Copenhagen, Dec 13, 2009

Today, United States Secretary of Energy Steven Chu spoke in Copenhagen at Bright Green on alternative energy development and innovation.

Of note are his comments in support of nuclear power in part two beginning at 5:57 where he states that he believes the waste problem can be solved.

Partial Excerpt:
“I personally feel that nuclear power has to be part of the mix of the century because it is carbon free and it is baseload. I believe the nuclear reactors are much safer, the designs today.”

“So what are the issues? Are they going to be economical number one, and if they are designed properly we hope so. Are they going to be safe? The other thing is waste. I think the nuclear waste issue is a solvable problem, we know a lot more than the United States knew twenty five years ago…”

“To my mind the more serious problem which will require international cooperation is non-proliferation, once you have nuclear reactors, you could have, you have the option possibly of turning some of that into some bomb material, but, I think, again that is solvable.”

These comments contrasted sharply with comments by Dr. Helen Caldicott, who spoke inside the COP 15 and at the Copenhagen climate march the day earlier. Helen Caldicott stated that a nuclear reactor produces 250 kg of plutonium per year, and that 5 kg of plutonium is enough to produce a weapon.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Copenhagen, Dec 12, 2009

Helen Caldicott spoke this evening near the end of the Copenhagen climate march denouncing nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

Partial Text of Helen Caldicott’s Speech:
“Hello. The Earth is in the intensive care unit, it is acutely sick. We are all now physicians to a dying planet. We have to stop spending 1.7 trillion dollars on weapons and death. We have to make the politicians understand science. We have to make the politicians take responsibility not just for us, but all future generations yet to be born. ”

“The nuclear power industry have used global warming to say “we’re the answer”. All the money to go into nuclear power, 15 billion dollars per power plant, is being stolen from the solutions to fix the earth – solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, conservation. ”

“The nuclear power industry is wicked. The nuclear power industry was formed by the bomb makers – it’s the same thing. Nuclear power plants are bomb factories – they make plutonium. 250 kilos a year of plutonium that lasts for 250,000 years. You need 5 kilos to make a nuclear bomb. Any country that has a nuclear power plant has a bomb factory. ”

“If the second World War was fought today in Europe none of you would be here, Europe would be a radioactive wasteland, because all the nuclear power plants would melt down like Chernobyl. So war is now impossible in Europe. Do the politicians understand that? Nuclear power produces massive quantities, hundreds of thousands of tons of radioactive waste, which will get into the water concentrate into the fish, the milk, the food, human breast milk, fetuses, babies, children. Radioactive iodine causes thyroid cancer. 12,000 people in Belarus had thyroid cancer. Radioactive Strontium 90 causes bone cancer and leukemia, lasts for 600 years. Cesium 137 – all over Europe now – in the reindeer in the lands, in the food, lasts for six hundred years, causes brain cancer. Plutonium, the most dangerous substance on Earth, 1 millionth of a gram cause cancer, lasts for 250,000 years. Causes lung cancer, liver cancer, testicular cancer, damages fetuses so they are born deformed. Nuclear power therefore nuclear waste for all future generation will of cancer in young children because they are very sensitive, genetic disease, congenital deformities. Nuclear power is about disease, and it’s about death. It will produce the greatest public health hazard the world has ever seen for the rest of time. We must close down every single nuclear reactive in Europe and throughout the world…”

Report by James George

Copenhagen, Dec 12, 2009

Tom Goldtooth spoke this evening near the conclusion of the Copenhagen climate march on Indigenous Peoples rights and climate justice.

Text of Statement:
“Hej Kobenhavn!”

“It’s good to be here and it’s really good that you welcomed the Indigenous Peoples of the world. Our mother Earth is all of your mother Earth. As we came here as Indigenous People from every region of the Earth to demand that our rights be recognized by these governmental leaders, because if were going to have climate justice it’s that they have to recognize the collective, the human rights with an ‘s’ as people so that our rights will be recognized. Because we come from different parts of the world where we know that global warming is real, we know that climate change is real.”

“We come from people from South America, people from Africa, people from Australia, the Adivasi from India, the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific, from Asia, and Indigenous Peoples near the Artic areas. They are experiencing the reality that their ice is melting and that their ice culture is on the verge of destruction. So that’s why we are here asking for your support, as people here at Copenhagen, people of the world to stand up, not only for the rights of Indigenous Peoples, but your rights as people of the world, people of civil society.”

“We are witnessing something here in this Conference of the Party fifteen, where a lot of our world leaders are not negotiating for you, but they are negotiating for the corporations. I come from the reality of the belly of the beast. Our Indigenous Peoples from the United States. We know what it means to go without. We know when we talk about an energy system that is unsustainable. We know when were talking about climate that affects our food systems so when we demand food security, food sovereignty as a result of climate change, we know what were talking about. We know when there’s drought and we have no more water. We have Indigenous People who have the smallest carbon footprint in this world, but yet we are having the highest level, the highest level of health imparities. We have the highest level of environmental destruction as a result of a fossil fuel industry that is killing our people. We have to turn the fossil fuel system and make a transition away from that into a clean renewable energy system. ”

“We are talking about systemic change – systemic change away from a system that is killing the world. Our Indigenous Peoples and our elders they say that there will be a time when the trees will start dying from the top down. So we are here as Indigenous Peoples demanding that rights to be recognized, but we are also standing here with you, the people of the world, that it’s time for us to take over these negotiations and give these negotiations humanity, and respect for your mothers, respect for our brothers, respect for our elders and our youth, and our future generations, whatever they don’t do or do do is going to affect our younger generation. So I’m proud to be here from our people in Minnesota, and in New Mexico, our Navaho Indian Nation, our Lakota, our Sioux people, … to stand with all our relations. ”

Brief Interview with Tom Goldtooth:

“We’re here as people of the world, the planet,our mother Earth – and who best can speak for mother Earth but the Indigenous Peoples, and we’re here to demand justice, not only for ourselves, but also justice for humanity”

Report by James George

Copenhagen, Dec 9. 2009

US Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern stated in a press conference this afternoon:
“We’re not going to become part of the Kyoto Protocol, so that’s not on the table…”

‘COPENHAGEN — The top American envoy to climate talks here flatly rejected arguments Wednesday by diplomats from poor lands that the United States owes a debt to developing nations for decades of American emissions that contributed to global warming.’

via U.S. Negotiator Dismisses Reparations for Climate – NYTimes.com.

Copenhagen, Dec 9, 2009.

While accepting that the US is the world’s largest historic GHG emitter, US Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern rejected outright the notion of a US climate debt or obligation for climate reparations, stating that there is no guilt because during most of the period since the industrial revolution people were blissfully ignorant of the climatic effects of CO2 emissions.

In recent days the G77 has been strongly critical of the $10 Billion adaptation figure being bandied about, stating it is not even enough to buy the coffins that will be needed. While saying he favors using funds to address real human needs, Stern did not specifically reply to a question of whether the US would consider more than the proposed $10 Billion/year for a climate fund.

Still the issue of climate debt is certainly a big part of the conversation here in Copenhagen, especially among representatives of developing nations. This morning, the “climate agents” were on display holding a banner saying “Rich countries pay your climate debt”.

Copenhagen, Dec 9, 2009 11:28 am

Tuvalu addressed the plenary this morning, re-presenting a proposal for adding an additional protocol to the Kyoto protocol, and calling for a 1.5 degree celsius maximum temperature increase target and a green house gas stabilization limit target of 350 ppm.

Excerpt from Tuvalu’s address:
“Tuvalu, being one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the impacts of climate change is honored and pleased to speak on this agenda item. Our future depends upon the outcome of this meeting. ”

“As parties are aware, Tuvalu has proposed a legally binding protocol to be incorporated under the COP. This protocol is not a replacement of the Kyoto protocol, we believe it should complement the ongoing Kyoto protocol. We have proposed amendments to the Kyoto protocal to make this clear. this The proposal for a new protocal was tabled six months ago. Therefore this is not a last minute matter. All parties have had a chance to read this proposal, and let me explain some of the key elements of the protocal.”

“Our protocal proposal follows closely the elements on the Bali action plan. It has a section on shared vision. It highlights the importance that actions to address climate to address climate change must aim to insure that global temperature increases are well below 1.5 degrees Celsius and that green house gas concentrations must stabilize at 350 parts per million at the most. Our survival is contingent upon these numbers. It’s a matter of survival.”

Senegal voices support for the Tuvalu proposal “as the only way of paying back the climate debt, which is the result of unlimited exploitation of natural resources”.