Global Exchange is Headed to Durban, South Africa for COP17!

This December, the 2011 UN Climate Talks will be held in Durban, South Africa. As we approach this year’s conference, environmental and climate justice activists around the world have reason to doubt that our world leaders will come together in Durban and reach a solid agreement on a solution to climate change. Past conferences have demonstrated a predictable failure among international governments to reach an agreement adequate enough to save the planet. Mainly, because the UN Climate Change framework is based not on the root causes of environmental exploitation – but ‘market fixes’ within the corporate-led economic model and a system based on continuous exploitation of the earth’s resources.

This is the way it has been, but this is not the way it has to be.

There’s good news – people across the world are rallying for a new approach to protect our environment and curb the effects of climate change – establish and enforce laws which actually elevate the rights of nature (and communities) above the claimed ‘rights’ of corporations whose sole interests are development for profits.

Global Exchange, Durban community activist Desmond D’Sa, and The South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), in collaboration with our international partners and civil society groups gathering in Durban are working to present an alternative paradigm emerging from communities at the grassroots – recognizing the rights of ecosystems and communities. This rights-based approach offers a different way to protect nature, enabling communities (rather than corporations) to act as stewards of local ecosystems and asserting people’s rights over corporations. The Rights of Nature framework comes from a new understanding of our human relationship with nature, from viewing nature solely as property for humans to exploit for profit to the belief that ecosystems possess the right to exist, thrive, and evolve, and that our laws must put our planet before profits.

Community Rights Program Director, Shannon Biggs, will be on the ground in Durban this December both inside and outside the COP17 conference, joining citizens and activists there who are leading the call for nature’s rights.

Why is the location of COP17 in Durban particularly important?

Durban is the dirtiest city in all of South Africa. Some days the air is clouded with enough pollution to block out the sun. In Durban, more than 300 toxic, water-polluting and extraction-based industrial plants (including an oil refinery with frequent explosions) discharge toxic pollutants into the air, water and land, damaging the health of residents, particularly those oppressed by apartheid, as well as uncountable plants and animals; directly contributing to global climate change.

With the world’s attention on Durban thanks to the COP17 climate summit, citizens and environmental activists have a unique opportunity to demand rights both for South Africans and the ecosystems on which their communities depend to thrive.

There are a number of actions and demonstrations already planned to carry the call for community and nature’s rights in Durban for the world to hear. Please stay posted for an upcoming piece on the events surrounding COP17 in Durban, including live updates from Shannon around the organizing on the ground. For info on how to get involved, please contact Shannon Biggs: (shannon@globalexchange.org)

Week of Action in Durban: Rights of Nature events

Dec 1st

– Global Alliance for Rights of Nature strategy session.  Members of the Global Alliance will gather in Durban to set priorities for 2012.

Dec 2nd

– HRA winner and lead UN negotiator for Bolivia Pablo Solon will be presenting to the public at the Wolpe Lecture on ‘The Rights of Nature and Climate Politics’

  • When: 5pm-7pm
  • Where: Shepstone 1, Howard College, UKZN

Dec 3rd

· Global Day of Action: C17 March

  • When: 9am gather – march starts at 10:30am
  • Where: Curries Fountain in the People’s Space

Dec 5th

· Rights of Nature Panel Discussion featuring Pablo Solon, Cormac Cullinan, Natalia Green, Shannon Biggs, and Tom Goldtooth.

  • When: 2:00-3:30pm
  • Where: The University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College at the T B DAVIS  BUILDING L4.

· Rights of Nature Teach-In

  • When: 3:30-5:00pm
  • Where: The University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College at the T B DAVIS  BUILDING L4.

Dec 6th

· Press Conference. Time & Location TBA.

–      Toxic Tour and Refinery Action and Rights of Nature march and action in South Durban. Speakers include GX’s Shannon Biggs (USA), Randy Hayes (USA), Pablo Solon (Bolivia), Cormac Cullinan (SA) Tom Goldtooth (Indigenous leader, Turtle Island), Natalia Green (Ecuador) Time & Location TBA.

Dec 7th

Rio+20 strategy session with all international allies. Time & Location TBA.

Dec 9th

· Rights of Nature: An Idea Whose Time Has Come – inside the COP17 conference

  • When: noon-1pm
  • Where: Blyde River Room

Join the sit-in this Monday, October 26!

Update: Monday Sept 26 – over 180 people were arrested for trespassing on Parliament Hill this morning including Maude Barlow, national chairperson at the Council of Canadians, Dave Coles, President of the Communication, Energy and Paperworkers union and CEP Executive Assistant, Fred Wilson, Graham Saul of Climate Action Network and Mikisew Cree George Poitras. Check here for photos: CEP’s flickr photostream and Council of Canadians photostream
 Thank you everyone!

On Monday, Sept 26 hundreds will gather in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, to protest the building of the Keystone XL pipeline from the tar sands of Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico.

On the heels of the massive Tar Sands Action at the White House at the end of August, the invitation to mirror the DC action was issued by the Council of Canadians, Greenpeace Canada and the Indigenous Environment Network with a long list of expert, celebrity, organization and activist endorsements. While we in the US work to show President Obama that he has the support to stand up to the oil and gas industry and say no to the pipeline (he’s scheduled to approve the application this year), our Canadian and First Nations friends will be pressuring Prime Minister Harper to stop this massive increase in tar sands exploitation.

In August, I posted a blog with a link to a short film I helped put together called The Oil Up There. It’s worth encouraging you and others to watch it again – and remind ourselves why an expansion of the tar sands is a disaster for both people and the planet.

Daily from August 20 – September 3, hundreds of people joined the Tar Sands Action in Washington DC, where more than 1200 people were arrested at the White House in what is being called the largest act of civil disobedience in defense of the environment in US history.

The DC days of action were colourful and moving and folks from all across the continent stepped up. It’s been noted that a photo of the arrest of NASA scientist James Hansen sums up the dire and immediate situation if Keystone XL goes ahead. In 1988 he testified on climate change to congressional committees about global warming and the need to take action to limit climate change. Twenty-three years later that message needs to be heard louder than ever.

This week the Canadian Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) held a briefing with Members of Parliament, calling for a reversal of the Keystone XL permit and raised questions about the apparently expired certificate approval held by TransCanada Keystone Pipeline CP Ltd, and whether President Obama thus has the ability to approve an international pipeline with an expired certificate and required National Energy Board (NEB) approval. In a letter to the NEB dated September 23, they note:

“Condition #22 to that Certificate stipulated that:
Unless the Board otherwise directs prior to 11 March 2011, this Certificate shall expire on 11 March 2011 unless construction in respect of the Project has commenced by that date.
Our understanding is that the Board made no direction prior to March 11, 2011, and that no construction in respect of the Project had commenced by that date. Accordingly, OC-56 expired on March 11, 2011, and there is no current approval that would allow TCPL to proceed further with the Keystone XL pipeline.“

Stay tuned.

To my friends in Canada, I wish I could be there with you on Monday, and thank you/meegwetch!

For those of you in Canada, visit the Ottawa Tar Sands Action web page to find out how you can get involved. Read Council of Canadians campaigner, Andrea Harden-Donahue’s, thoughts before the protest, here.

 In the U.S., the actions against the Tar Sands have not slowed. According to 350.org, the State Department is holding a number of public hearings on the proposed pipeline, and community members are being asked to attend the meetings and testify.

Get involved from wherever you are and STOP KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE.

President Barack Obama will decide as early as September whether to approve a $7-billion, 1,700-mile long pipeline called Keystone XL to transport up to 900,000 barrels a day of tar sands crude from northern Alberta to refineries along the Gulf Coast of Texas.

The Alberta tar sands is well known as the largest and most destructive industrial project in human history – causing massive environmental damage to the natural eco-system, killing resident and visiting animal and bird species, irrevocably polluting water and poisoning land and communities downstream of the Athabasca River and trampling on treaty and Indigenous rights in northern Alberta.

In 2008 I traveled with a group of fellow Canadians to the tar sands to understand the impact of bad government policy, corporate malfeasance and US oil addiction at this ‘ground zero’. We created this short video to convey the scope of the project and raise the alarm.

It’s astounding to think that what our small delegation saw in 2008 has continued to expand and wreak more havoc on people and planet. Approval of the Keystone XL would dramatically increase the strain on the tar sands and is a climate and pollution horror beyond description.

THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW!

From August 20th to September 3rd, thousands of North Americans – including Danny Glover, and NASA’s Dr. James Hansen – will be at the White House, day after day, demanding Obama reject Keystone XL. Many protesters will engage in peaceful civil disobedience, day after day to make their voices heard.

Twenty-eight organizational leaders including Global Exchange’s Founding Director Kirsten Moller, have endorsed the days of action and we want YOU to participate.

Tim DeChristopher rally in San Francisco

Would you risk up to 10 years of jail time to take action around climate change? If you’re climate activist Tim DeChristopher, the answer is yes.

Tim DeChristopher was sentenced today to 2 years in prison and fined $10,000, after facing up to 10 years in federal prison and a $750,000 fine for being found guilty on March 3rd of one count of violating the Federal Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act and one count of False Statement.

Tim DeChristopher outside of Salt Lake City court house Photo Credit: Peaceful Uprising

Tim (aka bidder #70) disrupted a controversial auction of Utah public lands and won $2.7 million in oil & gas leases despite not having the funds to pay for them right away in a creative nonviolent act to protect land from destructive oil and gas extraction.

Following the sentencing today, according to Peaceful Uprising’s website, Tim was taken immediately into custody, being denied the typical 3 weeks afforded to put his affairs in order and say goodbye to his friends and family.

“I’m not saying there isn’t a place for civil disobedience,” U.S. District Judge Dee Benson said, “but it can’t be the order of the day.”

Here’s more on this controversial auction and subsequent conviction from Peaceful Uprising:

DeChristopher was convicted of two felonies in March of 2011 after registering as a “good faith” bidder and outbidding oil and gas energy giants without intention or means to pay for the parcels he won. The auction was later overturned by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who ruled that the majority of parcels had not undergone adequate review. Despite cancelling the auction, the Obama administration proceeded to indict DeChristopher, whose trial and sentencing has continually been rescheduled for the last two and a half years. Judge Dee Benson ruled early on that Salazar’s dismissal of the auction and DeChristopher’s motivation would not be admissible in court during his trial.

Salt Lake City protestors Photo Credit: Cori Redstone/@CRedstone via Twitter

SUPPORTERS TURNED OUT IN THE STREETS

On sentencing day today, almost 3 years since the auction that landed DeChristopher in jail took place, people attended solidarity actions throughout the country to show their support for Tim DeChristopher.

In Salt Lake City where the sentencing took place, protestors shut down traffic in an act of non-violent protest.

San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos speaks to the crowd

I went to the  rally in San Francisco, along with folks from Rainforest Action Network, Peaceful Uprising and Justice in Nigeria NOW.

San Francisco Supervisor (and mayoral candidate) John Avalos was also there and delivered a speech that began with “it’s an honor to be here on behalf of bidder #70 Tim DeChristopher” and included “I’m glad to be standing here in support of Tim.” (The microphone was powered by that bike pictured in the photo background.)

San Francisco rally today

TAKE ACTION

Visit Peaceful Uprising’s website for action alerts, information & more!

Follow on Twitter: A great way to find out Tim DeChristopher news and solidarity actions is to follow the hashtag #Bidder70 on Twitter.

Watch Tim DeChristopher’s sobering keynote speech (below) from Powershift 2011:

What actions are you willing to take to fight for justice and a liveable future? You already know Tim’s answer.

Tim DeChristopher will be sentenced on July 26 after being found guilty of one count of violating the Federal Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act, and one count of False Statement March 3rd. He participated in the auction “won” $2.7 million in oil & gas leases in a brave creative nonviolent act to protect land from destructive oil and gas extraction. He is now facing 10 years in federal prison.

Flora Bernard, Co-Director of Peaceful Uprising, shares her thoughts about Tim DeChristopher’s prosecution:

When I first joined Peaceful Uprising, I didn’t know Tim DeChristopher. I was aware of the creative and bold action he took to derail an illegal, immoral federal auction of thousands of acres of Utah’s most cherished public lands. More importantly, I knew that Tim sees the climate crisis as the most urgent and universal issue of our era, and recognizes the need for more confrontational actions—the kind that require real sacrifice. That was enough for me to stand with Tim, and commit to fighting the industry and politics that continue to forfeit our living world and value profits over people.

Over the years, Tim and I have become close friends. As his sentencing date draws nearer every moment, I have a hard time believing that this honest, kind, hardworking, and relentlessly intelligent young man could actually spend time in a federal penitentiary for such a selfless, ingenious, peaceful and morally upright action.

Those of us who have followed Tim’s prosecution since his action in late December of 2008 are well aware that this is a purely political case. The federal government knows that this is a lose-lose situation for the prosecution; whatever sentence they give Tim will only galvanize and further empower climate justice activists. The prosecution’s attempts to disperse or dissipate solidarity, awareness, and actions around Tim’s trial failed, time and time again. Tim’s supporters recognize that the government is attempting to intimidate others from taking similarly bold action to combat the climate crisis. Our response will be one of continued joy and resolve: we will not be deterred in our fight for a just and healthy world. We refuse to be intimidated by an unjust system; one that seems hell-bent on condemning our generation and future generations to an unlivable climate and a ruined planet.

On July 26th, we will stand in solidarity with Tim. And regardless of what happens to Tim in that courtroom, we will continue to fight—for our climate, our planet, our right to our public lands and shared natural resources, and our future. I can’t think of a more meaningful way to honor Tim’s sacrifice than to continue to empower activists to take effective, nonviolent action, and make sacrifices of our own for the cause and the values we all share with Tim DeChristopher.

—

We here at Global Exchange  encourage you to take action in support of climate justice, Tim DeChristopher, and the rights of nature. Global Exchange works to promote the Rights of Nature and encourage communities to take action to protect land, nature and livelihood before oil and gas companies ‘bid’ for their ‘right’ to exploitation. When corporate executives decide to site an unwanted project in our communities, we are told we cannot say “no,” because that would be a violation of the corporation’s Constitutional rights. But we can rally to assert our rights to truly govern in the places where we live. Find out more here.

TAKE ACTION IN SUPPORT OF TIM DECHRISTOPHER

Tim and the folks at Peaceful Uprising in Utah are listing actions across the country to take on the day of Tim’s sentencing for folks who wish to participate in non violent actions and support climate justice and Tim. Below are some of those actions:

But first, check out this video of Tim speaking after his verdict for some inspiration:

Ok, now it’s time to get busy on these actions:

1) WRITE LETTERS TO MEDIA EDITORS – print or online The goal is to flood the press leading up to July 26th. You can use this letter to the editor template, these tips on writing a letter to the editor, and these talking points as tools to buttress your own personal perspective.

2) JOIN OR ORGANIZE A SOLIDARITY EVENT See the map to find a non-violent solidarity event at your nearest federal district court to join in or if there isn’t already an action near you organize your own and register it.

3) SPREAD THE WORD Publicize on social media (e.g., facebook and twitter). Simply click the “Share” and “Retweet” buttons next to this blog post!

Visit Peaceful Uprising’s website for other ways to spread the word and to find updated information.

As the international and Mexican delegates met on the beach in Acapulco this morning under a towering Mexican flag, representatives from local and state organizations and unions welcomed our participation on the Via Campesina caravan, and wished us well. They told us that by spending the next 2 days in the state of Guerrero we would be lending support and strength to the struggles that these communities faced.

The international contingent makes up 20 activists and independent media journalists from the USA, Holland, England, Ecuador and Canada (me!). Throughout the day we have picked up people joining the caravan, and expect to have a full bus by tomorrow.

Our spokesperson, Mickey McCoy from Kentucky, let everyone know that what we would see and learn during the next few days would inform our actions in Cancun and into the future. He also connected his work to stop Mountain Top Removal in the Appalachian Mountains to the struggle to stop the La Parota dam in Guerrero.

We then boarded the bus and after a short drive joined the community of Puerto Marquez, just outside of Acapulco, in the newly created hotel zone called Acapulco Diamante. On November 10, 150 families were descended upon by 2 levels of police and forcibly removed from their homes, their homes burned and they are still living in crisis and fear for their lives. We met them on the road, above the now fenced off and police ‘protected’ area where their houses stood. Men, women and children told of their experience of being woken, beaten and thrown out of their houses in the middle of the night. One small girl said that her only request was to the Governor: that he allow her family to have a house for Christmas.

We were left with an uncomfortable feeling of the true costs of unchecked ‘development’ driven by tourist dollars. While ocean and sand may cover the postcards and glossy airline ads, we heard today from 150 families whose lives are in chaos as a result of our aggressive sun seeking.”This land is not for sale,” they told us.

Then on to Agua Caliente, the community where the Council of Communal Lands and Communities Opposed to La Parota Dam (CECOP) formed and is fighting against the construction of the dam. It was explained to us that while the government has claimed that the construction of the dam is postponed until 2018, bits of construction continue and the community remains vigilant. They by no means feel that the fight is over. We were taken down to the rushing Papagayo river and a CECOP representative mused about how, with the construction of the dam, the river would cease to flow.

We have heard word of the other caravans’ travels today and as we learn more and more about our convergence in Mexico City and then on to Cancun, I’m in awe of this project that Via Campesina has organized and feel the responsibility that community members have bestowed on us to ensure that their voices are heard in Cancun. As one of my traveling mates remarked today, “makes me proud to be people.”

Throughout the day we have been honored to be joined and guided by Rodolfo Chaves Galindo, a CECOP founders and a tireless fighter to stop the La Parota dam. He has reiterated again and again “this land is not for sale”.

The people create thousands of solutions to confront climate change

Thousands of Cancuns for climate justice

La Via Campesina calls on social movements and all people to mobilize       around the world

Peasants are cooling down the planet

Globalize the struggle

Globalize hope!

Climate activists from around the globe have been planning activities on and around December 7th to unite as a community for climate justice and to denounce false solutions to climate change.

Get involved by participating wherever you are. Mobilizations can take many shapes: direct actions, parties, markets, festivals, discussions or exhibitions…. They can take place in any city, village, school or community. Actions are being posted every day at the Via Campesina webpage. In North America, the Mobilization for Climate Justice and the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance both have resources and updates.

Locally in the Bay Area, Mobilization for Climate Justice West is hosting a teach in on Dec 1. More details on that here. Also on Dec 7 MCJW will be pushing for the creation of a public park in the Mission on publicly-owned land currently used as a parking lot. Everyone is invited to build a garden, celebrate community-based activism and enjoy speakers, theatre and music!

Two more resources:

Via Campesina has created a great 7 minute video about climate justice looking towards Cancun, check it out here (also the Via Campesina call out for action) or here.

Grassroots Global Justice Alliance offers a fantastic action and communications toolkit for mobilizing here.

…And here are links to few principles sheets and documents in case you do not have them:

Cochabamba Accord

Indigenous Environmental Network Four Principles of Climate Justice

IEN Report and Statement on REDD

Global Justice Ecology Project Podcast on Cancun Climate Talks Exposes REDD (click on the 11/20/10 Earth Minute)

I join the Acapulco leg of the Caravans of Resistance and Against Environmental Destruction and Inaction (Caravanas en Resistencia en Contra de la Destrucción Ambiental y la Indolencia) tomorrow and will report out soon!

To support LVC’s actions in Cancun, donate here.

To act locally (Bay Area), support MCJW here.

COP16 starts on Nov 29 and runs until Dec 10 in Cancun, Mexico. COP16/CMP6 is the 16th edition of Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP). After the failure of COP15 in Copenhagen, sights are set both high and low for this round.

Climate justice campaigners, environmentalists and social justice advocates from around the world will be arriving in Mexico over the next week, many joining the three caravans set to depart Acapulco, El Salto (Guadalajara) and San Luis Potosí, arrive in Mexico City and then travel on to Cancun, arriving December 3rd. The international peasant movement, La Via Campesina, has arranged the caravans, which will stop at a variety of communities in struggle and resistance, with the objectives of:

– unmasking the double moral standard on the environment with which the government of Mexico maneuvers itself amidst the world-wide climatic crisis. At the same time exposing its true rapacious attitude towards the environment and its subservient attitude with the United States government.

– opening up a practical path of convergence between diverse social organizations of the United States, Canada and Mexico, which nowadays share, without knowing it and without much contact, an effort to struggle against neoliberalism.

– connecting numerous environmental struggles of Mexico with the global agenda of the movement against the world-wide climatic crisis.

– contributing, nationally and locally, to the global civil society’s enormous effort of denouncing the destructive attitude present in many regions of the world, and which is being espoused by the decisions and greed of the governments of the richest nations of the world and transnational corporations.

– nurturing as much as possible the campesino, indigenous and peoples mobilizations against the indolence with which the main countries and capitalists of the world will make themselves present at the COP-16 in Cancun.

– contributing in the preparation of new networks of international coordination.

The issues to be highlighted on the caravan from Acapulco will be: community struggles against dump sites, water contamination, hydroelectric generation and control of water, resistance and struggles in the mines and will travel through Guerrero, Morelos, and DF.

The issues to be highlighted on the caravan from Guadalajara will be: community struggles against damns and control of water, Indigenous struggles against deforestation, resistance against expropriation of communal agricultural lands for development, resistance against displacement by superhighway development and will travel through Jalisco, Michoacán, México and DF.

The issues to be highlighted on the caravan from San Luis Potosí will be: contamination by export agriculture contamination of local communities and rivers by fertilizers and other chemicals, community resistance to development and industrial contamination, community resistance and struggles against toxic waste sites and will travel through San Luis Potosí, Guanajuato, Hidalgo and DF.

 

The caravans are scheduled to arrive in Mexico City and thousands will participate in the protest for ‘Life, Social and Environmental Justice’.

Global Exchange will be participating in the caravans from Acapulco and Guadalajara all the way to Cancun and will be reporting daily from the road. More on what is being planned for Cancun tomorrow!

At the end of November, thousands of delegates representing governments from around the world will meet in the resort town of Cancún, Mexico for UN sponsored climate negotiations known as the Conference of Parties or, COP 16. But governments won’t be the only ones talking.

In Cancún and in thousands of cities and towns around the world, a growing movement of farmers, youth, workers, scientists, religious and other worried peoples of all stripes are fighting for strong, fair, and iron-clad agreements that will give humanity – and the eco-systems we depend on – a fighting chance for survival.

Global Exchange is joining a call by La Via Campesina (LVC) — the international peasant movement — inviting our activist members to consider joining a Caravan for Life and Environmental Justice through Mexico in late November.

Three caravans will travel through ten Mexican states, helping make local grass-roots environmental struggles more visible while building support for major demonstrations scheduled to take place worldwide while climate talks are underway.

These climate talks in Cancún are a critical moment to speak up for climate justice. Join us on a caravan to the climate talks in Cancún and be a part of the movement. Find out about caravan routes, the application process and costs. Caravan capacity is limited and Global Exchange is filling a small number of spots.

Hope to see you in Cancún.

You can also view this message here.