Online article on the WSF 2009:
‘The “alter-globalization” movement gathers in Brazil at a moment of crisis in the system it has long opposed.’
News: Archive for January, 2009
World Social Forum, More Panels and Discussions on Climate Justice, Carbon Extraction, and Carbon Markets
Friday, January 30th, 2009Jan 30, 2009. Belem, Brazil, Forum Social Mundial
Tom Goldtooth, Navaho/Dakota: “Climate change is a very serious issue, especially when we look at how certain communities across the world are disproportionally effected…the most impacted are the poor people, the disenfranchised.”
Jutta of FERN: “Some of the dirtiest polluters in the Global South have found a way to use these carbon markets”
“This carbon market has already created a whole new industry… and you have brokers … who have speculative capital to invest.”
Michael Karikpo, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria:
“The best way to address the climate change issue … is to stop the extraction of carbon from the ground.”
“We see this [oil extraction in Nigeria] as a continuation of colonization, a continuation of inequalities that exist around the world.”
“You need to come to Niger Delta. You need to see the level of destruction.”
“We built solidarity…It was solidarity the set off the Niger Delta struggle that you hear about today.”
Ben Powless, Indigenous Environmental Network
“I think the solution revolves around several simple concepts that we can all agree on: respect, democracy, justice.”
World Social Forum Morning Image
Friday, January 30th, 2009
The morning walk of the participants to the days events spread out across the University jungle-like landscape along the banks of the Amazon River in Belem, Brazil.
Even more tents were to be seen crowded along the sides of the road to help accommodate the many participants which have filled local hotels to capacity.
World Social Forum Climate Change and Climate Justice Panels
Friday, January 30th, 2009The intense dialogue continued Jan 29, 2009 at the WSF in Belem, these images are from Climate Panels. The testimony here reveals that Carbon Trading and the Clean Development Mechanism are having severe impacts on Southern and indigenous peoples, and ultimately won’t achieve lower carbon emissions.
El Salvadorian Panelist Caroline Amaika of Jubilee South:
“They [Global North] have not lowered their emissions…”
“Climate change is like a boat adrift. We are traveling 3rd class, but it is even affecting first class.”
Moira Millan, a speaker from Patagonia, Argentina of the Mapuche people:
“We have become guardians of the earth, believing that we have to follow the spirit left by our ancestors, resisting the extractive model.”
“The world crisis is a great opportunity against this colonization”
“Floods are the direct outcome of the destruction in Amazonia”.
“Nature is already giving us a very clear answer.”
“We have to change the production consumption model”.
Hugo, with Friends of the Earth International:
“Climate Change could be considered as a symptom that our planet feels as a consequence of the 200 years of destruction that was brought by capitalist hegemonization of the planet.
…There is a direct correlation between capitalism and historical warming…
…We can call this the climate debt, the CO2 debt.”
“Social change must take place today if we want to avoid a planetary collapse.”
Christophe Aguitou of Franch urges that we “…do what we can do to achieve a critical mass at Copenhagen.”
South African Michelle Pressend, of biowatch.org took the mic:
“We have this whole now form of green consumerism emerging”
“What can we do to bring in environmental groups that are entrenched in a very technical debate?”
“People have the right to feed themselves and survive and to protect their agriculture as well.”
Teresa Turner of the International Oil Working Group (See oilwatch.org) took the mic: “If we could recognize these women led initiatives to keep fossil fuels underground, in Nigeria, Canada, Ecuador, Peru, and other oil and coal producing areas, then this could be revolutionary tipping point to a post capitalist, post fossil fuel reality”.
World Social Forum – “We don’t want development with death. We don’t want the death of our rivers”
Thursday, January 29th, 2009Jan 28, 2009 Belem, Brazil
Breaking down into smaller groupings at the real work begins at the World Social Forum. Powerful testimony from Amazonian peoples makes it personal.
WSF: Ivaneide Bandeira Cardozo of Kaninde.org.br speaking on deforestation, dams, and environmental destruction in the Amazon region.
“We don’t want development with death. We don’t want the death of our rivers”
Ivaneide featured in earlier online articles at survival internation and Panda.org
Inside this meeting
More images of the day:
Arildo Surui (center)
World Social Forum Enthusiastic Opening Parade in Pictures: Marching, Chanting, and Dancing through Torrential Downpour
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009Belem, Brazil, Jan 27, 2009
Tens of thousands of Brazilians and social activists from around the world opened the World Social Forum today, marching, chanting, and dancing through the streets amidst a torrential downpour that lasted several hours.
WSF Parade: Marching in the Rain
WSF Parade: Greenpeace
WSF Parade: Torrential Downpour
Greenpeace, Deforestation Zero – It’s now or now
WSF Parade: Joy is a form of resistance
WSF Parade: Our Planet is Not For Sale
WSF Parade: Marching in the Rain
WSF Parade: Global March of Women
WSF Parade: Amazonian Peoples
WSF Parade: Videographers Make Do
WSF Parade: Amazonian Peoples at the World Social Forum Parade
Clinton Names Climate Envoy (Todd Stern) – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009‘Citing the “complex, urgent and global threat of climate change,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton today appointed a special envoy for climate change [Todd Stern], who will lead the United States in international climate negotiations…
The appointment caps off a day of aggressive environmental moves by the Obama administration. Together they signal a sharp break from the Bush administration, which took little action to mitigate climate change.’
via Clinton Names Climate Envoy – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com.
Todd Stern coordinated the Clinton administration’s Initiative on Global Climate Change from 1997 to 1999, acting as the senior White House negotiator at the Kyoto and Buenos Aires negotiations.