Climate Justice Action: Join the planning, support the day.

Climate Justice Action

• Planning meeting: Bonn, Germany, 29-31 May 2010
• Climate Justice Action : Call for a day of action October 2010
  

Human-induced and capitalist-driven climate change caused by CO2 and other green house gases is an imminent threat to the planet as we know it. It is happening now and it is happening fast. Centuries of exploitation and destruction have passed. It is the world's poor, who did not cause the problem, who will suffer the most and do not have the means to implement solutions.

Fifteen years of empty governmental chatter and false corporate solutions reached a climactic breakdown in Copenhagen. Their outrageous farce demonstrated one thing above all: the currently dominant approaches to tackling climate change are not only ineffective, they are also unjust. The liberal consensus is incapable of delivering any serious solutions to the triple crises of environment, economy and governance. It is time to stop relying on governments and orporations to solve the problem. Only collective action from below can save us —"we are the ones we have been waiting for."

The social movements met in Copenhagen to call for a day of action to fight for system change, not climate change in the autumn of 2010. Climate Justice Action is taking up this call to propose direct actions for climate justice around the week of October 12 to 16, to coincide with the “Global Minga (Mobilization) In Defense of Mother Earth” that was announced by the 4th Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala (the Americas).

An open international meeting to organize and coordinate this day of action will be held in Bonn on 29-31 May 2010, where we will be able to reach out to the many people and movements that are increasingly disaffected with the official UN process and the apolitical NGO lobbying.

JOIN US--RECLAIM POWER

Website: http://www.climate-justice-action.org/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/actforclimate

Related:

• Climate Justice Radio (podcast)
• Naomi Klien on Climate Justice Action (video)
• CJA Protestor in Copenhagen (vide0)

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Copenhagen update from climate campers.

Climate campers in Copenhagen just sent over a few interesting links.

Here is their photopool. Here is a video from the spait of mass arrests. Here is a video by visiononTV from a demo called 'system change not climate change'.

There is also this blog post about the emotions involved in just getting there.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Legal action to protect the future from climate change.

The University of Iowa's Centre for Human Rights and the University of Vermont's Environmental Law Centre have jointly started an initiative to seek legal protection for future generations.

The Climate Legacy Initiative (CLI) is devoted to bringing the law of government in line with the laws of nature. Its goal is nothing less than to change the way we think about our world—and the way our laws deal with a world rocked by climate change.

The project has been launched with the publication of a policy paper.

Recalibrating the Law of Humans with the Laws of Nature: Climate Change, Human Rights, and Intergenerational Justice.

Many of the actions taken by industry today can be considered as genuine crimes, the spatial and temporal seperation of cause and effect often stymies action. In terms of principles, however, it is quite clear that the law has a lot to say about the infliction of damages on innocent parties through the persuit of profit, perticularly when the liklihood of this damage is known.

Although the legal system sits within a framework of govornance which has ultimate responsibility for public policy, it can certainly be a useful tool to drive policy if not a practicle means of solving our problems.

• Climate Change Action has featured previous posts on climate change and the law.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Race, Climate Change and Green Jobs

I just recieved an email from Madeline who posts to the itsgettinghotinhere contributors list, so thanks to her for the heads up on a recent report. The post that Madeline instigated at the aforementioned blog is here. The report that she was highlighting is "A Climate of Change
African Americans, Global Warming, and a Just Climate Policy for the U.S."

For my part i am sypathetic with the reports aims, i see the importance of the discussion and i hope people get involved in developing this sythesis of environmental and racial politics. This non-traditional combination reminded me of a recent post of mine addressing a non to uncommon argument about weather climate change is bein hijacked in the UK by idealogues with an agenda or weather real workable solutions require radical political shifts.

I would broaden my approach to climate change if either: 1. It became apparent that my values, the reasons for which i care about climate change, are substantially effected by other issues. A systemic treatment and an approach that resolved both issues would then make sense. 2. It became apparent that dealing with climate change required dealing with a broader set of issues not for reasons of idealogical concistancy but of pragmatism.

A report connecting race and climate change in the US certainly relates to option 1 for me. I look forward to reading the whole report and finding out what it has to say about option 2. Are there solutions to climate change that ignore the race problem?

Here are three of the report findings which give some hint of the answer:

"Sound global warming policy is also economic and racial justice policy. Successfully adopting a sound global warming policy will do as much to strengthen the economies of low-income communities and communities of color as any other currently plausible stride toward economic
justice.

Climate policies that best serve African Americans also best serve a just and strong United States. This paper shows that policies well-designed to benefi t African Americans
also provide the most benefi t to all people in the U.S. Climate policies that best serve African Americans and other disproportionately aff ected communities also best serve global economic and environmental justice.

Domestic reductions in global warming pollution and support for such reductions in developing nations fi nancedby polluter-pays principles provide the greatest benefi toAfrican Americans, the peoples of Africa, and people across the Global South."

One of the key ties between green growth and alleviation of the poverty expierianced by african americans is urban development and in perticular green collar jobs.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Chevron destroy Ecuadorian rainforest then kick up fuss when forest protectors are recognised.

Chevron is a big bad oil company operating in the neo-liberal global trade climate of the 21st century. Multinationals can currently get away with a lot; globalisation of capital has outstripped globalisation of government and regulation. Raping the planet is all part of the game, not doing so would be bad business unless the laws prevent it, or you can place compliance as a PR cost.

So I don't hold multinational shareholder return driven, massively unregulated, corporations to high ethical standards. However, when people win awards for to resisting the treatment dished out to them and their lands i would have expected an act of contrition. In fact the Chevron response is character assassination of the activists.

"the only thing green they are interested in is money."

Congratulations to lawyer Pablo Fajardo Mendoza and community organizer Luis Yanza for their joint award of the Goldman Environment Prize. And shame on the SF Chronicle for stating that Chevron denunciations count as controversy! Clearly Chevron are going to resist any further evidence of their deeds, particularly as they are being sued by the Ecuadorean government.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Rock Ethics Institute: Climate Change and Ethics Talks

Arguements on climate change, seem to have receeded from the mainstream. However, some of the premises used have not been publically discredited. For example the case for action was hindered by arguments based on certainty of the science, we have largely stopped having these arguments as the science is solid: we have a problem. However, there are still error bars around various climate impacts, a good example being sea level rise. So this sort of argument will raise it's ugly head again. What is needed is a more clear eyed look at the decison being made. Who has the right to decide weather a certain level of climate change is dangerous? What is the moral case for developed nations cutting emissions slowly, while the risk is placed on the inhabitants of low island developing states? Climate change arguments are widely distorted in the media, a whole range of arguments need to be grounded in a moral framework. So many of the cliched arguments are based on premises which if applied to every day situations would bee seen as farsical. The Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State University is looking at these issues in detail.

A few interesting talks from the Rock Ethics Institute.

• Ethical dimensions of geoengineering. (mp3)
• Science of Climate Change. Richard Alley (mp3)
• C02 sequestration. Klaus Lackner. (mp3)
• Economic Discounting in the Stern Review. (mp3)
• Climate Change and Pensalvanias' clean energy future. Katie McGuinty. (mp3)

Related:

• Past posts on Climate Justice.
• Past posts containing audio.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

What does the Bali mandate mean?

I`m not sure about what Bali means. I believe it leaves open the option for progress but isn't a breakthrough in itself.

Various NGO's (Non-Govornmental Organisations) came together as the Climate Action Network and this video shows their varied views on this. It's mixed but not a disaster.

The final UN press conference from the climate talks is here. The EU response to developments is here.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Alter-Eco: news from the UN Climate Conference

Almuth Ernsting of Biofuelwatch sent me this email whith links to the Transnational Institute which gives a climate justice or global south perspective on the issues up for debate at Bali. I wasn't aware of this group but they are working on vital issues so i was glad to share there views.

Hi,

I thought people might like to see some alternative views from the Bali Climate Conference. I am here with a colleague from Biofuelwatch and we joined in with others who formed a Climate Justice Group - people who are horrified to see that the climate negotiations are little else than a carbon trade fair,
with critical NGOs being virtually excluded and completely marginalise, all NGOs moved to a venue 2minutes from the main conference centre, and with
indigenous peoples organisations not given a proper voice.

Here is the first [and second] edition of a short newsletter which our colleagues have written.

Good luck on 8th December!

Best wishes,

Almuth

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Neo-liberalism and consumerism: common enemies of community and citizens.

The title of this article is somewhat grand, but i don't have any grand insights, only a few thoughts that have recently came together in my mind. A bit of background should help to explain where i am coming from: I have been brought up in the Cairngorms of Scotland. If any one characteristic where to be said to define my personality it would be curiosity, i have always asked why. This has never been a methodical or organised enquiry, i went on to study science at university but this could hardly be said to be a natural aptitude of mine. Recently i have become interested in climate change, a tremendously broad subject. This has brought me in to contact with a wide range of political writings along with the more obvious climate science, policy and mitigation options.

As a chemistry graduate climate change was not a difficult subject to come to grasps with in terms of its basics. However, the politics is not simple. Climate change, much to my disdain, cannot be dealt with as a technocratic issue. The problem is not one of turning a valve to reduce carbon emissions.

Clearly a line has to be drawn somewhere for people worried about the impacts of climate change, we don't want a vast ideology that seems to suggest an impossible utopia, but neither does it make sense for people concerned about biodiversity loss, desertification, health impacts etc., caused by climate change to be unconcerned when they are caused by other means.

I currently think that this larger agenda is sustainability, or the idea of leaving the next generation with the same or greater level of natural wealth that we enjoy.

Sustainability is a specific example of a public commons issue. Neoliberals have carried out an attack on the commons due to the free market position that sees government and collective ownership as inherently bad and that proclaims private ownership as the only way to ensure competent protection of the environment. There are also many who have neoliberal sympathies due to the prescriptions and how they re-inforce power structures. The global economy has globalised but government has not. This is partly due to speed but also due to power which internationally lays in the hands of the corporations these corporations have worked to restrict the globalisation of government in the form of regulation.

This is what the anti-globalisation movement is a reaction against. It is also a situation that is strengthened by unquestioning an politically inactive consumers. The key to this whole problem seems to be lack of relevant information. Consumers by products which companies—primarily large multinationals—have produced in an economically efficient manner i.e. by externalising every possible environmental and social cost. All of this is invisible, primarily through distance, it is also common place, and it is subtle.

There is a complex interplay between media, which distract us, advertisers who earn a living providing goods as an alternative to fulfilment and governments who are reliant on both media and corporate cash.

Many of these ideas are exposed when looking at urban planning, suburbia represents an consumer ideal of sorts, an atomised anti-social market based ideal, and a real world crisis of farm land destruction, wasted resources, a variety of social ills, dependence on oil etc. The contrast between suburbia as conceived in the US and inner city urbanism as exemplified by Copenhagen could not be greater. My recent interest in planning consolidated my various political views, and currently forms an important part of the frame through which i perceive climate change.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Climate Camp Workshop: WDM Climate Justice

Camp for Climate Action: World Development Movement discussion on climate justice with the use of there climate calander to highlight the comparative responsibility for climate change of the northern and southern nations.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Ethics of Climate Change (Report of the Week)

The ethics of climate change, something that is vaguely talked about often but looked at in detail rarely.

Penn State university have done some facinating work on this in collaboration with a wide range of other groups.

My report of the week is the Ethical Dimension of Climate Change Whitepaper.

An extremely eloquent spokesperson for this report speaks on the issues involved in this video.

The Program on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change Seeks to:

• Facilitate express examination of ethical dimensions of climate change particularly for those issues entailed by specific positions taken by governments, businesses, NGOs, organizations, or individuals on climate change policy matters;
  
• 
  
• Create better understanding about the ethical dimensions of climate change among makers and general public;
  
• 
  
• Assure that people around world, including those most vulnerable to climate change, participate in any ethical inquiry about responses climate change;
  
• 
  
• Develop an interdisciplinary approach inquiry about the ethical dimensions of climate change and support publications examine ethical dimensions of climate change;
  
• 
  
• Make results of scholarship on ethical dimensions of climate change available to and accessible policy makers, scientists, and citizen groups;
  
• 
  
• Integrate ethical analysis into the work of other institutions engaged in climate change including Intergovernmental Program on Climate Change and Conference of Parties to United Nations Conference on Climate Change.
  

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Climate Change: A Moral and Ethical Issue

This is my video of the week, it is facinating, and somewhat desturbing. Well worth watching.



Why is climate change an issue of justice and morality?

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Convergence of religious group on fighting climate change.

Faith groups are increasingly playing a part in preventing climate change. Weather through the concept of 'creation care' or in terms of the more anthropocentric concept of climate justice.

A recent article on Trehugger finds that Muslims and Christians are already working on climate change and in fact this is a truly grass roots movement.

"Muslim and Christian youth living in the US have found common interest in protecting the environment. According to Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, a non-profit dedicated to building a pluralistic society through cooperation between people of all religious backgrounds, as he recently traveled the country visiting college campuses on behalf of his organization after meeting and speaking with the Rev. Richard Cizik, vice-president of the National Association of Evangelicals and a well-known proponent of creation-care, he found that often there were groups of students already organizing Earth Day events with both Muslims and Evangelical youth working side by side to lead the way."

Jews are also participating in the fight, under the rubric of climate justice.

" Justice for poor people who will be most severely impacted by changing weather and rising seas and who have the least capacity to adapt.

Justice for future generations who will inherit an unstable climate and potentially catastrophic rises in sea level, migration of tropical diseases, and disrupted agricultural production.

Justice for all of creation that is threatened by climate change."

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Climate Justice

A look at the southern perspective on the issue of climate change. While the industrialised north fights about weather the science is real, and now, weather we should commit to small or large reductions, the south continues to suffer from the historic emissions. The latest in a long line of barbaric effects imposed by the rich on the poor.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!