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 - |
IEN Global Climate Justice Project:
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 Click here to read/download Carbon Supermarket - Your Future for Sale (PDF) |
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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 RegimesMay 7, 2010 My 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. Download/Read PDF |
A Dangerous Obsession - A Research Report
 Click here to read and download the report: A Dangerous Obsession (pdf) |
The authors of this report have done a masterful job of drawing together a highly dispersed literature representing more than a decade of critical perspectives on carbon trading. This critique is based on the inability of carbon markets to achieve greenhouse gas reductions on the scale required to avert highly disruptive temperature increases by mid-century. The report catalogues the repeated failure of global and regional carbon trading to deliver in its own terms as expressed in the promises of its advocates. The authors decisively reject the argument that the disappointing record of attempts to construct carbon markets is due to "teething problems" or because we have not tried hard enough. Rather, they demonstrate that the carbon trading architecture is fundamentally unfit for purpose and cannot possibly deliver the stabilisation of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations that the scientific community is calling for in the time frame that matters. |
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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 2009 Briefings from the Third World Network:TWN Briefing Papers - |
What is Global Climate Change aka Global Warming?
Global climate change refers to the overall warming of Mother Earth caused by automobiles and industrial activities. It disrupts the stability that all life has depended on in the last 1000 years. It poses a serious threat to our way of life as Indigenous peoples who live close to the land and water and depend on her resources to sustain life and the future of our unborn generations.
Over the century, human activities of the industrialized world have caused excessive amounts of greenhouse gases to accumulate in the atmosphere. The burning of coal, oil, and gas and cutting down forests cause global climate change by releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This is causing global temperatures to rise, which affects all natural cycles that have sustained life on Mother Earth. Global climate change has caused severe disruption and change in water, land, air, and many other resources and living things. Extreme weather, such as frequent storms, floods, droughts, heat, snow, and rain are occurring in places that never happened before. With increasing global climate change people are hit by water shortages, new diseases, hunger, and displacement leading to social conflicts over resources. These events have devastated communities by wiping out their basis of survival, such as food, water, air, and shelter. Without the economic resources to defend themselves increasing global climate change leaves these communities vulnerable to its consequences.
Greenhouse Gases and the Greenhouse Effect
Greenhouse gases (GHG) such as carbon dioxide and methane are produced from the burning of fossil fuels. These gases when released into the atmosphere trap heat that results in keeping our Mother Earth's surface warm. This is called the greenhouse effect (GHE). It isthe process that has kept Mother Earth hospitable for us to live in. Without the stable balanced amount of greenhouse gases, MotherEarth would be either too cold or too hot for us live in.
Scientists point out that this stable balance has been changing because of increased greenhouse gas accumulation. This has changed the overall temperature our Mother Earth's surface. In the last century, specifically from the period of industrial revolution until now, the temperature has increased 1 degree. This temperature increase is significant because global temperature has been relatively stable for the last 1000 years. Temperature is predicted to rise even more as greenhouse gas emission increases in the world. This temperature change will bring devastating impacts to the natural cycles and resources on Mother Earth.
What Are the Sources of Greenhouse Gases?
In the U.S., our greenhouse gas emissions come mostly from energy use. These are driven largely by economic growth, fuel used for electricity generation, and weather patterns affecting heating and cooling needs. Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, resulting from petroleum and natural gas, represent 82 percent of total U.S. human-made greenhouse gas emissions.
U.S. Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Gas, 2001 (Million Metric Tons of Carbon Equivalent)
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