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The poor are most vulnerable to climate risks. Heavy dependence on ecosystem services has placed their welfare and survival at the mercy of environmental conditions... |
World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth
...Humanity confronts a great dilemma: to continue on the path of capitalism, depredation, and death, or to choose the path of harmony with nature and respect for life...
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Via Campesina Call to mobilise for a Cool Planet  by Fergal Anderson, Climateimc.org, 21 July 2009 Stop! The UNFCCC is going off the rails!. Don't trade off Peasant's agriculture for rights to pollute. While scientific predictions of climate catastrophe continue to grow, world leaders will gather in Copenhagen on 7-18 December 2009 for the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The solutions being discussed by the UNFCCC continue to allow big energy consumers to pollute with impunity while paying others to implement projects supposed to capture carbon. Can vegetarians save the world? by Tristram Stuart, The Guardian, 16 May 2009 For decades, environmental arguments against eating meat have been largely the preserve of vegetarian websites and magazines. Just two years ago it seemed inconceivable that significant numbers of western Europeans would be ready to down their steak knives and graze on vegetation for the sake of the planet. The rapidity with which this situation has changed is astonishing. The breakthrough came in 2006 when the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) published a study, Livestock's Long Shadow, showing that the livestock industry is responsible for a staggering 18% of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. This is only the beginning of the story. In 2008, Brazil announced that in the 12 months to July it had lost 12,000 sq km (3m acres) of the Amazon rainforest, mainly to cattle ranchers and soy producers supplying European markets with animal feed. There is water scarcity in large parts of the world, yet livestock-rearing can use up to 200 times more water a kilogram (2.2lbs) of meat produced than is used in growing wheat. Given the volatile global food prices, it seems foolhardy to divert 1.2bn tonnes of fodder – including cereals – to fuel global meat consumption, which has increased by more than two and half times since 1970. Oregonians Seek Personal Energy Revolution by Andrew C. Revkin, The Newyork Times, 10 April 2009 Meet the Hager family of Eugene, Oregon. Tom Hager, at left, sent a note (below) about his family’s effort to shrink its per-capita energy footprint by 80 percent. This would put the family in line with the Swiss project called the “2,000 Watt Society” — which was nicely explained by Jamais Cascio in 2005. The project’s goals are reflected in something that Princeton’s Robert Socolow said at the “America’s Climate Choices” summit at the National Academies last week (as quoted by Bill Chameides of Duke University on his blog, theGreenGrok.com, and Huffingtonpost.com): “The emissions of the future rich must eventually equal the emissions of today’s poor.” Using radio to share farmers' adaptation strategies by Blythe McKay, LEISA Magazine, 01 December 2008 Farm radio International recently held a script-writing competition on the topic of adapting to climate change. Working together with different partners, the fifteen winners' scripts were distributed to over 500 radio organisations across sub-Saharan Africa.These are now being broadcast, bringing accurate and engaging information about climate change and adaptation strategies to rural farmers all over Africa. Climate Justice Movements Gather Strength by Ambika Chawla, Worldwatch.org, 01January 2009 In Operation Climate Change, members of a Nigerian indigenous peoples' rights movement attempt to shut down oil flow stations in the Niger Delta. Ecuadorian environmental activists risk their lives to protest construction of an oil pipeline through the Amazonian forest that is home to the native Quichua, Shuar, and Achuar people. More than 200 farmers from 20 countries march in Bali, Indonesia, during a meeting on the U.N. climate convention to demand that food sovereignty be addressed by negotiators. These are just three of the many grassroots initiatives worldwide that are seeking to mobilize governments and the public to tackle climate change. In doing so, most groups argue that human rights include people's rights to a clean environment and access to critical natural resources. Many of them advocate the participation of marginalized communities in the U.N. climate negotiation process. Although their specific agendas differ, these groups are part of an emerging global movement for climate justice-- an intricate web of grassroots initiatives from diverse regions calling for attention to the inequities inherent in climate change and the need to consider human rights when addressing this pressing global issue. Not Too Late to Act by Betsy Taylor, Worldwatch.org, 01 January 2009 Scientific reports on how quickly climate change is proceeding have divided climate experts on the issue of how far the delicate global ecological balance has tipped.While virtually all experts agree that the situation is precarious, a growing number of influential leaders are quietly whispering that we are already too late to avoid cataclysmic change. Don't believe them. When you think things seem impossible, consider migrating birds. By some miraculous combination of genetic coding and sheer determination, warblers, waterfowl, hummingbirds, and hawks travel thousands of miles each year, despite increasingly scarce habitat and food, to mate and nest. Some birds weigh less than an ounce yet travel at high altitudes from hillsides in Canada to mountains in the Dominican Republic. Homo sapiens can be equally amazing. We consciously sacrifice ourselves to protect others. We do extraordinary things to ensure that life flourishes. The drive for a safe future should never be underestimated. Earth is resilient, and humans have a remarkable capacity to overcome tough odds in the quest for survival, freedom, and justice. We have our stories--Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel, Wangari Maathai, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, the Berlin Wall, and the journey to the moon among the most inspiring. Now a worldwide movement inspired by the prospect of climate change is refusing to accept the traditional pattern of incremental change. Boiling Point : Containing the 'Spill Over' of Climate Change On the Indian Subcontinent by Pratishtha Dobhal, Safer World Communications, 01 December 2008 Climate change impacts are a clear and present danger to the Indian sub-continent. The report 'Boiling Point", seeks immediate attention of every responsible citizen in the country so that they may take appropriate action that can help in long term mitigation and local level adaptation. It presents case studies from different parts of India, where local communities are already under the assault of climate change. Ten broad areas of intervention have been identified in the given national context. We at SEEDS, are committed to empowering local communities for adaptive action towards restoring security to life and basic necessities. The starting point of our intervention is education for sustainable development. We realize that this task would be incomplete unless we simultaneously amplify the voice of the affected to government and key national stakeholders for a long term vision. The Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the resilience of nations and communities to disasters(HFA) under its priorities for Action clearly earmarks reducing the underlying risk due to climate change. SEEDS recognizes the need for a consolidated effort on everyone's part to tackle with the problem of climate change. As a result, all our initiatives on disaster risk reduction try to incorporate the mitigation and adaptation to climate change. SEEDS, through its advocacy campaigns endeavours to bring out effective policies at the strategies level, and awareness and commitment at the individual level to combat climate change. CLEAN-India : N for Network by Usha Srinivasan, Riti Kushwaha, Mayukh Hajra, Development Alternatives, 01April 2009 The strong multi-stakeholder network facilitates the achievement of the three prime objectives of the CLEAN-India programme:• Systematically assessing and documenting the environmental quality of all major towns and cities in India for at least a period of threee years• Generating awareness amongst citizens, decision makers and other stakeholders in society on the causes of environmental issues and possible corrective action• Mobilising communities to undertake environmental improvement actions at the local level.......The world is becoming increasingly conscious of the environment,which affects every aspect of human existence. A reasonable standard of quality of life is the right of every citizen of the world. The concept of sustainable cities is closely interconnected with environment and economy as it concerns the very survival of human kind which, in turn, contributes to a healthy nation. Clean environment and economic growth are complimentary to each other and result in vibrant communities which see themselves as stakeholders in all aspects of daily life.An attitude of care for the environment,controlling pollution, following housing norms, honest effort and meaningful utilisation of economic resources will go a long way towards sustainable growth in the urban sector........This ignorance and lack of sensitisation has till date been a major chink in the armour that may well cause us to lose the battle against climate change, as large corporations profiting by promoting carbon intensive products and services continue to glorify and peddle increasingly consumerist and un-sustainable lifestyles, particularly to the youth and children at an impressionable age. It is imperative that awareness be generated across every section of society about the causes and implications of climate change so to instill a sense of ownership and responsibility for the state of the environment as each individual and every actor needs to join hands and contribute in their individual capacities to meet the challenge. Climate Field Schools in Indonesia: Improving by Yunita T. Winarto, Kees Stigter, Esti Anantasari and Siti Nur Hidayah, LEISA Magazine, 01 December 2008 Following the successful Farmer Field School approach, experimental Climate Field Schools were set up in Indonesia. These aim to increase farmers' knowledge on the climate and improve their response to it. Climate is another reason for building up resilience in farming systems, and this was built into the CFS curriculum. Farmers are now more aware of how to use climate information in managing their soil, water and crop resources for best effects. It's Time to Bring the Green Movement Back to the Neighborhood Placemaking and ecology are two sides of the same coin. Another Earth Day has come and gone, and in following this year’s events I thought back to 1970, when I was coordinator of New York City's first Earth Day celebration. It was a time of high ambitions about what the dawning ecology movement could accomplish. Those of us organizing events in New York and other cities around the country were excited about environmentalism as a way to preserve nature and curtail pollution but also to launch a powerful citizen's movement that would create what we now call "livable" and "sustainable" communities. When founding Project for Public Space several years later, I envisioned the organization as a part of the broad sweep of environmental consciousness that was changing the face of America and the world. Bangalore Platform Launched Bangalore Platform was launched. For the next few months the group will meet monthly to concretely prioritise and take up some of the suggestions that have come up in the Platform Is Environmentalism Dead? : A speech presented to the commonwealth Club Every significant indicator of global environmental health is heading in the wrong direction. Storms and draughts are increasing in frequency and severity. Anti-environmental conservatives control all three branches of the federal government. And the governorships. And the statehouses. And the school boards. Conservatives are destroying the very institutions - from the tax system to the United Nations to public schools - that hold the solution to our ecological crisis. It is at moments like these that we need to take a hard look in the mirror. India's NAPCC:There is Little Hope Here The PM's National Action Plan on Climate Change will help neither the climate, nor the poor. It lacks urgency, democracy and equity perspective |
