coordinated events will take place in the U.S. and Canada as part of La Vía Campesina’s call for 1000 Cancuns for climate justice worldwide, and as part of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance’s national call to action in the U.S. All of the actions will have one common goal: to oppose carbon market schemes that prolong our addiction to fossil fuels, and to lift up local solutions that are already reducing greenhouse gas emissions and cooling our planet.

“Communities at the frontlines of the crisis are showing the world the frontlines of solutions,” says Jill Johnston of the Southwest Workers Union in San Antonio, TX. “We are creating communities of resilience committed to climate justice, opposed to REDDs and other false carbon market solutions, and in favor of the principles of the Cochabamba people's agreement instead of the ineffective and ultimately dangerous Copenhagen Accord. Based on this, we see the climate talks are already off track. By fast-tracking REDDs and removing the Cochabamba people's agreement from negotiations, it's clear the US and its few allies are more concerned about political power plays and corporate greed than the environment and human need.”

Actions include a mass action to protest the 710 highway expansion in Los Angeles and to advance a local campaign for expanded natural gas bus service; an action at City Hall in San Antonio to pressure city council to turn their Mission Verde resolution into a binding law for green jobs creation and clean energy transition; and an action in San Francisco to turn a publicly-owned parking lot into a community garden to showcase the Bay Area’s local agriculture solutions in contrast to harmful industrial agriculture - the source of approximately 1/3 of total greenhouse gas emissions. Events include people’s assemblies in Canada and educational events on climate justice at universities and community organizations across the U.S.

WHEN: December 7, 2010

WHERE: 14 cities in the U.S and 16 regions across Canada - click here for the complete list

Regions include: Albuquerque, the Bay Area, Chicago, the Gulf Coast, Los Angeles, Madison, New York, Olympia, Providence, San Antonio, Burlington, Washington DC, Calgary, Charlottetown, Brockville, Edmonton, Halifax, London, Peterborough, Regina, Saint John, Saskatoon, and Toronto.

WHY: “The climate policies being proposed by the U.S. government are an international version of the same devastating environmental racism that has plagued our communities for years where poor people of color bear the brunt of pollution, risk and displacement,” says Michelle Mascarenhas-Swan of Movement Generation in Oakland, CA. “More of the same failed approaches will only make climate change worse. And as WikiLeaks documents have shown, the U.S. is resorting to underhanded bullying tactics to ram through a version of the undemocratic and ineffective Copenhagen Accord while completely ignoring essential provisions of the Kyoto Protocol that must be renewed. We are joining with the world to say no more!”

“Week one of the UN climate talks belonged to the old and new Goliaths of the global economy.,” adds Michael Leon Guerrero, National Coordinator of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance. “Despite pressure from indigenous people and other impacted communities, these Goliaths stubbornly blocked any progress toward a democratic agreement on climate change. Week two and beyond will belong to civil society and the social movements of the world. As our so-called representatives pull power plays to preserve an extractive economy that is destroying our planet, the communities at the frontlines of climate change will be lifting up the solutions we have created by necessity – solutions that are already improving our local environments and cooling the planet.”

La Via Campesina International has called for an international day of action against false carbon market policies and for real sustainable solutions. As an organization of 300 million small farmers from around the world, La Via Campesina’s membership is already cooling the planet through sustainable agriculture (industrial agriculture is responsible for approximately 1/3 of all greenhouse gas emissions). The Grassroots Global Justice Alliance is coordinating the US actions in partnership with La Via Campesina and with community organizations from LA to San Antonio to the Gulf Coast. There will be more than 100 actions around the world, throughout Latin America, Asia, and Europe as well as in the United States and Canada. International actions include people's assemblies and forums in Korea, Uruguay, Brazil, Nepal, Turkey, and mass actions in India, Argentina, Indonesia, El Salvador, the Philippines, and Mexico. All together these actions and events will bring together an estimated 1 million people.

For more information:

http://www.grassrootsclimatesolutions.net

La Via Campesina International Peasant Movement: 1000 Cancuns Worldwide

1000 Cancuns List of North American Actions and Resources about 1000 Cancuns

Canada – Week of People's Assemblies

Indigenous Environmental Network Red Road to Cancun

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Press Release: We Fail to Respect Nature’s Rights at Our Own Peril, New Report Warns

2010-12-06T13:18:00.001-08:00

From Global Exchange

For Immediate Release

Contact: Jeff Conant, +52 998 165 7349 (Cancun, Mexico mobile)

We Fail to Respect Nature’s Rights at Our Own Peril, New Report Warns

Report released at COP 16 offers paradigm shifting climate solutions

December 6, 2010, Cancun, Mexico – As the COP16 climate talks entered their second week, three civil society groups released a report entitled, “Does Nature Have Rights: Transforming Grassroots Organizing to Protect the People and the Planet.” The report, compiled by Global Exchange, the Council of Canadians and Fundacion Pachamama, sheds light on “the Rights of Nature,” a paradigm-shifting approach to legislating resource use. Illuminating essays by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano, social and environmental activists Maude Barlow, Shannon Biggs, and others demonstrate the need to broaden legal frameworks to recognize ecological limits, natural laws, and the interdependency of all life.

Out of a landmark gathering of social movements in Bolivia last April emerged the Cochabamba People’s Agreement, honoring the Rights of Nature -- this agreement was merged into the UNFCCC negotiating text. However, when the text was released to delegates at COP 16, all references to the Cochabamba agreement had been removed. Shannon Biggs, Community Rights Director with Global Exchange, states, “The Rights of Nature offers a platform for action to challenge the market-based approach that dominates the UN COP process.”

As the report outlines, “Entire human societies, our global economic system, and indeed our structures of law place humans not just apart from, but actually above nature. For what is climate change but Nature telling us we have lived beyond the limits of nature’s law?” This report calls for action from the community-level to the U.N., and offers case studies of legal changes already underway in favor of the Rights of Nature. Last month, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania became the first major U.S. city to ban natural gas drilling, and to elevate community decision-making and the rights of nature over corporate ‘rights.’” While the number of communities taking this approach to ecosystem protection is growing, it is also being actively pursued at the national level. In 2008, Ecuador became the first nation to include the Rights of Nature in its Constitution.

“As a country devastated by oil exploitation, industrial agriculture and international debt, Ecuador needs a bulwark against the corporate plunder of our natural riches. Recognizing the Rights of Nature in our national laws begins to provide that protection,” said Belen Paez of Fundacion Pachamama.

“In order to survive, we need a change in the human relationship with the natural world from one of exploitation to one of democracy with other beings,” says Maude Barlow, national chairperson with the Council of Canadians, “If we are members of the earth’s community, then our rights must be balanced against those of plants, animals, rivers and ecosystems.”

Copies of the report in English, “Does Nature Have Rights: Transforming Grassroots Organizing to Protect the People and the Planet” and a summarized version in Spanish, can be downloaded at: www.globalexchange.org/doesnaturehaverights <http://www.globalexchange.org/doesnaturehaverights>

###

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New Report Exposes UN REDD Program as Fundamentally Flawed #cop16 #cancun #climate http://bit.ly/hmNq0p

2010-12-06T13:13:00.001-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 6, 2010

New Report Exposes UN REDD Program as Fundamentally Flawed
Indigenous and NGO Groups Warn that REDD and other carbon market mechanisms will exacerbate the climate crisis.
*** Download report: http://bit.ly/hmNq0p - Available both in English and Spanish
New publication exposes links between REDD and carbon trading, International Financial Institutions, extractive industries, GMO trees and biotech.
Cancún, Mexico, December 6 2010 - Indigenous Peoples, grassroots groups and environmental organizations warn that the UN forest protection scheme being negotiated in Cancún amid the UN 16th Conference of the Parties may severely undermine climate mitigation policies and exacerbate environmental and social problems. No REDD, a Reader, includes groundbreaking research exposing links between REDD and carbon trading, International Financial Institutions, extractive industries, GMO trees and biotech. Moreover, original case study research explores problems with the Socio Bosque Programme in Ecuador, the threat to Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation in Perú, corruption and coercion in the REDD scheme in Papua New Guinea and the real face of "community participation" in Indonesia, among others. The publication highlights how REDD is being pushed by powerful interests to allow continued pollution and increase profits to a series of industries while damaging the rights of Indigenous Peoples and forest-dependant communities and thus, the forests and ecosystems themselves.
"No REDD - A Reader is a must read for all who seek to know the truth about this mercantilist tool. It is also highly recommended for those who believe that policies to fight the current climate chaos must see the people and Mother Earth and not merely see trees as commodities for cash and carbon speculation," Nnimmo Bassey, Chair of Friends of the Earth International and Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria.
"We already know that offset schemes like REDD won't protect forests or the rights of Indigenous peoples. If we are going to save the climate, we need to focus on real solutions that assure that forests will be left standing and people's rights are respected," stated Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network.
No REDD, a Reader exposes the question as how Indigenous and forest-dependent Peoples are being cheated in the name of conservation and development. Looking from the vantage point of communities living where REDD projects are taking place, the articles dive into the layers of contradictions inherent in REDD and its power-base.
Joanna Cabello from Carbon Trade Watch states, "The Ministry of Environment in Peru plans to implement REDD+ on 54 million hectares of the Peruvian Amazon, which would open the doors of more than half of forested territory to the carbon markets." Chris Lang from REDD Monitor affirmed, "What we do know is that carbon trading in PNG [Papua New Guinea] is a mess. It's doing nothing to stop the logging of PNG's forests. And local people are at the back of a very long queue when it comes to benefiting from REDD."
The groundbreaking new publication, No REDD, A Reader depicts why REDD is flawed, bankrolled by big polluters, intrinsically linked to the carbon market and may result in the largest land grab of all time. This publication is being launched at the Cancún climate summit where a package of market-based forest protections measures called "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation" (REDD) is being pushed as a key outcome, highlighting critical perspectives that are frequently silenced within debates.
Please contact for interviews:
Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network: +52.998.108.0751
Anne Petermann, Global Justice Ecology Project: +52.998.167.8131
Ana Filippini, World Rainforest Movement: +59.898.407.572
Silvia Ribera, ETC Group: +52.552.653.3330
Tamra Gilbertson, Carbon Trade Watch: +34 625 498 083
Joanna Cabello, Carbon Trade Watch: +31681289805

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Bolivia: New Text by LCA Chair is Imbalanced / Bolivia: Nuevo Texto de Cooperación a Largo Plazo Desequilibrado

2010-12-06T13:11:00.001-08:00

Download now or preview on posterous
press release 12-6 Bolivia_ LCA chair text imbalanced-2.pdf (85 KB)

(Español abajo)
PRESS RELEASE
December 6, 2010
Plurinational State of Bolivia

Bolivia: New Text by LCA Chair is Imbalanced, All Voices Must Be Heard
In a press conference this morning at the COP16 climate negotiations in Cancun, Ambassador Pablo Solon of the Plurinational State of Bolivia said that a new text released yesterday by the Chair of the working group on Long-Term Cooperative Action is imbalanced, and excludes the proposals of Bolivia and many other developing nations. The main differences, Solon indicated, must be ironed out in negotiations among countries rather than unilaterally decided by a Chair.
“Debates should continue on the negotiating text that includes the proposals of all parties,” Solon said.
Ambassador Solon enumerated some of the proposals by Bolivia that have been left out: a consideration of the impact of war on greenhouse gas emissions, respect for human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples in climate policy, the creation of a declaration on the rights of Mother Earth, a definition of forests that does not include plantations, rejection of new market mechanisms that treat nature as merchandise, and the creation of a climate justice tribunal.
Solon did note that one essential proposal by his delegation remains: a 50% reduction of domestic emissions by developed countries by 2017. He pointed out that this position is very much in line with that of most developing nations in the G77 and China, where the minimum demand is for a 40% reduction.
In response to accusations that Bolivia is blocking progress in Cancun, Solon said that his proposals are motivated simply by the desire to prevent the kind of disastrous rise in global temperatures that would condemn humanity to death.
“We have come to seek an accord for humanity and nature in its totality… The most current research indicates that 300,000 people die each year due to natural disasters. You’re playing with human lives,” Solon said.
Solon indicated that the recent revelation on Wikileaks that countries were pressured by the US government to associate themselves with the Copenhagen Accord was no surprise to the Bolivian delegates. Along with Ecuador, Bolivia had $3 million dollars of climate finanace withdrawn by the US in April 2010 as a result of refusing to sign the Copenhagen Accord.
“It confirms what we’ve been saying all along… That is not a climate negotiation, it’s an imposition. We will not be bought,” Solon said.
The Bolivian negotiator also indicated his intention to remain at the table during the entire course of the talks this week.
“We will never close ourselves off from any kind of negotiation among parties,” said Solon.
***
COMUNICADO DE PRENSA
06 de diciembre 2010
Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia
Bolivia: Nuevo Texto de Cooperación a Largo Plazo Desequilibrado, Todas las Voces Deben Ser Escuchadas
En una conferencia de prensa esta mañana en las negociaciones climáticas COP16 en Cancún, el Embajador del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia Pablo Solón, dijo que el nuevo texto dado a conocer ayer por la Presidente del Grupo de Trabajo sobre Cooperación a Largo Plazo (LCA por sus siglas en inglés) es desequilibrado, y excluye las propuestas de Bolivia y muchas otras naciones en desarrollo. Habrá que corregir las principales diferencias en las negociaciones entre los países en vez de ser decididas unilateralmente por un Presidente, indicó Solón.
"Los debates deben continuar sobre el texto de negociación que incluye las propuestas de todas las partes", dijo Solón.
El Embajador Solón enumeró algunas de las propuestas de Bolivia que han sido ignoradas: un examen del impacto de la guerra sobre las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero, el respeto a los derechos humanos y los derechos de los pueblos indígenas en la política climática, la creación de una declaración sobre los derechos de los Madre Tierra, una definición de bosques que no incluya las plantaciones, el rechazo de nuevos mecanismos de mercado que traten a la naturaleza como mercancía, y la creación de un tribunal de justicia climática.
Solón resaltó que una propuesta fundamental de su delegación permanece: la reducción de forma doméstica del 50% de las emisiones de los países desarrollados hasta el año 2017. Señaló que esta posición está muy de acuerdo con la postura de la mayoría de los países en desarrollo miembros del G77 y China, donde la demanda mínima es de una reducción del 40%.
En respuesta a las acusaciones de que Bolivia está bloqueando el progreso en Cancún, Solón dijo que sus propuestas están motivadas simplemente por el deseo de evitar el tipo de aumento desastroso de la temperatura global que condenaría a la humanidad a la muerte.
"Hemos venido a buscar un acuerdo para la humanidad y la naturaleza en su totalidad ... Las investigaciones más reciente indican que 300.000 personas mueren cada año debido a los desastres naturales. Están jugando con vidas humanas", dijo Solón.
Solón indicó que la reciente revelación en Wikileaks sobre países que fueron presionados por el gobierno de EE.UU. para asociarse con el Acuerdo de Copenhague no fue sorpresa alguna para los delegados bolivianos. Junto con Ecuador, a Bolivia le fueron retirados 3 millones de dólares de financiamiento climático por los EE.UU. en abril de 2010 como resultado de su negativa a firmar el Acuerdo de Copenhague.
"Esto confirma lo que siempre hemos dicho... Eso no es una negociación climática, es una imposición. A nosotros no nos pueden comprar", dijo Solón.
El negociador boliviano también indicó su intención de permanecer en la mesa de negociación durante todo el curso de las conversaciones de esta semana.
"Nunca se nos cerraremos a ningún tipo de negociación entre las partes", dijo Solón.

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UPDATE: REPORTE NEGOCIACIONES COP16 / 4 DICIEMBRE / HORA 7:20 PM

2010-12-04T17:24:00.001-08:00

COMO VAN LAS NEGOCIACIONES?

4.12.2010, Al afirmar que México como anfitrión de la Conferencia Mundial Sobre Cambio Climático que se celebra en Cancún no cuenta con ningún documento negociado "en lo oscuro", el titular de Semarnat, Rafael Elvira Quesada, hizo un llamado a la comunidad internacional reunida aquí a manejarse "con toda la claridad y transparencia", a no agotar esfuerzos en aquellos temas controversiales y "a no desfallecer". http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/728035.html

4.12.2010, La XVI Conferencia de las Partes de la ONU sobre Cambio Climático (COP16) alcanzó hoy su ecuador con interés de la mayoría de los países por lograr un "paquete equilibrado" de decisiones finales, pese a que ello signifique aún cosas muy diferentes. http://www.google.com/hostednews/epa/article/ALeqM5hffbeRW5KjzR09VNaYmThfefFVNA?docId=1419936

4.12.2010, El ministro mexicano de Medio Ambiente, Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada, afirmó hoy que la Conferencia de la ONU sobre Cambio Climático (COP 16) que se celebra en Cancún (México) está lista para tomar sus primeros acuerdos. http://www.google.com/hostednews/epa/article/ALeqM5j_AYlSMVzo4dFxw73EsNzMF3Ys3w?docId=1419974

4.12.2010, Los ministros del Medio Ambiente de todo el mundo están viajando a Cancún este fin de semana para asistir a los últimos días de la conferencia anual sobre el clima, que dura dos semanas, con la esperanza de insuflar nueva vida a las lentas negociaciones entre miembros de las Naciones Unidas que buscan hallar métodos para detener el cambio climático.http://noticias.terra.com.pe/calentamiento-global/negociaciones-sobre-cambio-climatico-buscan-nuevo-nivel,e4da4ae5102bc210VgnVCM10000098f154d0RCRD.html

4.12.2010, El presidente de Bolivia, Evo Morales, reiteró hoy su preocupación por las resoluciones que puedan salir de la XVI Conferencia sobre Cambio Climático (COP16) que se está celebrando en Cancún (México) y alertó de las potencias mundiales que quieren "llevar al tacho" (basurero) el protocolo de Kioto.http://www.google.com/hostednews/epa/article/ALeqM5g6JeNT6h_eg0a2tTlpusz7liWPZQ?docId=1419898

4.12.2010, China considera "crucial" que la conferencia sobre el clima de Cancún se comprometa a prolongar el Protocolo de Kioto, objeto de discordia entre países ricos y pobres que amenaza con hacer fracasar la negociación, afirmó el sábado el jefe de la delegación china. http://news.google.com.mx/news/story?cf=all&ned=es&cf=all&ncl=d3xrjuklUUFAlJMdTQWjXP3rAq8xM

4.12.2010, Delegados de países de la denominada Alternativa Bolivariana de las Américas (ALBA) denunciaron un intento de un “puñado” de naciones de “imponer un acuerdo alterno al Protocolo de Kioto, en el seno de la Cumbre del Clima, que sesiona en Cancún, sur de México http://www4.elcomercio.com/2010-12-04/Noticias/Sociedad/Noticia-Principal/ALBA-cumbre.aspx

4.12.2010, Representantes de grupos sociales mundiales protestaron el viernes en Cancún, Quintana Roo, para rechazar la participación del Banco Mundial (BM) dentro de las negociaciones respecto al Cambio Climático http://www.diariocolatino.com/es/20101204/portada/87115/

4.12.2010, La vicepresidenta del Banco de Inversión Europeo (EIB), la española Magdalena Álvarez, firmó ayer con el Ministerio de Finanzas chino un préstamo de 500 millones de euros con el fin de financiar proyectos de lucha de reducción del cambio climático. El acuerdo, que por parte china fue rubricado por el viceministro de Finanzas Li Yong, servirá «para financiar proyectos que ayuden al desarrollo de energías renovables, el ahorro de energía, y proyectos de mitigación y utilización de tecnologías para ayudar a la reducción de las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero», destacó la ex ministra de Fomento. http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/sociedad/2010/12/04/0003_8889813.htm

4.12.2010, Las críticas del presidente brasileño Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a la negociación sobre el clima que tiene lugar en la ciudad mexicana de Cancún son "lamentables" e "irresponsables", denunció el sábado un parlamentario de México que participa en la conferencia http://noticias.terra.com.pe/calentamiento-global/clima-criticas-de-lula-son-lamentables-afirma-legislador-mexicano,540c2ea6872bc210VgnVCM10000098f154d0RCRD.html

4.12.2010, El presidente de México, Felipe Calderón, alertó este sábado que el calentamiento global "se está cobrando una factura muy amplia" en el mundo y exhortó a Estados Unidos y a los países emisores de gases con efecto invernadero a adoptar medidas inmediatas.http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h_96V6GuUXHb6u80MJkw1mbVeY6Q?docId=CNG.652fd5ad5ecc8328a0e5ff81a0bbd15e.461

4.12.2010, Mexico trabaja para incluir el tema de la agricultura en las negociaciones de la COP16, sobre todo en los acuerdos sobre mitigacion y adaptacion, indico el subsecretario de Desarrollo Rural de la Sagarpa, Ignacio Rivera http://sdpnoticias.com/sdp/contenido/2010/12/04/4/1172466

OTROS TEMAS:

4.12.2010, La XVI Conferencia de las Partes de la ONU sobre Cambio Climático (COP16) preacordó hoy fortalecer la educación y formación en cambio climático y exhortó al Fondo para el Medio Ambiente Mundial (GEF, por su sigla en inglés) a que destine recursos para este fin.http://www.adn.es/internacional/20101204/NWS-1076-COP16-fortalecer-preacuerda-climatico-educacion.html
4.12.2010, Jefes de Estado y de Gobierno asistentes a la XX Cumbre Iberoamericana rubricaron hoy aquí el compromiso de definir acciones en el marco de las reuniones sobre cambio climático que tienen lugar en Cancún, México.http://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=244081&Itemid=1

4.12.2010, Hacia el año 2030, el cambio climático provocará indirectamente cerca de un millón de muertes anuales y el equivalente a 157.000 millones de dólares actuales en daños, afirma un estudio presentado al margen de la conferencia sobre el clima de Cancún (México).http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hkmuRF7R41ift98pGZkzaa5ljrSw?docId=CNG.652fd5ad5ecc8328a0e5ff81a0bbd15e.1c1

4.12.2010, Una treintena de activistas han participado hoy, junto a la estatua de Colón de la capital catalana, en un "flashmob" -grupo de personas convocadas a través de Internet que baila durante unos instantes la misma coreografía en un lugar público- para protestar por el cambio climático. http://www.abc.es/agencias/noticia.asp?noticia=615015

4.12.2010, El Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (Cemda) pidió que durante las negociaciones de la COP16, se acuerde la formación de un Fondo Global de Cambio Climático, como instrumento fundamental para combatir al fenómeno. http://eleconomista.com.mx/internacional/2010/12/04/proponen-crear-instrumento-financiero-contra-cambio-climatico

4.12.2010, Unas 1.200 personas movilizadas por la organización internacional Vía Campesina, que defiende a pequeños productores rurales, llegaron a Cancún (México) para hacer oír su voz en la negociación internacional sobre cambio climático, informó su portavoz el sábado. http://noticias.terra.com.pe/calentamiento-global/clima-cientos-de-campesinos-convergen-en-cancun-para-hacer-oir-su-voz,1cf88f72b73bc210VgnVCM10000098f154d0RCRD.html

4.12.2010, Los cables estadounidenses filtrados por WikiLeaks y publicados por el diario El País revelan una charla entre el representante de la Casa Blanca, Michael Froman, y la comisaria de Cambio Climático de la Unión Europea, Connie Hedegaard, en la que se califica a Bolivia como un “país poco constructivo” en la lucha contra el calentamiento global. http://www.laprensa.com.bo/noticias/4-12-2010/noticias/04-12-2010_8007.php

4.12.2010, Para los participantes de la convención de la COP16 la interrogante es qué tanto podrá avanzarse en la lucha por el planeta, pero para los residentes de este principal balneario mexicano la pregunta es otra. http://www2.esmas.com/noticierostelevisa/mexico/estados/234650/cancunenses-perciben-poca-derrama-economica-cop16

ANALISIS:

4.12.2010, EE UU manipuló la cumbre del clima de Copenhague para forjar ‘su acuerdo’

http://www.xornal.com/artigo/2010/12/05/mundo/ee-uu-manipulo-cumbre-clima-copenhague-forjar-acuerdo/2010120500330302606.html

4.12.2010, El clima se destruye, y los líderes pierden el tiempo

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/clima/destruye/lideres/pierden/tiempo/elpepuint/20101204elpepuint_6/Tes

4.12.2010, Van Rompuy: "Copenhague fue un desastre. Las cumbres del clima no funcionarán"

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Van/Rompuy/Copenhague/fue/desastre/cumbres/clima/funcionaran/elpepuint/20101203elpepuint_22/Tes

VIDEOS:

4.12.2010, El BIE presta 500 millones de euros a China para la lucha contra el cambio climático

4.12.2010, Evo Morales: "Abandonar el Protocolo de Kyoto sería aplicar un genocidio"

4.12.2010, Felipe Calderón participa en Cumbre Climática de Cancún

DOCUMENTO:

4.12.2010, Carta abierta al gobierno mexicano: la Sociedad Civil exige un Proceso Transparente y Democrático

http://www.ecoticias.com/co2/38308/noticias-medio-ambiente-medioambiente-medioambiental-ambiental-definicion-contaminacion-cambio-climatico-calentamiento-global-ecologia-ecosistema-impacto-politica-gestion-legislacion-educacion-responsabilidad-tecnico-sostenible-obama-greenpeace-co2-naciones-unidas-ingenieria-salud-Kioto-Copenhague-Mexico-Cancun-marm

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism

BREAKING: WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord

2010-12-04T09:48:00.001-08:00

And what does this mean for Cancun and the talks we are here for this week? I think we all know.
* * * * *
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/03/wikileaks-us-manipulated-climate-accord/print

WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord

Embassy dispatches show America used spying, threats and promises of aid to get support for Copenhagen accord
- WikiLeaks cables: Cancún climate talks doomed to fail, says EU president
- Cancún climate change summit: Week one in pictures

A Greenpeace activist in a hot air ballon ahead of the current UN climate summit in Cancún. WikiLeaks cables expose US use of espionage before the 2009 Copenhagen summit. Photograph: Luis Perez/AFP/Getty Images
Hidden behind the save-the-world rhetoric of the global climate change negotiations lies the mucky realpolitik: money and threats buy political support; spying and cyberwarfare are used to seek out leverage.
The US diplomatic cables reveal how the US seeks dirt on nations opposed to its approach to tackling global warming; how financial and other aid is used by countries to gain political backing; how distrust, broken promises and creative accounting dog negotiations; and how the US mounted a secret global diplomatic offensive to overwhelm opposition to the controversial "Copenhagen accord", the unofficial document that emerged from the ruins of the Copenhagen climate change summit in 2009.

Negotiating a climate treaty is a high-stakes game, not just because of the danger warming poses to civilisation but also because re-engineering the global economy to a low-carbon model will see the flow of billions of dollars redirected.
Seeking negotiating chips, the US state department sent a secret cable on 31 July 2009 seeking human intelligence from UN diplomats across a range of issues, including climate change. The request originated with the CIA. As well as countries' negotiating positions for Copenhagen, diplomats were asked to provide evidence of UN environmental "treaty circumvention" and deals between nations.

But intelligence gathering was not just one way. On 19 June 2009, the state department sent a cable detailing a "spear phishing" attack on the office of the US climate change envoy, Todd Stern, while talks with China on emissions took place in Beijing. Five people received emails, personalised to look as though they came from the National Journal. An attached file contained malicious code that would give complete control of the recipient's computer to a hacker. While the attack was unsuccessful, the department's cyber threat analysis division noted: "It is probable intrusion attempts such as this will persist."
The Beijing talks failed to lead to a global deal at Copenhagen. But the US, the world's biggest historical polluter and long isolated as a climate pariah, had something to cling to. The Copenhagen accord, hammered out in the dying hours but not adopted into the UN process, offered to solve many of the US's problems.

The accord turns the UN's top-down, unanimous approach upside down, with each nation choosing palatable targets for greenhouse gas cuts. It presents a far easier way to bind in China and other rapidly growing countries than the UN process. But the accord cannot guarantee the global greenhouse gas cuts needed to avoid dangerous warming. Furthermore, it threatens to circumvent the UN's negotiations on extending the Kyoto protocol, in which rich nations have binding obligations. Those objections have led many countries – particularly the poorest and most vulnerable – to vehemently oppose the accord.
Getting as many countries as possible to associate themselves with the accord strongly served US interests, by boosting the likelihood it would be officially adopted. A diplomatic offensive was launched. Diplomatic cables flew thick and fast between the end of Copenhagen in December 2009 and late February 2010, when the leaked cables end.
Some countries needed little persuading. The accord promised $30bn (£19bn) in aid for the poorest nations hit by global warming they had not caused. Within two weeks of Copenhagen, the Maldives foreign minister, Ahmed Shaheed, wrote to the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, expressing eagerness to back it.
By 23 February 2010, the Maldives' ambassador-designate to the US, Abdul Ghafoor Mohamed, told the US deputy climate change envoy, Jonathan Pershing, his country wanted "tangible assistance", saying other nations would then realise "the advantages to be gained by compliance" with the accord.

A diplomatic dance ensued. "Ghafoor referred to several projects costing approximately $50m (£30m). Pershing encouraged him to provide concrete examples and costs in order to increase the likelihood of bilateral assistance."
The Maldives were unusual among developing countries in embracing the accord so wholeheartedly, but other small island nations were secretly seen as vulnerable to financial pressure. Any linking of the billions of dollars of aid to political support is extremely controversial – nations most threatened by climate change see the aid as a right, not a reward, and such a link as heretical. But on 11 February, Pershing met the EU climate action commissioner, Connie Hedegaard, in Brussels, where she told him, according to a cable, "the Aosis [Alliance of Small Island States] countries 'could be our best allies' given their need for financing".
The pair were concerned at how the $30bn was to be raised and Hedegaard raised another toxic subject – whether the US aid would be all cash. She asked if the US would need to do any "creative accounting", noting some countries such as Japan and the UK wanted loan guarantees, not grants alone, included, a tactic she opposed. Pershing said "donors have to balance the political need to provide real financing with the practical constraints of tight budgets", reported the cable.
Along with finance, another treacherous issue in the global climate negotiations, currently continuing in Cancún, Mexico, is trust that countries will keep their word. Hedegaard asks why the US did not agree with China and India on what she saw as acceptable measures to police future emissions cuts. "The question is whether they will honour that language," the cable quotes Pershing as saying.
Trust is in short supply on both sides of the developed-developing nation divide. On 2 February 2009, a cable from Addis Ababa reports a meeting between the US undersecretary of state Maria Otero and the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi, who leads the African Union's climate change negotiations.
The confidential cable records a blunt US threat to Zenawi: sign the accord or discussion ends now. Zenawi responds that Ethiopia will support the accord, but has a concern of his own: that a personal assurance from Barack Obama on delivering the promised aid finance is not being honoured.
US determination to seek allies against its most powerful adversaries – the rising economic giants of Brazil, South Africa, India, China (Basic) – is set out in another cable from Brussels on 17 February reporting a meeting between the deputy national security adviser, Michael Froman, Hedegaard and other EU officials.
Froman said the EU needed to learn from Basic's skill at impeding US and EU initiatives and playing them off against each in order "to better handle third country obstructionism and avoid future train wrecks on climate".

Hedegaard is keen to reassure Froman of EU support, revealing a difference between public and private statements. "She hoped the US noted the EU was muting its criticism of the US, to be constructive," the cable said. Hedegaard and Froman discuss the need to "neutralise, co-opt or marginalise unhelpful countries including Venezuela and Bolivia", before Hedegaard again links financial aid to support for the accord, noting "the irony that the EU is a big donor to these countries". Later, in April, the US cut aid to Bolivia and Ecuador, citing opposition to the accord.
Any irony is clearly lost on the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, according to a 9 February cable from La Paz. The Danish ambassador to Bolivia, Morten Elkjaer, tells a US diplomat that, at the Copenhagen summit, "Danish prime minister Rasmussen spent an unpleasant 30 minutes with Morales, during which Morales thanked him for [$30m a year in] bilateral aid, but refused to engage on climate change issues."
After the Copenhagen summit, further linking of finance and aid with political support appears. Dutch officials, initially rejecting US overtures to back the accord, make a startling statement on 25 January. According to a cable, the Dutch climate negotiator Sanne Kaasjager "has drafted messages for embassies in capitals receiving Dutch development assistance to solicit support [for the accord]. This is an unprecedented move for the Dutch government, which traditionally recoils at any suggestion to use aid money as political leverage." Later, however, Kaasjager rows back a little, saying: "The Netherlands would find it difficult to make association with the accord a condition to receive climate financing."
Perhaps the most audacious appeal for funds revealed in the cables is from Saudi Arabia, the world's second biggest oil producer and one of the 25 richest countries in the world. A secret cable sent on 12 February records a meeting between US embassy officials and lead climate change negotiator Mohammad al-Sabban. "The kingdom will need time to diversify its economy away from petroleum, [Sabban] said, noting a US commitment to help Saudi Arabia with its economic diversification efforts would 'take the pressure off climate change negotiations'."
The Saudis did not like the accord, but were worried they had missed a trick. The assistant petroleum minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told US officials that he had told his minister Ali al-Naimi that Saudi Arabia had "missed a real opportunity to submit 'something clever', like India or China, that was not legally binding but indicated some goodwill towards the process without compromising key economic interests".
The cables obtained by WikiLeaks finish at the end of February 2010. Today, 116 countries have associated themselves with the accord. Another 26 say they intend to associate. That total, of 140, is at the upper end of a 100-150 country target revealed by Pershing in his meeting with Hedegaard on 11 February.
The 140 nations represent almost 75% of the 193 countries that are parties to the UN climate change convention and, accord supporters like to point out, are responsible for well over 80% of current global greenhouse gas emissions.
At the mid-point of the major UN climate change negotiations in Cancún, Mexico, there have already been flare-ups over how funding for climate adaptation is delivered. The biggest shock has been Japan's announcement that it will not support an extension of the existing Kyoto climate treaty. That gives a huge boost to the accord. US diplomatic wheeling and dealing may, it seems, be bearing fruit.

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WikiLeaks cables: Cancún climate talks doomed to fail, says EU president

Herman van Rompuy dismisses Copenhagen climate summit as 'incredible disaster' and expects Cancún to be no better

US embassy cables: Saudi Arabia fears missed trick on Copenhagen climate accord

US embassy cables: Netherlands links aid money to support for climate deal

US embassy cables: EU raises 'creative accounting' with US over climate aid

US embassy cables: EU mutes criticism of US climate stance

US embassy cables: US urges Ethiopia to back Copenhagen climate accord

US embassy cables: Maldives tout $50m climate projects to US

US embassy cables: Obama says no to EU-US climate summit in Madrid

US embassy cables: EU president Van Rompuy angry at climate talks snub

US embassy cables: US climate change negotiators targeted by cyberattack

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IPS piece mentions IEN

2010-12-04T09:45:00.001-08:00

Go to original: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53765

Lost in Cancún
By Diana Cariboni * – IPS/TerraViva

Mayan pyramid of criticism of polluting countries in Cancunmesse.
Credit:Diana Cariboni/IPS
Buy this picture

CANCÚN, Mexico, Dec 3, 2010 (IPS) - "The hurricane season officially ended on Nov. 30," a local shopkeeper told this journalist reassuringly as she entered his store with her hair blown in every direction by the wind on a drizzly, cloudy day.
The bad weather in this normally sunny resort city in southeastern Mexico is an echo of the new wave of climate swings around the world that have practically coincided with the Nov. 29-Dec.10 16th edition of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP16).
Extreme cold and blizzards have already killed 20 people in Europe, mainly homeless people, and have thrown airports, railways and roads into chaos. Meanwhile, heavy rains and flooding have claimed lives in Latin American countries along the Caribbean coast: Colombia, Venezuela, Panama and Costa Rica. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) reported Thursday that 2010 is "almost certain" to be one of the three hottest years since temperature records began in 1850. And 2001-2010 was the hottest decade in history.
Nature is sending a message that could not be more timely. Scattered around hotels, convention centres and camps located dozens of kilometres from each other, the climate change negotiators and activists who have come to the biggest annual meeting on the issue seem to have lost the nerve to pursue the initial goal of the talks that began 18 years ago.
That goal was a legally binding global treaty to drastically reduce the pollution that has unleashed climate change. Since the chances of reaching that objective by Dec. 10 are close to zero, the efforts are now heading in a different direction.
The talks, presentations and parallel activities are focusing on the money needed by poor countries, technical innovations and models for action that can be replicated. In short, a massive search for lifelines in an inevitable flood.
"A lot of things are going on at different levels," Carbon Trade Watch activist Joanna Cabello told TerraViva. "Some are looking for a lifeline, to gain more allies, while others are lobbying for ‘improvements’ in financing and mitigation and adaptation policies."
But "we are entering a stage where citizens, movements and some governments are very aware of the powerful manipulation that is taking place, and are fed up," she added.
However, it’s not that the fundamental goal has been forgotten in the talks, another activist said. "It’s about laying the bricks for reaching a binding accord," which is why many of the discussions are centred on achieving things that are actually possible.
For example, a global climate fund that would operate as a "one-stop shop", in which nations of the developing world would be represented and the financing would go where it is needed. At least half of these funds would have to go towards adaptation to the impacts of climate change.
But in Cabello’s view, "the funds that are receiving so much attention have many gaps that allow the entry of private capital, and maybe the carbon market itself, without mentioning the highly criticised role of the World Bank as a facilitator" of those resources.
"Industrialised countries and corporate lobbies, interested in strengthening and expanding the carbon markets, are doing everything they can to present these schemes as easy fixes and quick money for poor countries," said the activist, who supports the actions of the Global Justice Ecology Project and the Indigenous Environmental Network.
"Cancun was never going to be where we would get a global deal to tackle climate change, but the talks are in far better health than they were at this stage in Copenhagen (at the COP15)," Barry Coates, executive director of Oxfam New Zealand, told TerraViva.
"We can see real progress such as setting up a fair climate fund, and while the hype of Copenhagen has been replaced by sobering realities of complex negotiations, we could very well walk away at the end of these talks with hope for a deal in Durban (South Africa, where the COP17 will be held) next year," Coates said.
Will the world have to wait just one more year? According to a report released by Oxfam this week, time has already run out for the 21,000 people who died as a result of 725 extreme weather events in the first nine months of 2010.
That is more than twice the number -- 10,000 people -- killed in 850 extreme weather catastrophes for the whole of 2009.
One reflection of the growing sense of demoralisation is the number of people who have showed up for COP16. The organisers say there are 20,000 visitors, compared to 50,000 in Copenhagen last year.
But estimates are hard to come by since the official venues are spread all over the city, the conference is isolated from civil society, and the parallel Klimaforum 2010 is being held at a camp in the middle of the jungle.
Cancún has more than 35,000 hotel rooms and there are 40,000 more rooms in surrounding areas. People who depend on tourism in this city made up of block after block of hotels and shopping centres had hoped COP16 would push hotel occupancy rates up to nearly 90 percent.
"But we are at less than 80 percent; we had hoped for more," a taxi driver complained.
On the other hand, an enormous number of locals have found work at COP16, in logistics, security and services.
"Four hundred temporary workers" are providing assistance for delegates at bus stops alone, explained a young woman who just graduated from college as a psychologist. All of the staff hired are Mexicans, which is a good thing, because of the unemployment, she added. By contrast, there are no volunteers at COP16. A sign of the times?
(*This story appears in the IPS TerraViva online journal published for the U.N. Conference on Climate Change in Cancún.) (END)

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