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Climate Justice:
"At one point the heat cover - it was above 100 degrees F, and it just killed all the fish in the lake through heat exposure. And we've experienced extreme heat waves. We've got four healthy seasons, winter, spring, summer and fall and now sometimes it comes too late - like right now it's coming too late. I've seen a lot of new growth of vegetation come into our area. Other insects and other birds and animals start coming in. Tree beetles came in and ruined a lot of trees in Alaska and they had to be cut down. And due to all the water draining, there's a high potential for forest fires. There have been a lot of forest fires in our area. Also a lot of ice is melting sooner when the end of the summer comes around." - Sarah James, Gwich'in Alaska -
CLIMATE JUSTICE: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate Change is Real
"Projected climate changes during the 21st century have the potential to lead to future large-scale and possibly irreversible changes in Earth systems, resulting in impacts on continental and global scales." - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001- Climate change refers to the warming of the planet caused largely by the burning of fossil fuels and other industrial activities.
- The 1990s was the warmest decade, 1998 being the warmest year on record.
- The increase in temperature in the 20th century is likely to have been the largest of any century during the past 1,000 years.
- Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions account for 64% of global warming greenhouse gases. 75% of human caused CO2 emissions come from burning of oil, coal, and gas.
- If it is not halted, climate change will most probably result in increased frequency and severity of storms, floods, drought, and water shortage; the spread of disease, increased hunger, displacement and mass migrations of people and ensuing social conflict and war.
- Climate change is seen as a political issue that must be dealt with both locally and internationally.
Indigenous Peoples Support the Bolivia Cochabamba Peoples’ Agreement of the recent People’s Global Summit on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth Rejection of Carbon Market Regimes
May 7, 2010My name is Tom B.K. Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. Our Indigenous network represents indigenous communities throughout the world experiencing the affects of climate change. The Indigenous Environmental Network is based in Minnesota, USA.
I am here at United Nations headquarters as part of an international delegation of civil society and social movements invited by President Evo Morales Ayma of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to lift up the importance of the Peoples’ Agreement and the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth, that are outcomes of the People’s Global Summit on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth.
Indigenous peoples from throughout the Americas and throughout the world participated in the Global Summit. Indigenous peoples stood together with the social movement of the world acknowledging that Mother Earth is the source of all life. World leaders and parties to the UN climate negotiations must reevaluate what their relationship is the sacredness of Mother Earth. The draft Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth developed in Cochabamba is an international framework to ensure mechanisms for the recognition of human rights, the rights of those that cannot speak for themselves and of our Mother Earth.
As representatives of social movements and civil society of the world – we are asking for meaningful and effective participation of civil society and social movements in Cancun and all UN climate change negotiations. The Copenhagen UN climate meeting did not allow this to happen. We are a movement of millions of people throughout the world demanding transparency, inclusion and to have a voice in UN climate negotiations that will create climate policy that directly affects the future of our communities and the world.
One of the key points of the Cochabamba Peoples’ Agreement was the rejection of carbon market mechanisms within climate agreements and negotiations such as the controversial REDD initiative (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) and REDD+ that want to use forests as a commodity to be traded in a carbon offset regime, as well as Clean Development Mechanism projects.
Indigenous people the world over are suffering from human rights abuses from carbon trading and carbon offsets. Indigenous peoples’ cosmovision and our worldview are concerned of a world that privatizes the air, water and commodifies the sacredness of Mother Earth. We must de-colonize the atmosphere.
The Copenhagen Accord was a high-stakes deal-maker and was really a Copenhagen Steal that did not recognize, nor had any language ensuring the rights of Indigenous Peoples. This will lead to further human rights violations, climate destruction, lost of land and disruption of the livelihood and well-being of indigenous communities from the arctic to the global south.
As Indigenous Peoples, we are the guardians of Mother Earth, and must make principled stands for the global well-being of all people and all life. The adoption of the Cochabamba Peoples’ Agreement and the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth is extremely necessary, if we are to survive this climate crisis that will be getting worst in decades to come.
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Climate Justice Project: Documents - Statements - Reports:
International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) Position Concerning the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties Under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) — Adopted in Barcelona, 02-06 November 2009Briefings from the Third World Network:
TWN Briefing Papers -
UN Climate Change Talks
Bangkok (28 SEPTEMBER - 09 OCTOBER 2009)
Briefing Paper No. 1
New report warns of "climate genes" biopiracy from Africa
by Chee Yoke Heong
Briefing Paper No. 2
The Rise of 'Climate Protectionism'
by Martin Khor
UN Climate Change Talks
Barcelona (02 NOVEMBER - 06 NOVEMBER 2009)
Briefing Paper No. 1
Why we need to save the Kyoto Protocol
by Lim Li Lin
Bonn News Updates and Climate Briefings
August 2009
Bonn News Updates and Climate Briefings
March/April 2009
Mobilization for Climate Justice Open Letter to the Grassroots
Help Organize for Urgent Action on Climate Change
The Mobilization for Climate Justice is a North America-based network of organizations and activists who have joined together to build a North American climate justice movement that emphasizes non-violent direct action and public education to mobilize for effective and just solutions to the climate crisis.
The Mobilization for Climate Justice invites communities, organizations and activists across North America to join us in organizing mass action on climate change on November 30, 2009 (N30). N30 is significant because it both immediately precedes the upcoming UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen (COP-15) and is the ten-year anniversary of the successful shut down of the WTO in Seattle, when activists worldwide came together to demonstrate the power of collective action.
The Copenhagen climate meetings will be a major focus for international mass actions this November and December, and the MCJ is linked to these efforts as well.
Urgent action is needed around the Copenhagen climate talks because this is where governments around the world plan to finalize the international climate regime that will take effect when the Kyoto Protocol climate agreement expires in 2012. So far it appears that the new climate agreement will be nothing more than business as usual--sacrificing real action on climate change in favor of market-based approaches that enhance corporate profits, while delaying urgent measures to forestall catastrophic global heating.
A Radical Change in Direction is Urgently Needed
The MCJ invites you to inspire and organize a radical change in direction to put climate justice, ecological integrity and people's rights at the center of international climate negotiations.
Market-based approaches to climate change dominate the UN climate talks. Carbon-trading and carbon offset projects have allowed polluters to avoid cutting emissions and accelerated the corporate take-over of the natural world at the expense of local and Indigenous communities. Those most immediately threatened by climate change and its false solutions - Indigenous Peoples, people of color, women, peasant and family farmers, fisherfolk, forest dependent communities, youth, and marginalized communities have been systematically excluded from the negotiations.
The climate crisis is directly linked to the financial crisis, the food crisis and the extinction crisis, as well as to militarism and war. They are rooted in an economic system dedicated to economic growth at any cost. We are uniting to challenge this system that puts profits over people or the earth. Urgent action to solve the climate crisis must include a complete transformation away from the dominant economic model of incessant and unsustainable growth, oppression and injustice.
We must highlight real, effective and just solutions to climate change
Join us in promoting solutions to climate change that are locally controlled, decentralized, bioregionally appropriate and socially just. Thousands of these solutions already exist and need to be promoted and supported with public funds.
Click here to read the rest of this call to action.
The Anchorage Declaration
24 April 2009From 20-24 April, 2009, Indigenous representatives from the Arctic, North America, Asia, Pacific, Latin America, Africa, Caribbean and Russia met in Anchorage, Alaska for the Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change. We thank the Ahtna and the Dena’ina Athabascan Peoples in whose lands we gathered.
We express our solidarity as Indigenous Peoples living in areas that are the most vulnerable to the impacts and root causes of climate change. We reaffirm the unbreakable and sacred connection between land, air, water, oceans, forests, sea ice, plants, animals and our human communities as the material and spiritual basis for our existence.
We are deeply alarmed by the accelerating climate devastation brought about by unsustainable development. We are experiencing profound and disproportionate adverse impacts on our cultures, human and environmental health, human rights, well-being, traditional livelihoods, food systems and food sovereignty, local infrastructure, economic viability, and our very survival as Indigenous Peoples.
Mother Earth is no longer in a period of climate change, but in climate crisis. We therefore insist on an immediate end to the destruction and desecration of the elements of life.
Click here to view/download the entire Declaration (PDF)
Click here to view/read the entire Declaration (HTML)
Indigenous Peoples’ Guide
FALSE SOLUTIONS TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Our planet is heating up at an alarming rate, threatening our very survival. What needs to be done is simple: The pollution and destruction of Earth must be stopped immediately. But instead, there is a lot of greed, false solutions and lies about how to save our future. It seems that leaders of the world are more concerned about making money than solving the climate crisis.You have in your hands a quick guide to the truth about false solutions to climate change. These market-based scams allow polluters to avoid reducing their pollution, continue to destroy nature and make millions while they are at it. The United Nations, the World Bank, industry, multinationals, governments and even some NGOs promote this climate fraud. Could it be that crimes against humanity and the planet are being committed and nobody knows?
But what does all this have to do with Indigenous Peoples?
Unfortunately, most of these false solutions are violating not only the law of nature but also Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Many of these so-called “solutions” to Climate Change are grabbing our land and devastating our territories. Indigenous Peoples need to know what’s going on so that we can fight back.
Click Here to Read/Download (PDF)
Una Guia para los Pueblos Indígenas
FALSAS SOLUCIONES al CAMBIO CLIMÁTICO
Nuestro planeta se está calientando de una forma alarmante, amenzando nuestra sobrevivencia. Lo que hay que hacer es obvio: La contaminación y la destrucción del mundo se deben detener de inmediato. En cambio, hay mucha avaricia, falsas soluciones y mentiras sobre cómo salvar nuestro futuro. Parece que los líderes del mundo se preocupan más por hacer plata que por resolver la crisis climática.Tienes en las manos una guia rápida a la verdad sobre las falsas soluciones al cambio climático. Esas tranzas del mercado permiten que los contaminadores esquiven su obligación de reducir su contaminación, sigan destruyendo la natureleza y al mismo tiempo ganen muchos milliones de dólares. Las Naciones Unidas, el Banco Mundial, las industrias, las empresas multinacionales, los gobiernos y incluso algunas ONGs promueven este fraude climático.
¿Acaso se están cometiendo crimenes contra la humanidad y el planeta y nadie se da cuenta?
¿Pero qu é t i en e qu e ver todo eso con los Pu e bl os In d ígenas ?
Desafortunadamente, la mayoria de las falsas soluciones están violando no solamente la ley de la natureleza pero también los derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas. Muchas de las llamadas “soluciones” al cambio climático están robando nuestra tierra y devastando nuestros territorios. Los Pueblos Indígenas necesitamos saber qué pasa para que podamos defendernos.
Haga clic aquí para descargar. (PDF)