A year and several months ago, I returned to New York from the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia. While at the conference, I live blogged events in the many different forums of the conference, and also posted short analytical essays chronicling my reaction to the various interventions unfolding at the conference. Social Text online now presents these different pieces as a unified dossier in order to preserve this important historical moment. >>
People's Conference on Climate Change
A year and several months ago, I returned to New York from the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia. While at the conference, I live blogged events in the many different forums of the conference, and also posted short analytical essays chronicling my reaction to the various interventions unfolding at the conference. Social Text online now presents these different pieces as a unified dossier in order to preserve this important historical moment.
The NYC delegation arrived on a red-eye flight from a stormy Miami early this morning. The delegation, assembled by the Bolivian embassy in NYC based on submitted applications, is an extremely diverse group, including grassroots housing activists, union representatives, media activists, environmental NGOs like WE ACT, and green urban planners, to name just a few of the backgrounds of the 40-person strong group. It's an education just to hang out with these folks and find out about the diverse struggles they're engaging in in NYC.Today we unpacked in the house we're staying in, then headed to a small town near Cochabamba to register. The line was long but things were extremely well organized. The most amazing aspect of the whole...>>
We arrive in the stadium of the University of Univalle at 8am, walking through a gauntlet of military police, naval police, army officers, cobra special SWAT troops, etc. The bleachers are sparsely populated by Bolivians with their union banners hanging off the upper steps. The main group in the center of the field is a huge contingent of extremely vocal Argentinians from a group called Los Pibes (the kids), with bright blue banners waving in the early morning sunlight. They created an incredibly festive atmosphere, chanting what sounds just like a football chant, but with some souped-up words: "Olé, Olé, Ola, Yo non so Yanqui e No Quiero Ser, Sono Con Chavez, Correa, e Fidel" (Olé, Olé, Ola, I'm not...>>
Pachamama o muerte! For the planet or for death! I salute the social movements, unions, government representatives, and many people who have come to Bolivia, the heart of the Americas, to participate in this conference in the defense of pachamama.Copenhagen wasn't a fiasco; it was a victory for the people and a failure of the powerful nations of the world. It's the so-called underdeveloped countries protect who respect Kyoto. The Copenhagen Accord will lead to warming of more than 4° Celsius. That's why we've called this meeting. We're facing mass extinction and other terrible effects. We need to establish a limit of 350ppm of carbon in the atmosphere.But underdeveloped countries are only responsible for 5% of greenhouse gas emissions....>>
Working groups started this morning. As I said in my last post, we missed some of the discussions because of registration. So, I'm picking up halfway through the day of discussions over Action Strategies to deal with the climate crisis. This is one of the many working groups set up for the conference. Here's the full list:01. Structural causes02. Harmony with Nature03. Mother Earth Rights04. Referendum05. Climate Justice Tribunal06. Climate Migrants07. Indigenous Peoples08. Climate Debt09. Shared Vision10. Kyoto Protocol11. Adaptation12. Financing13. Technology Transfer14. Forest15. Dangers of Carbon Market16. Action Strategies17. Agriculture and food sovereigntyMore details are available on the conference website.Now, after that brief background info, let me get straight to what's unfolding in front of me in the conference....>>
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James Hansen:This is a time pregnant with danger. This danger exists because of a large gap between what the science has made clear and what the public realizes. It has become clear from the science that we are in a dangerous situation. The climate system responds slowly to man-made factors. But it does respond. And we're pushing the system to the point where we can guarantee that large changes are going to become evident in the next few decades. But the public at large is not well informed because of the nature of discussion in the media. The public thinks scientists are still debating whether Climate Change (CC) is happening. But it's clear that we're passing major tipping points. For...>>
Pachamama o muerte! (Mother Earth or Death)Evo's rallying cry at the beginning and end of his speech confirmed everything that I'd hoped to find in Bolivia. Here is a leader who really understands the stakes of the epic struggle that we face in climate change and articulates that struggle to potent revolutionary traditions. Before coming on stage, Evo sang the Bolivian national anthem, which ends in an assertion of loyalty to the nation something along the lines of patria o muerte. So, when Evo says pachamama o muerte (Mother Nature or Death), he's linking the struggle for climate justice to Bolivarian traditions of battle against Spanish colonialism and U.S. imperialism.It's one thing to understand the stakes and science of climate...>>
Greetings from the Postmaster General of Bolivia. The Bolivian postal service is issuing two stamps that illustrate the impact of global warming in our country: an image of a glacier from the Bolivian Andes that only 10 years ago was still extensive, and now is completely gone - which the second stamp shows. Panel participants: Miguel D'Escoto (former President of the United Nations General Assembly), Leonardo Boff (Liberation Theologian), Alberto Acosta (Ecuadorian economist and politician), Cormac Cullinan (South African environmental lawyer), Mari Margil (Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund)Miguel D'Escoto: Not long ago there were meetings like this to discuss women's rights and black people's rights. The human conscience is something that is constantly developing. Right now we are coming to understand...>>
Jonathan Neele: I speak for an alliance of 6 labor unions in the UK (www.campaigngcc.org/greenjobs). We have a campaign for 1 million green jobs in the UK. But I want to join with all of you in this campaign, because unless we act now, we run the risk of run-away climate change. No one is sure when this tipping point is, but we have to think that we have twenty years in order to organize. If we hit the tipping point, it will mean that the rains will fail, creating famine and hundreds of millions of refugees, and war. This will change the balance of economies and power, and countries will go to war to change that balance back. We're now...>>
I have the feeling that a lot is going on behind the scenes. Day three featured a mix of panels with expert testimony and reports by Working Groups. I'll talk first about the latter. I attended presentations for the working groups on a global referendum on the rights of Mother Earth, and on technology transfer. After the latter, I spoke to a guy from Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based non-governmental organization, who had been made the chair. He explained to me that the working groups had been convened four months or so ago to pull together statements in each of their areas of interest. People could sign up on the website and participate in a discussion that led to the...>>
Oscar Olivera (OO) is a trade unionist and leader of the famous water wars which unfolded in Cochabamba in 2000 following the privatization of the city's water supply. The water wars, which involved shutting down Cochabamba for six months, were so successful because the social movements fighting against privatization of municipal water supplies were extremely well informed. There were four major leaders of the water wars, and the only one who hasn't entered government is Olivera.Interview conducted by Ashley Dawson (AD) and James Johnson (JJ). Translation by Estela Vazquez. JJ: We'd like to speak to you about your experience so that we can see if we can draw lessons for our struggles in US. So how did you get involved in...>>
I should add that there is, of course, lots and lots of media coverage here. Not enough international though. But Democracy Now, beating mainstream coverage by a mile as usual, is covering the events. Check out their coverage here. It's going on all week. Also, some of the NYC delegation who are media workers have already begun posting their material online. The photographer Alexandra Corazza has some up here - check them out for a different angle on the conference....>>
Before everything else, the Cochabamba conference was remarkable for bringing together a large group of radical activists from all around the world. The social connections and sense of possibility that resulted from the exchanges that unfolded in this setting were immensely valuable. For an overview of the conference that includes many interviews as well as the official publications of the various different working groups, check out the conference website. These social connections will be hugely important in building the movement for climate justice on a local, national, and international plane in the coming months and years. Based on my interviews with activists on the trip back to the U.S., being in Cochabamba made North Americans particularly aware of the responsibility they...>>
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