Climate Summit inspires us to build alliances

Now is the moment to seize the day to converge and build a movement of movements for people, planet and peace over profit. In New York, six Earth Democracy team members and friends converged for the NYC Climate Summit, September 19-20, to hear exciting speakers, attend inspirational workshops, and march on Sunday 9/21, under the Earth Democracy banner – Randa Solick and Judy Geer, Santa Cruz, CA and Randa’s friend Epi  Bodhi from Amherst, MA; Lib Hutchby from Chapel Hill, NC and her friend Martha Girolami, from Chatham County, NC, who is researching fracking and pipelines, and Nancy Price from Davis, CA.  See Randa Solnick’s notes below on the experience, with information on groups you will want to know are working. Many could use your participation.

Where were you Sunday, September 21 –– the day of climate marches nationwide and across the world? In New York City almost 400,000 people marched together in the most colorful assemblage of diverse groups, messages, music and chants. As reported  people in 162 countries in more than 2,600 rallies and marches took to the streets to demand action on climate as time runs out to lower green-house gas emissions, end our dependence on dirty carbon fuels, expose false solutions, and save ourselves and the earth from disaster.

You’ve probably listened and read many reports, but here’s Jill Stein acknowledging that “When We Act Together We’re Unstoppable” and read Rachel Smolker’s  “Corporations Are Not Going to Save Us From Climate Disruption”  –– and the article that points out that while Secretary General Ban-ki Moon called on world leaders at the UN Climate Summit to take action, “Not Just Any Action Will Do.” 

You’ve probably read critics of the march: too much money spent, no list of demands, or need more direct action, but here’s an antidote to those criticisms: “What’s Wrong With the Radical Critique of the People’s Climate March” 

A movement to stop climate change needs both mass mobilizations and direct action. Here are upcoming events –– find one near you:   

October 11:  Global Frackdown

November 1:  A week of action in D.C. Beyond Extreme Energy: People Taking Action to Retire Fossil Fuels

November 5:  After the Nov. 4 elections, efforts to stop Fast Track and the TPP (TransPacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement) move into high gear. This is a climate-busting trade agreement for the Pac-Rim countries. 

Here are some of Randa Solick’s gleanings from the Climate Summit, for your action and sharing:

• From Fix Fukushima: There should be an international response to any nuclear accident that rises above a certain level or category and threatens the environment of the entire planet.  Sign three petitions to help mobilize a global response.  Ask your local, regional, and national leadership to support the effort to declare an international emergency, and call for directing the necessary expertise, resources, and funds to fix Fukushima.
• March from Ohio to DC  Sept. 23 – Nov. 1.  Beyond Extreme Energy Coalition week of nonviolent direct action Nov 1 – 7 in DC. 
• Instead of stopping air pollution and global warming, the UN, the US, Wall Street and climate criminals like BP, Shell, Chevron and Rio Tinto are pushing a false solution to climate change called REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation).  REDD is a stealth attack against indigenous peoples, farmers, women and youth.  It is the largest land grab in history.  REDD is a carbon offset mechanism that pretends to save the climate and protect the environment but really destroys forest and farms and replaces them with industrial tree plantations, GMO trees and ‘Climate Smart Agriculture’.  REDD-type projects are already resulting in violent forced evictions of tens of thousands of people, multigenerational carbon slavery, threats to cultural survival, and a new form of colonialism.  REDD is a market-based mechanism that enriches Wall Street speculators while robbing indigenous peoples and peasants of their land… Tell Obama, your elected officials and the UN that the only way to save the climate is to keep fossil fuels in the ground, drastically cut emissions at source, and not use climate scams like REDD, cap and trade, and ‘decarbonization’ (offsetting).  Indigenous Environmental Network, No REDD in Africa Network  and Global Alliance Against REDD.
• United for Peace and Justice: UFPJ.  Stop the Wars, Stop the Warming!  “UFPJ brings together groups with diverse political perspectives to strategize and collaborate on common work for peace with justice… We make connections among many issues…”  
• The next US Social Forum will take place in several sites. Preparatory meetings are happening in three areas.
• More future, less capitalism. System Change not Climate Change. No more fossil fuel development; environmental justice and indigenous sovereignty; public ownership and workers’ control of energy; just transition and full employment; a democratically planned economy; tax the rich / defund the Pentagon/ ecosocialism.
• Call to action from the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador,  who have been courageously and successfully defending their rivers and farm lands against the Pacific Rim Mining Corporation now owned by Oceana Gold.  In 2009 after the Salvadoran government refused to grant permits to Pacific Rim to mine in the northern region of Cabanas, the company sued for hundreds of millions of dollars at the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) a private tribunal housed at the World Bank.
• One of the most devastating aspects of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other free trade agreements is that of the ‘investor-state dispute resolution’ –– a provision that allows corporations to sue governments for public policies that could interfere with their profits.  Countless suits have been filed under agreements including NAFTA and CAFTA, and a World Bank tribunal began final consideration of a suit against El Salvador on September 15. To learn more about the investor-state dispute resolution and the dangers of unjust trade agreements, visit Flush the TPP .
• Alliance for Democracy – TPP-Free zone model legislation.
• US Labor Against the War: 20 propositions about economic conversion and just transition by Michael Eisenscher, USLAW National Coordinator at Labor Notes Conference 4/6/14.   

Author: Nancy Price, for Earth Democracy Leadership Team
Photo: Randa Solick, Judy Geer and Epi Bodhi  on Climate March.