Yearly Archives: 2012

by | 2012-07-30 · 11:43

Photo Essay: Converge on the Conference, Burlington, VT

Innu people and Quebec student strikers march and speak out against Hydro-Quebec; protesters assaulted by police at New England Governors’ Conference

Photos by Will Bennington and Avery Pittman

Police question organizers about plans for a march through downtown Burlington. Photo: Will Bennington

Preparing for solidarity with Quebec student strikers. Photo: Will Bennington

Elyse Vollant, an Innu woman who organizes Innu communities in opposition to Hydro Quebec dams on La Romaine River and “Plan Nord” addresses a crowd of more than 500 protestors before the opening march. Photo: Will Bennington

Elyse’s daughters listen as she expresses that her activism against Hydro Quebec and Plan Nord is “for my children.” Photo: Will Bennington

Quebec student-strikers chant “Solidarite” after Elyse Vollant addresses the crowd. Photo: Will Bennington

The Brass Balagan, from Burlington, leads over 500 protesters through downtown Burlington and to the Hilton Hotel.

Charlie Delaney, a member of the Nulhegan Abenaki community, marches in solidarity with Innu protestors. Photo: Will Bennington

Protestors descend upon the HIlton, where governors and premiers are discussing trade and energy policy. Photo: Will Bennington

Bea Bookchin (center) and other demonstrators rest after the march on the Hilton. Photo: Will Bennington

Protestors face off with riot police. Protestors were preventing buses from carrying governors and premiers to a private dinner and party at Shelburne Farms. Several protestors were shot at close range with rubber and stinging bullets. Photo: Avery Pittman

An Innu child plays while Elyse Vollant addresses a crowd of more than 100 people gathered to hear about their struggle against Hydro Quebec and Plan Nord. Andrew Simon, from 350VT, is translating for Elyse. Photo: Will Bennington

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by | 2012-07-26 · 15:30

Audio: KPFK Sojourner Truth show Earth Segment on Quebec’s Plan Nord and Innu opposition

Keith Brunner of Gears of Change discusses the Plan Nord, a massive development plan for northern Quebec that includes dams, mines and other industrial development.  He also discusses the opposition to this plan by the Innu People who live in the region, and a delegation of Innu that are coming to Burlington, VT to protest the New England Governors’ conference, where Quebec’s Premier will also attend.

Global Justice Ecology Project teams up with KPFK’s Sojourner Truth show for weekly Earth Minutes every Tuesday and Earth Segment interviews every Thursday.

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Filed under Actions / Protest, Climate Change, Earth Radio, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Green Economy, Greenwashing, Hydroelectric dams, Indigenous Peoples

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by | · 10:12

La Via Campesina at Rio+20: The people of the world say “No to the Green Economy”

For a week throughout the People’s Summit, Via Campesina, the global movement of peasant farmers, mobilized in Rio de Janeiro to say “No to the Green Economy” and to reinvigorate the process of building new alliances thanks to plenaries, social movements’ assemblies, street demonstrations to show the real needs and aspirations of our peoples.

Download the article in PDF format.

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Filed under Climate Change, Corporate Globalization, Food Sovereignty, Green Economy, Land Grabs, Latin America-Caribbean, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, Rio+20, Solutions

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by | 2012-07-24 · 15:30

Earth Minute: climate change driving water conflicts between India and Pakistan

Global Justice Ecology Project teams up with KPFK Los Angeles’ Sojourner Truth show hosted by Margaret Prescod for weekly Earth Minutes every Tuesday and weekly Earth Segment interviews every Thursday.

This week’s earth minute discusses the growing conflict over water between India and Pakistan that is being fueled by the shrinking of the Himalayan glaciers–source of fresh water for 1.3 billion people.

Text from this week’s Earth Minute:

India has begun construction on a 330 megawatt hydroelectric project that would dam the Kissanganga river just before it enters Pakistan.

This project is a major source of tension between India and Pakistan, since Pakistan depends on the river and the Himalayan glaciers that feed it to provide drinking water and agricultural to its population.

According to Reuters, Pakistan’s Capitol, Islamabad, complained to an international court that this dam, one of dozens planned by India, will affect river flows in Pakistan and is illegal. The court has halted any permanent work on the river for the moment, although India can still continue tunneling and other related projects.

Disputes over land have historically led to two wars between India and Pakistan.   Now, with climate change melting the glaciers of the Himalayas faster than they can recover, the drinking water for a growing population of 1.3 billion people in the region is threatened–leading to major concerns about new military conflicts over access to fresh water.  Only one more way that global warming can lead to global war.

For the Earth Minute and the Sojourner Truth show, this is Anne Petermann from Global Justice Ecology Project.

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by | · 12:40

Three responses to Bill McKibben’s new article, “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math”

The following three pieces, by Anne Petermann, Dr. Rachel Smolker, and Keith Brunner were written in response to Bill McKibben’s new article in Rolling Stone magazine, titled, “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math: Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe – make clear who the real enemy is.”

The System Will Not be Reformed

Response by Anne Petermann

Bill McKibben, in his new Rolling Stone article, “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math” does an effective job at summarizing the hard and theoretical numbers that warn us of the devastating impacts of continuing to burn the Earth’s remaining fossil fuel reserves–yet it somehow falls short of its stated goal to help mobilize a new movement for climate action.

While the article is full of facts and figures and the future they portend, it falls into several traps common to US-based environmentalists, which undermine its movement-building objective.

The first and most obvious trap is relying on math to mobilize a movement. Environmentalists, often worried about attacks on their credibility, or afraid they will be labeled “emotional” by industry, tend to focus on statistics, mathematical analyses and hard science to make their case.  Unfortunately statistics like “565 Gigatons or 2,795 Gigatons” do not inspire passion.

While McKibben is focusing on Gigatons and percentages and degrees Celsuis, however, corporations like Shell are running multi-million dollar ad campaigns with TV commercials that feature families having fun, hospitals saving lives, children getting good educations, because of fossil fuels.  Coal = energy security; natural gas = maintaining the American way of life.  And as Dr. Rachel Smolker of BiofuelWatch points out below, some of these very same companies are moving into the bioenergy realm–wreaking yet more havoc on communities and ecosystems in the name of supposedly “clean, renewable energy.”  They are playing both sides of the field in the effort to ensure Americans do not feel their way of life is in any way threatened–ensuring them that they can have their cake and eat it too.  For while China may have surpassed the US in total annual carbon emissions, the US still leads, by far, the per capita release of CO2 emissions.

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Filed under Actions / Protest, Bioenergy / Agrofuels, Climate Change, Corporate Globalization, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Green Economy, Greenwashing, Land Grabs, Rio+20

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by | 2012-07-19 · 18:00

Audio: KPFK Earth Segment–Ohio residents blockade fracking site




Global Justice Ecology Project partners with the Sojourner Truth show for a weekly “Earth Segment” every Thursday. On this week’s segment: Ohio residents blockaded an injection well in a protest against hydro-fracking. The Reverend Monica Beasley Martin of Youngstown Ohio fills us in.

Also, in another direct action against fracking, Earth First! shuts down site:

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Filed under Actions / Protest, Climate Change, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Hydrofracking, Pollution, Water

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by | 2012-07-18 · 14:00

Audio: This week’s Earth Minute–China seeks to remove Nomad People from their land

Global Justice Ecology Project teams up with KPFK Pacifica’s Sojourner Truth show for weekly Earth Minutes which are written and recorded by GJEP Executive Director Anne Petermann and air every Tuesday.

This week’s Earth Minute discusses a plan by the Chinese government to remove over one million nomad people from nearly one billion acres of land in order to free up the land for development.

The text from this week’s Earth Minute:

China’s government recently announced a new plan to “resettle” Inner Mongolia’s last remaining nomad populations by 2015. This would free up nearly a billion acres of grassland in China for development projects, including highways, rail lines, mines and power plants.

Traditional Mongol herders are protesting this plan that would resettle over one million people, and accuse authorities of illegally taking away their grazing lands and extinguishing their traditional culture. China’s actions violate their rights under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In early June, thugs hired by land-grabbers clashed with traditional herders who were tending livestock on some of their last grazing lands. Many herders were beaten and two women were hospitalized with serious injuries.

China’s Five-Year settlement plan not only impacts Mongolia’s nomads, but would also affect remaining nomadic populations in Tibet.

Land grabs such as these are increasing globally as countries and companies covet the territories of Indigenous and rural peoples for land-intensive projects such as biofuel plantations and hydroelectric dams.

For the Earth Minute and the Sojourner Truth show, this is Anne Petermann of Global Justice Ecology Project.

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by | 2012-07-12 · 17:00

Earth Audio: Jihan Gearon of Black Mesa Water Coalition on KPFK’s Sojourner Truth Show

In this week’s Earth Segment on KPFK Pacifica radio’s Sojourner Truth show, Jihan Gearon of Black Mesa Water Coalition speaks about the Navajo Nation’s rejection of Arizona’s proposed Colorado River water settlement.

Global Justice Ecology Project teams up with the Sojourner Truth show for Earth Segment interviews every Thursday.

To listen to our download the podcast, click here. 

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