A photo essay from yesterday’s march in Rio by Will Bennington from Gears of Change–a part of Global Justice Ecology Project’s delegation.
Uncle Sam attempts to dominate the Peoples’ March in Rio. Photo: Will Bennington for GJEP
New Photo Essay from the Peoples’ March in Rio yesterday
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Filed under Actions / Protest, Climate Change, Rio+20
Rio+20: This is not the “future we want” – Bolivian social movement response to the UN draft agreement
From the Bolivian Climate Change Platform:
A warning from civil society to governments that the agreement consolidates the “green economy” and false solutions.
We reject the document “The future we want” that has been approved initially and is about to be ratified by heads of state of member governments of the United Nations, and we warn civil society and progressive governments that the content of this document will deepen the structural causes that have caused the socio-environmental crisis that we face, and will not resolve this crisis, by further liberalizing the economy and the commodification of nature.
The document states that the objectives put forward in Agenda 21 in Rio in 1992 and the three Conventions: Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), as well as the progress made over the years, are still valid. But these important principles, including common but differentiated responsibilities, are only included in the introduction as a declaration when they should be an important part of the entire text.
In its current form, the text reaffirms and deepens the current neo-liberal economic model. It promotes “inclusive and sustainable” economic growth with various references throughout the text without putting forward proposals or changes to the dominant economic system. The multiple crises we are facing are recognised but all the responses are still within the framework of neo-liberal model and seek to deepen the free market without recognising the underlying structural causes.
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Earth Audio Podcast: Ta’kaia Blaney and Jeff Conant on KPFK Sojourner Truth Show
Interview with Ta’kaia Blaney, 11-year-old indigenous activist from the Sliammon nation, and Jeff Conant of Global Justice Ecology Project on KPFK’s Sojourner Truth show, June 20, 2012.
Global Justice Ecology Project partners with Margaret Prescod and the Sojourner Truth show for weekly Earth Minutes every Tuesday and Earth Segment interviews every Thursday–as well as daily interviews during international gatherings such as the Peoples’ Summit in Rio.
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Filed under Climate Change, Earth Radio, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Rio+20, Tar Sands
Rio+20 Photo Essay: Peoples’ march takes over the streets of Rio
by Anne Petermann, reporting from the streets of Rio, 20 June, 2012
Occupy activists march in Rio. Photo: Petermann/GJEP
“Against the dismantling of national environmental policy.” Photo: Petermann/GJEP
Indigenous 11 Year old Ta’Kaia Blaney of British Columbia protests the tar sands. Photo: Petermann/GJEP
La Via Campesina, the international movement of small farmers, had a large presence in Rio at the Peoples Summit. Photo: Petermann/GJEP
“Against Amazonian Genocide. Xingu (Afro-Brazilian freedom fighter) Lives Forever.” Photo: Petermann/GJEP
Can’t have a march in Latin America without Che. Photo: Petermann/GJEP
Funeral for Brazil’s national environmental policy. Photo: Petermann/GJEP
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Filed under Actions / Protest, Climate Change, Posts from Anne Petermann, Rio+20
Earth Audio podcasts: Achim Steiner of UNEP and Pat Mooney of the ETC Group at the Rio+20 Peoples’ Summit
Achim Steiner, head of UNEP defends his model of the Green Economy while ETC Group’s Pat Mooney looks on.
At a panel session at the Peoples’ Summit, Pat Mooney of the Canadian technology watchdog organization ETC Group challenges UN Environment Program Director Achim Steiner’s concept of the green economy. Mooney says the model would hand control of the world’s biomass over to the same corporations and financial institutions responsible for the current ecological and financial chaos. June 16, 2012.
click here to listen/download
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Filed under Earth Radio, False Solutions to Climate Change, Green Economy, Rio+20
Rio+20 Peoples Summit: Major mobilization of grassroots movements to converge on Rio’s downtown this afternoon
The Climate Connections team, together with the Grassroots Global Justice delegations and thousands of others are participating in the march, so we’ll be offline for several hours. We’ll post reports and photos to the blog on our return: please stay tuned…
In the meantime, the blog will be updated with more voices from the Peoples Summit and other info.
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GMO trees and the green economy: Green deserts for all?
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil–In advance of the UN’s Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, the international STOP GE Trees Campaign is demanding a global ban on the release of destructive and dangerous genetically engineered trees (also called GE trees, GMO trees or GM trees) into the environment.
A major focus of the UN summit is so-called “renewable” or “sustainable” energy, and Ban Ki Moon, Executive Secretary of the UN has launched a highly controversial “Sustainable Energy for All” (SEFA) Initiative. This initiative includes use of trees to produce electricity or liquid agrofuels and there is an emphasis by industry to genetically engineer trees as feedstocks for this bioenegy production, and Brazil is one of the most active countries promoting this.
“Much of the research on GE trees in Brazil is focused on eucalyptus trees, which are being engineered for faster growth, and for modified wood qualities–such as increased cellulose and decreased lignin content. These engineered traits will facilitate the production of wood-based bioenergy,” stated Isis Alvarez of Global Forest Coalition.
“The dramatic and dangerous impacts of non-GMO industrial eucalyptus plantations are well documented and include invasiveness, desertification of soils, depletion of water, increased threat of wildfire and loss of biodiversity,” stated Anne Petermann, Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project and Coordinator of the STOP GE Trees Campaign. “Eucalyptus trees are not native to the Americas and they inhibit the growth of native vegetation. In Brazil, these plantations are called Green Deserts because nothing can grow in them. Now they want to engineer them, which will make them even more destructive,” she added.
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Filed under Biodiversity, Bioenergy / Agrofuels, Climate Change, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, GE Trees, Genetic Engineering, Green Economy, Rio+20
Lucia Ortiz, Coordinator, Friends of the Earth, Brazil on KPFK radio
Interview with Lucia Ortiz, Coordinator, Friends of the Earth Brazil and member of the Organizing Committee of the Rio+20 Peoples’ Summit, on KPFK’s Sojourner Truth show, June 19, 2012.
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