CLIMATE JUSTICE | Moving Beyond False Solutions | Global Petition to COP15

Please consider ‘tweeting’ / signing our petition to COP15 world leaders.  We would appreciate it immensely if you would sign it and distribute widely. Apologies for cross postings.

 

"At the moment every country arrives at climate negotiations seeking to keep their own emissions as high as possible. This is the logic of the madhouse, a recipe for collective suicide. We don't want a global suicide pact. We want a global survival pact." President Mohamed Nasheed

 

Tweet Petition: http://act.ly/1g8

Sign Full Petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/global-climate-change-copenhagen-petition

 

Highlights:

 

• Time-bound phasing out of fossil fuels and of subsidies for fossil fuels, and to prohibit any and all extraction of oil from bitumen, such as that now in progress in the Canadian tar sands.
• Crucial post IPCC AR4 science must be formally tabled to be included in the science base of the Copenhagen Climate Conference.
• Commit to a time-bound commitment to conservation, inclusive of water and carbon sinks and to subsidizing and investing in socially equitable and environmentally safe and sound renewable energy, transportation, agriculture, forestry, etc. options, that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Commit to the transition to a zero carbon society which should meet the needs of all nations and people in an equitable fashion and should be based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, human rights and social justice.
• Abandoning the models of exponential growth, and of over-consumptive development with the implementation of a global ban imposed on the externalization of the social and environmental costs of global pollution. 
• Adherence to the precautionary principle, the differentiated responsibility principle, and the fair and just transition principle.
• Stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent any further dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. This level equates to a target global average temperature increase of below 1%C, (Even reaching Bill Hare’s 1C target would leave ice melting more than it is at present.) which is the point at which global systems on land, water and air will be so affected as to create vicious feedback cycles and destabilize many ecosystems and human societies.
• Impose strict time frames so that overall global emissions will begin to be reversed as of 2010. There must be a target of 30% below 1990 levels by 2015, 50% below by 2020, 75% by 2030, 85% by 2040 and 100% below by 2050.
• Phase-out biofuel and nuclear energy and end the subsidizing and incentives of biofuel, fossil fuels and of nuclear energy.  
• The reallocation of resources committed to military purposes and to transfer the peace dividend to seriously address the urgent issue of climate change and other serious sustainable development issues.
• Withdraw any occupation of another State, and will convert military bases on foreign soil. The funds raised from the demilitarization process will be used in part to set up a fund for the implementation of the UNFCCC.
• Propose that in Copenhagen, given the urgency of the issue of climate change, and its potential effects on the global population and on the political, economic, ecological and social global systems, that the requirement for consensus must be waived, and a binding agreement on all States will be deemed to exist, if 66% of the States concur.
• The redirecting of subsidies from socially inequitable and environmentally unsound non-sustainable energy to socially equitable and environmentally safe and sound renewable energy, transportation, agriculture, forestry, etc.
• Advocate measures to alleviate the impacts of climate change, two of which would include (1) the cancellation of the outstanding debt of developing States, and (2) the implementation of the minimal long-standing commitment of 0.7% of GDP being transferred to the Overseas Development Aid (ODA).
• Under common law, such as the following: Canadian common law provides useful guidance. Environmental negligence suits focus on compensation for loss caused by unreasonable conduct that damages legally protected interests. Unreasonable conduct means doing something that a prudent or reasonable person would not do, or failing to do something that a reasonable person would do.

 

MORE INFORMATION ON OUR SUBMISSION TO THE COPENHAGEN CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE CHANGE: http://www.climatechangecopenhagen.org/

 

http://canadianclimateaction.wordpress.com/

 

 

Join People From Over 50 Countries For This Special Event...

Join people from over 50 countries for this special event…

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/homeproject

In honour of World Environment Day, watch Yann Arthus-Betrand’s film about the effects of climate change.

June 5th is World Environment Day.  Join in on a major international event – the online screening of Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s brand-new film, Home. Bertrand is a French journalist, reporter, environmentalist and the photographer for the book Earth from Above. This full length film will be available for viewing online for free until June 14^th.

The film is intended to raise awareness about the effects of climate change, the topic for this year’s WED. The film will be screened in over 50 countries, often for free, on all media – theatres, TV, DVD and Internet – to reach the widest audience possible.

We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate.

The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.

For this purpose, HOME needs to be free. A patron, the PPR Group, made this possible. EuropaCorp, the distributor, also pledged not to make any profit because Home is a non-profit film.

HOME has been made for you: share it! And act for the planet.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand

PPR is proud to support HOME
http://www.ppr.com

HOME is a carbon offset movie
http://www.actioncarbone.org

More information about the Planet
http://www.goodplanet.info

http://nfb.ca/

Website: http://www.home-2009.com

 

http://canadianclimateaction.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/yann-arthus-bertrand-captures-fragile-earth-in-wide-angle-video-on-ted-com/

 

 

 

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (Trailer)

Time for Plan B: Cutting carbon emissions 80% by 2020

By Lester R. Brown, Janet Larsen, Jonathan G. Dorn, and Frances C. Moore;

Courtesy of Earth Policy Institute
Originally published Jul. 2008

When political leaders look at the need to cut carbon dioxide emissions to curb global warming, they ask the question: How much of a cut is politically feasible? At the Earth Policy Institute we ask a different question: How much of a cut is necessary to avoid the most dangerous effects of climate change? By burning fossil fuels and destroying forests, we are releasing greenhouse gases, importantly carbon dioxide (CO2), into the atmosphere. These heat-trapping gases are warming the planet, setting in motion changes that are taking us outside the climate bounds within which civilization developed.

We cannot afford to let the planet get much hotter. At today’s already elevated temperatures, the massive Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets—which together contain enough water to raise sea level by 12 meters (39 feet)—are melting at accelerating rates. Glaciers around the world are shrinking and at risk of disappearing, including those in the mountains of Asia whose ice melt feeds the continent’s major rivers during the dry season.

Delaying action will only lead to greater damage. It’s time for Plan B.

The alternative to business as usual, Plan B calls for cutting net carbon dioxide emissions 80 percent by 2020. This will allow us to prevent the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, already at 384 parts per million (ppm), from exceeding 400 ppm, thus keeping future global temperature rise to a minimum.

Cutting CO2 emissions 80 percent by 2020 will take a worldwide mobilization at wartime speed. First, investing in energy efficiency will allow us to keep global energy demand from increasing. Then we can cut carbon emissions by one third by replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources for electricity and heat production. A further 14 percent drop comes from restructuring our transportation systems and reducing coal and oil use in industry. Ending net deforestation worldwide can cut CO2 emissions another 16 percent. Last, planting trees and managing soils to sequester carbon can absorb 17 percent of our current emissions.

None of these initiatives depends on new technologies. We know what needs to be done to reduce CO2 emissions 80 percent by 2020. All that is needed now is leadership.

 For Free Access to the full article click here (pdf Format)

 

Talks Chris Jordan: Picturing excess

Sky Animation

Obesity levels in China rising fast, study finds

Wed Jul 9, 2008 4:40pm BST

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - Obesity levels in China are rising fast, with more than a quarter of the adult population overweight or obese. As people add more meat and dairy products to their diet, serious health problems can develop, a new study says.

Of all the developing countries, only in Mexico is the rate of increase in becoming overweight among adults faster than in China, the study, published in the July/August issue of the journal Health Affairs, says.

"What's happening in China should be seen as a marker for what is going to hit the rest of the developing world if we fail to act," said study author Barry Popkin, a professor of nutrition at the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina.

"We need to find the right investments and regulations to encourage people to adopt a healthy lifestyle, or we risk facing higher rates of death, disease, and disability and the related costs," he added.

Chinese people now derive a far larger proportion of energy from fat and animal-based foods, such as meat and eggs, compared with in the past, the study found.

"The classical Chinese diet -- rich in vegetables and carbohydrates with minimal animal-sourced food -- no longer exists," the study said.

"In 2006, fewer than one percent of all Chinese adults consumed a diet with less than 10 percent of energy derived from fat."

The change in diets and lifestyles, where Chinese less frequently have to engage in physical activity at work, is consequently leading to a rise in cancer and coronary heart disease, the study found.

"Based on fairly conservative assumptions, the total impact of these nutrition-related components of poor diet, inactivity, and obesity on medical costs to treat noncommunicable diseases, labor productivity and national production are very large."

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKPER95600220080709