Community corridor: Halting the rise of pipeline infrastructure with creative radical resistance
November 17th, 2012
By Julien LaLonde, Novemeber 14, 2012. Source: Toward Freedom
In a recent series of direct actions resisting the path of the Keystone XL pipeline in Texas, environmental activists have deployed ingenious configurations of tree-houses, platforms, ropes and banners erected and organized in an almost ‘Ewok-style’ resistance. These remarkably well-organized actions have created enthusiasm and inspiration for many.
These eco-warriors were able to delay for two days loggers clearing the right-of-way for the Keystone XL pipeline. After they were removed and arrests handed out, they returned further up the route and set up the tree resistance yet again to force industry and police to go through the same process of removal a few days later. This way the delays and the complications continue for industry, and so does the necessity to dispense time, money, and resources time and again to remove the disruptions. If these efforts continue and multiply themselves in frequency and into different areas, it gets more and more difficult for industry to operate. With environmentalists, and more prominently and importantly indigenous communities resisting on the frontlines, industry is forced to employ either private security contractors or to turn to the state in order to remove the activity disrupting business. This gradually begins to affect industry’s bottom-line, and as for the state, it is forced into the uncomfortable and politically precarious position of having to use repression against “citizens.” Eventually the cumulative impacts of this resistance will begin to show results and become a deterrent to the further expansion of industrial infrastructure.
For its part, the state is now bracing for increased opposition and resistance to industrial and extraction projects. The Canadian government’s new deal with China, the Canada-China version of FIPA (the Foreign Investment Protection Agreement) effectively guarantees China’s investments. Those investments are in the form of natural resource extraction in the north, namely in Quebec and British Columbia, and in oil and gas flowing to the west coast via the would-be Northern Gateway and Pacific Trails Pipelines. China does not have direct investment in Northern Gateway and Pacific Trails, although much of that oil and gas will be going to Chinese markets. It is, however, invested in a consortium of companies called LNG Canada including Shell Canada, KoreaGas, Mitsubishi corporation and PetroChina for an LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) processing plant in Kitimat, BC, and a pipeline called the Coastal Gas Link project to be built by the now notorious TransCanada corporation, the same company contracted to build the Keystone XL.
Through FIPA amongst other measures, the Canadian government is building justification in the name of economic stability and the rule of law and setting the framework for the increased criminalization and repression of internal dissent. Under this new set of draconian circumstances the government guarantees itself the right, the privilege, and the obligation to suppress environmental and native resistance to extraction projects and industrial infrastructure. The Canadian state is further institutionalizing the rights of profit-making and corporations over the rights of people and the environment. The increased militarization of the state worldwide, therefore, is not a measure of security against outside threats, but rather a very deliberate act to exert force and control within its own borders.
Last year in November, president Obama denied an application for the 1,700 mile long Keystone XL Pipeline that would bring Tar Sands oil from Alberta, to Texas refineries on the Gulf Coast. In December, I wrote on Rabble.ca, “having too much faith that the U.S. government will make the right decision on an environmental matter, and being under the illusion that the decision will be subject to a thorough scientific review and ‘truly public input process’ would be a mistake. Celebrating a perceived victory which is actually closer to a setback is not a good idea…. And finally, the only reason why the Keystone XL decision has been postponed is because Obama and company don’t want it to be an issue come election time in 2012…Those from the ENGO community overreacting to the Keystone XL postponement as a victory, misinterpreting the situation, are actually doing the climate justice movement a considerable disservice.” Now, with the clearing of the right-of-way for the pipeline moving full steam ahead, the so-called “Keystone XL victory” is, quite predictably, rearing its ugly head.
In the US, before the election, the Republicans promised that if elected the Keystone XL would be approved immediately. TransCanada corporation, for its part, anticipates approval of the presidential permit application, which is required only as the pipeline crosses the Canada/U.S. border, in the first quarter of 2013. Even though it is unlikely that the pipeline will be that far along by April of next year, it is clear that industry is using loopholes and sheer insolence to force through industrial projects even though it still does not have full approvals. This is an indication that industry is trying to ram through the final phase of industrial capitalism and the destruction of the earth, with or without the state’s approval. What remains of the life systems of this planet, the ecological world, is now ground zero for the unchecked expansion of industrial infrastructure.
It is under this context that Damien Gillis and the team for the documentary film Fractured Land recently named the threatening advances of industry in northern BC, and other provinces, as “Canada’s Carbon Corridor.” I will add to that Canada’s ‘Colonial’ Carbon Corridor because environmental racism and the exploitation of indigenous peoples has always been a central feature of the Canadian state’s application of the industrial capitalist economy. What is meant by ‘Carbon Corridor’ is the expanded and systematic industrialization and exploitation of the Canadian North; the integrated impacts of industry from all of mining, oil and gas, fracking, logging, hydro-electric damming, new highways, etc. A major component of capitalism’s plan moving forward is the transformation of entire zones into industrially-facilitated natural resource reservoirs.
It is from this brazen devastation of nature that the need arises for something just as audacious to counter it. We must put life and creativity in the place of aggression and destruction. On Wet’suwet’en territory in what is colonially known as northwest British Columbia, grassroots community members of the Cilhts’ekyu (Unis’tot’en), and Likhts’amisyu clans have re-occupied their traditional unceded territory to resist the Pacific Trails pipeline. Their means of resistance has been community-building.
The Pacific Trails Pipeline (PTP) is the intended trailblazer of a prospective ‘energy corridor’ that would see multiple dual pipelines stretch 463km from fracking fields in eastern and northeastern BC, all the way to the Douglas Channel on the west coast. Like the Coastal Gas Link project the Pacific Trails pipeline would carry shale gas and would also target LNG processing terminals in Kitimat and tankers bound for Asian markets. PTP could be as much as three kilometers wide and threatens ecological damage along a trail of wetlands, streams, forests, native communities and farmland along the way.
As such, the grassroots Wet’suwet’en have committed that no pipelines will cross through their territory. But what is now unfolding on their land is not simply resistance to a pipeline and the defense of a territory, but the building and rebuilding of a radical alternative and traditional living. That is why such a strong emphasis at camp has been placed on community building and empowerment so that organizing and resistance can be integrated into the spaces of everyday life. This is pre-figurative organizing that confronts an injustice by counteracting it with a direct alternative. The resistance community, therefore, is the illustration that building and creating is the most comprehensive form of resistance, that there is no separation between life, and the defense of life.
The extraction and industrial development boom in the north is really a strategic plan of components where inter-industry cooperation sees a combined effort, for example, that would see LNG flowing via westbound pipelines and condensate flowing back east as a petro-chemical dilutant for tar sands bitumen, hydro dams providing energy for mining and oil and gas extraction, highways being built for all of industry, etc. That is why all these struggles and resistance fronts cannot be understood separate of each other, and why the collective response must leave no community behind along the pipeline routes and the path of industry. These resistance communities can be effective by operating through a well-coordinated and well-organized network. This network should link anarchists, permaculturalists, native and farming communities alike on a basis of trade, collective support, and mutual aid. Set up these established and organized communities who are all working together in mutual defense, and have the state and industry face the same time-and-resource-consuming challenges every few kilometers, over and over again. Community is attrition against the privatization and enclosure of territories.
Where industry says it will build energy corridors we will build community corridors in its place. The movement must move from isolated blockades and direct actions, as bold as they may be, to actively building radical alternative communities, resistance communities, directly in the path of extraction and industrial infrastructure. Environmentalists, with indigenous communities in the lead, must collaborate to establish fully permanent communities, self-sustaining and autonomous from the industrial system in order to be genuinely effective in resisting it. Where the Northern Gateway pipeline seeks to pass, where the Kinder Morgan, the Coastal Gas Link, the Pacific Trails, the Keystone XL and all other pipelines seek to cross, the movement must build community corridors in their paths. The resistance spokes cannot be simply passive and sparse direct action blockades, but rather fully intentional and deliberate permanent communities everywhere. Let us saturate the pipeline routes with radical community all along the corridor, at every kilometer, at every turn. Stop the industrial veins and the black blood of the capitalist economy will not flow.
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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog
Tags: 
Amazon tribe scraps carbon credit deal with Irish firm
November 16th, 2012
By Marcelo Teixeira, 06 Nov 2012. Source: www.pointcarbon.com
SAO PAULO, Nov 6 (Reuters Point Carbon) – An indigenous community in the Brazilian Amazon state of Para has cancelled a controversial deal that would have allowed an Irish company to sell carbon credits from a project to preserve its forests, said the group’s leader and a local prosecutor on Tuesday.
The Munduruku tribe had sealed an agreement with Celestial Green Ventures earlier this year, guaranteeing it $4 mln per year over 30 years for supplying the Irish company the right to generate carbon credits on 2.3 million hectares of rainforest.
“We are going to cancel the deal. Many in the tribe didn’t want it, so to avoid problems we decided to stop it,” said Candido Waru, who heads a local association representing the Munduruku people.
This and a handful of other deals for carbon credits from projects to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) have come under scrutiny by federal authorities, who have been weighing whether to scrap contracts signed between tribes in the Amazon and western companies and NGOs because indigenous groups may not have had legal title to sign away the land.
Due to its vast rainforests and savannas, Brazil has attracted the interest of numerous western companies and individual investors looking to earn money by tapping into the emerging forest-based carbon market.
The lack of oversight of these projects makes them high-risk, but the fact that most are located on indigenous land increases the chances of legal challenges over the rights to the offsets.
Celestial, headed up by former mining executive Ciaran Kelly, raised eyebrows in the carbon market last February when it said it was hiring 30 staff to manage its carbon credit business, which it said held land rights over an area similar in size to Austria and Switzerland combined.
Candido Waru, the indigenous leader, said he has yet to make a formal communication to the Irish company about the decision not to move forward with the project.
Celestial was not available for comment.
FEDERAL INVESTIGATION
Brazil’s Attorney General estimates that some 30 deals of this kind have been signed in the country so far, some of them with indigenous communities.
It had ordered an investigation into several deals, including the one being called off by the Munduruku.
Federal prosecutor Felipe Bogado said on Tuesday that he would probably close the Celestial/Munduruku investigation once the indigenous community obtains a formal cancelation.
“After that we will need to publicize it, let the market know that the deal is no longer valid, and try to avoid issuance and commercialization of possible credits from the area,” he said.
The Brazilian government is working on a national strategy for REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), that could released at year’s end.
A draft document, however, shows the country may rely on foreign donations rather than carbon markets to serve as centerpiece of its strategy.
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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog
Video: Anonymous attacks Israeli websites to show Gaza support in conflict
November 16th, 2012
Filed under Actions / Protest, Land Grabs
Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog
Video: Anonymous Attacks Israeli Websites To Show Gaza Support In Conflict
November 16th, 2012
Filed under Actions / Protest, Land Grabs
Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog
Video: Anonymous Attacks Israeli Websites To Show Gaza Support In Conflict
November 16th, 2012
Filed under Actions / Protest, Land Grabs
GJEP and IEN team up with KPFK Los Angeles for Eco-Justice Teach-In Nov 17
November 16th, 2012
Event will be livestreamed at: http://twitcam.livestream.com/user/sotrueradio
Global Justice Ecology Project is proud to team up with KPFK Radio for a Teach-In on the environment focusing on Tar Sands, the Keystone XL Pipeline, climate change, GMO trees and deforestation, their impact on local communities North and South, and how indigenous and other communities are fighting back. And, the inter-relationship of economic, racial, social and ecological justice.
KPFK will welcome to Southern California Clayton Thomas-Muller of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba, Canada and the Indigenous Environmental Network; the Global Justice Ecology Project’s Executive Director Anne Peterman and movement photographer Orin Langelle.
There will be music and a presentation of photos from Chiapas, Mexico. All are welcome.
Clayton Thomas-Muller, of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba, Canada, is an activist for Indigenous rights and environmental justice. With his roots in the inner city of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada, Clayton began his work as a community organizer. Now based out of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Clayton is involved in many initiatives to support the building of an inclusive movement for energy and climate justice. He serves on the boards ofGlobal Justice Ecology Project, Canadian based Raven Trust and Navajo Nation based, Black Mesa Water Coalition. Recognized by Utne Magazine as one of the top 30 under 30 activists in the United States and as a “Climate Hero 2009” by Yes Magazine, Clayton is the Tar Sands Campaign Director for theIndigenous Environmental Network. He works with grassroots indigenous communities to defend against the largest and most destructive industrial project in the history of mankind.
Orin Langelle is the Board Chair of Global Justice Ecology Project and a concerned photojournalist, whose photography spans four decades. Beginning in 1991, Langelle has worked in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples from Canada to Chile. He has supported efforts to protect Indigneous Peoples’ forests and ancestral lands from logging and industrial development through strategic campaigns, photojournalism, media outreach and direct action. Langelle has also led successful campaigns in defense of forests on public lands in the US. He interned at the International Center of Photography with Cornell Capa, brother to famed war photographer and Magnum Photo Agency co-founder Robert Capa. His concerned photography began in 1972 and his award-winning photos have appeared on book and magazine covers, in major newspapers and in exhibitions from San Francisco to Copenhagen.
Anne Petermann is the Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project, and the Coordinator of the Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered Trees. She is also the North American Focal Point for the Global Forest Coalition. An activist since 1989, she has presented at UN and other international fora around the world on issues relating to forest protection, indigenous peoples rights, climate justice, and is a global expert on the social and ecological dangers of genetically engineered trees. In 2000, she won the Wild Nature Award for Environmental Activist of the Year.
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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog
GJEP and IEN team up with KPFK Los Angeles for Eco-Justice Teach-In Nov 17
November 16th, 2012
Event will be livestreamed at: http://twitcam.livestream.com/user/sotrueradio
Global Justice Ecology Project is proud to team up with KPFK Radio for a Teach-In on the environment focusing on Tar Sands, the Keystone XL Pipeline, climate change, GMO trees and deforestation, their impact on local communities North and South, and how indigenous and other communities are fighting back. And, the inter-relationship of economic, racial, social and ecological justice.
KPFK will welcome to Southern California Clayton Thomas-Muller of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba, Canada and the Indigenous Environmental Network; the Global Justice Ecology Project’s Executive Director Anne Peterman and movement photographer Orin Langelle.
There will be music and a presentation of photos from Chiapas, Mexico. All are welcome.
Clayton Thomas-Muller, of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba, Canada, is an activist for Indigenous rights and environmental justice. With his roots in the inner city of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada, Clayton began his work as a community organizer. Now based out of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Clayton is involved in many initiatives to support the building of an inclusive movement for energy and climate justice. He serves on the boards ofGlobal Justice Ecology Project, Canadian based Raven Trust and Navajo Nation based, Black Mesa Water Coalition. Recognized by Utne Magazine as one of the top 30 under 30 activists in the United States and as a “Climate Hero 2009” by Yes Magazine, Clayton is the Tar Sands Campaign Director for theIndigenous Environmental Network. He works with grassroots indigenous communities to defend against the largest and most destructive industrial project in the history of mankind.
Orin Langelle is the Board Chair of Global Justice Ecology Project and a concerned photojournalist, whose photography spans four decades. Beginning in 1991, Langelle has worked in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples from Canada to Chile. He has supported efforts to protect Indigneous Peoples’ forests and ancestral lands from logging and industrial development through strategic campaigns, photojournalism, media outreach and direct action. Langelle has also led successful campaigns in defense of forests on public lands in the US. He interned at the International Center of Photography with Cornell Capa, brother to famed war photographer and Magnum Photo Agency co-founder Robert Capa. His concerned photography began in 1972 and his award-winning photos have appeared on book and magazine covers, in major newspapers and in exhibitions from San Francisco to Copenhagen.
Anne Petermann is the Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project, and the Coordinator of the Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered Trees. She is also the North American Focal Point for the Global Forest Coalition. An activist since 1989, she has presented at UN and other international fora around the world on issues relating to forest protection, indigenous peoples rights, climate justice, and is a global expert on the social and ecological dangers of genetically engineered trees. In 2000, she won the Wild Nature Award for Environmental Activist of the Year.
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GJEP and IEN Team up with KPFK Los Angeles for Eco-Justice Teach-In Nov 17
November 16th, 2012
Saturday, November 17 2012, 2:00pm - 5:00pm
Event will be livestreamed at: http://twitcam.livestream.com/user/sotrueradio
Global Justice Ecology Project is proud to team up with KPFK Radio for a Teach-In on the environment focusing on Tar Sands, the Keystone XL Pipeline, climate change, GMO trees and deforestation, their impact on local communities North and South, and how indigenous and other communities are fighting back. And, the inter-relationship of economic, racial, social and ecological justice.
KPFK will welcome to Southern California Clayton Thomas-Muller of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba, Canada and the Indigenous Environmental Network; the Global Justice Ecology Project’s Executive Director Anne Peterman and movement photographer Orin Langelle.
There will be music and a presentation of photos from Chiapas, Mexico.
Saturday, November 17th, 2pm at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena.
All are welcome.
Clayton Thomas-Muller, of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba, Canada, is an activist for Indigenous rights and environmental justice. With his roots in the inner city of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada, Clayton began his work as a community organizer. Now based out of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Clayton is involved in many initiatives to support the building of an inclusive movement for energy and climate justice. He serves on the boards ofGlobal Justice Ecology Project, Canadian based Raven Trust and Navajo Nation based, Black Mesa Water Coalition. Recognized by Utne Magazine as one of the top 30 under 30 activists in the United States and as a “Climate Hero 2009” by Yes Magazine, Clayton is the Tar Sands Campaign Director for theIndigenous Environmental Network. He works with grassroots indigenous communities to defend against the largest and most destructive industrial project in the history of mankind.
Orin Langelle is the Board Chair of Global Justice Ecology Project and a concerned photojournalist, whose photography spans four decades. Beginning in 1991, Langelle has worked in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples from Canada to Chile. He has supported efforts to protect Indigneous Peoples’ forests and ancestral lands from logging and industrial development through strategic campaigns, photojournalism, media outreach and direct action. Langelle has also led successful campaigns in defense of forests on public lands in the US. He interned at the International Center of Photography with Cornell Capa, brother to famed war photographer and Magnum Photo Agency co-founder Robert Capa. His concerned photography began in 1972 and his award-winning photos have appeared on book and magazine covers, in major newspapers and in exhibitions from San Francisco to Copenhagen.
Anne Petermann is the Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project, and the Coordinator of the Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered Trees. She is also the North American Focal Point for the Global Forest Coalition. An activist since 1989, she has presented at UN and other international fora around the world on issues relating to forest protection, indigenous peoples rights, climate justice, and is a global expert on the social and ecological dangers of genetically engineered trees. In 2000, she won the Wild Nature Award for Environmental Activist of the Year.
Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog
Backlash against Monsanto: Lines drawn on GMOs in Costa Rica
November 16th, 2012
By Alberto Font and Vanessa I. Garnica, November 16, 2012. Source: The Tico Times
Protesters hoped to alert about the risks they believe are associated with GMOs and their effect on local varieties of corn and on human health.
Protesters pressure a government commission to block a subsidiary of Monsanto from planting genetically modified corn in Guanacaste. Photo: Alberto Font
During a Nov. 6 protest organized by the environmental collectives Bloque Verde and the Central American Alliance for the Protection of Biodiversity, more than 100 demonstrators in front of the Agriculture and Livestock Ministry in western San José demanded the prohibition of genetically modified corn in Costa Rica.
Inside, members of the National Biosecurity Technical Commission discussed a request by Delta and Pine Land (DPL), a subsidiary of multinational Monsanto, to plant GM corn seeds in the northwestern province of Guanacaste.
A second company, Semillas del Trópico S.A., also sought to import and plant GM seeds, but was rejected because they failed to meet the commission’s requirements.
Although the financial weekly El Financiero reported that DPL hopes to plant 1-2 hectares of GM corn, and Bloque Verde said the company wants to plant 15 hectares, DPL spokeswoman Eva Barbosa said the area planted would depend on the nine-member commission’s final evaluation.
Farmer Juan Arriaga, from the Sol de Vida Organization, said GM corn seed in Costa Rica would bring “shame, hunger, dependence and illness.”
Alberto Font
Protesters, including environmentalists, students and farmers, hoped to alert members of the commission about the risks they believe are associated with GMOs and their effect on local varieties of corn and on human health.
Farmer Juan Arriaga, a member of the environmental and agricultural organization Sol y Vida in Santa Cruz, the historic city in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, said that introducing GM corn seed in Costa Rica “means shame, hunger, dependence and illness for human beings, and for the nature and biodiversity that we constantly sell [to tourists] in Costa Rica.”
“The ICT [Costa Rican Tourism Board] sells the image abroad that Costa Rica is 100 percent natural, with no artificial ingredients, yet we’re one of the countries that most uses poisonous agricultural chemicals,” Arriaga said. “It’s going to be worse if they permit genetically modified corn.”
Arriaga worries that GM seeds will contaminate local seeds, as corn cultivation depends on open pollination, meaning that plants are pollinated through the air, water and via insects. Some farmers worry that down the road, they’ll end up having to pay for patented seeds.
Before the meeting, agronomy engineer, environmentalist and commission member Fabián Pacheco, said the defense of non-modified, local corn is something that goes beyond a discussion among technocrats in a closed-door meeting.
“We’re talking about the future of farmers’ rights, and that can’t be defined by a closed-door commission,” he said.
Pacheco pointed to studies, such as one by biologist Gilles-Eric Seralini, that indicated genetically modified corn caused tumors and other organ damage to laboratory rats. However, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has played down the significance of that study, which was published in the peer-reviewed journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, saying it was inconclusive.
A few days after the commission’s meeting, Pacheco said he had presented various studies and information that demonstrated the problems associated with allowing GM corn into the country.
But Pacheco’s stance against GMOs has locked him out of access to company information on the variety of seed DPL wants to import: Despite sitting on the commission, the company filed a legal motion to block him and other environmentalists from accessing information about the seed variety, Mon 603.
Barbosa said the varieties of corn the company plans on using in Costa Rica, if approved by the commission, are genetically modified to resist certain insects and to tolerate the application of pesticides. She said the seed is not for human consumption, but rather to generate more seed for export. She added that no scientifically rigorous studies exist showing that GM seeds are unsafe. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization and EFSA, Barbosa said, GMOs are just as safe as their conventional equivalents, which she said is supported by internationally accepted scientific research.
She added that although corn is openly pollinated, studies show that nearly 100 percent of pollen remains within 50 meters of the plant that emits it. Existing regulations of corn-seed certification establish 50 meters of separation with other corn crops to guarantee purity of the seed produced.
That statement is disputed by Luis Felipe Arauz, dean of the University of Costa Rica’s Agri-Food Sciences faculty. Arauz said that because corn pollen travels on the wind, it is impossible to keep it in a designated area. He is concerned that crossing local corn with GM corn could result in the introduction of Monsanto’s patented GM corn into local corn varieties. If that happens, he said, farmers would not be able to plant the hybrid corn, because they could risk legal action by Monsanto.
For Arauz, the risks outweigh the possible benefits for Costa Rica, and he urged commission members to reject the company’s request.
Leda Madrigal, a member of the commission representing the Agriculture and Livestock Ministry, said it is important for the public to know that the commission will base its decision on scientific and technical studies, as established by Costa Rican law.
According to a press release from the Culture Ministry, a group of citizens asked Culture Minister Manuel Obregón to declare local corn a national heritage, therefore affording local varieties official government protection. The request is based on the idea that a culture of corn generates different cultural products associated with many traditions that are represented in gastronomy, music, literature and indigenous culture, said Adrián Vindas, director of the Center for Research and Conservation of Cultural Patrimony.
The commission will vote on the company’s request Dec. 3.
Backlash Against Monsanto: Lines drawn on GMOs in Costa Rica
November 16th, 2012
During a Nov. 6 protest organized by the environmental collectives Bloque Verde and the Central American Alliance for the Protection of Biodiversity, more than 100 demonstrators in front of the Agriculture and Livestock Ministry in western San José demanded the prohibition of genetically modified corn in Costa Rica.
Inside, members of the National Biosecurity Technical Commission discussed a request by Delta and Pine Land (DPL), a subsidiary of multinational Monsanto, to plant GM corn seeds in the northwestern province of Guanacaste.
A second company, Semillas del Trópico S.A., also sought to import and plant GM seeds, but was rejected because they failed to meet the commission’s requirements.
Although the financial weekly El Financiero reported that DPL hopes to plant 1-2 hectares of GM corn, and Bloque Verde said the company wants to plant 15 hectares, DPL spokeswoman Eva Barbosa said the area planted would depend on the nine-member commission’s final evaluation.
Farmer Juan Arriaga, from the Sol de Vida Organization, said GM corn seed in Costa Rica would bring “shame, hunger, dependence and illness.”
Alberto Font
Protesters, including environmentalists, students and farmers, hoped to alert members of the commission about the risks they believe are associated with GMOs and their effect on local varieties of corn and on human health.
Farmer Juan Arriaga, a member of the environmental and agricultural organization Sol y Vida in Santa Cruz, the historic city in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, said that introducing GM corn seed in Costa Rica “means shame, hunger, dependence and illness for human beings, and for the nature and biodiversity that we constantly sell [to tourists] in Costa Rica.”
“The ICT [Costa Rican Tourism Board] sells the image abroad that Costa Rica is 100 percent natural, with no artificial ingredients, yet we’re one of the countries that most uses poisonous agricultural chemicals,” Arriaga said. “It’s going to be worse if they permit genetically modified corn.”
Arriaga worries that GM seeds will contaminate local seeds, as corn cultivation depends on open pollination, meaning that plants are pollinated through the air, water and via insects. Some farmers worry that down the road, they’ll end up having to pay for patented seeds.
Before the meeting, agronomy engineer, environmentalist and commission member Fabián Pacheco, said the defense of non-modified, local corn is something that goes beyond a discussion among technocrats in a closed-door meeting.
“We’re talking about the future of farmers’ rights, and that can’t be defined by a closed-door commission,” he said.
Pacheco pointed to studies, such as one by biologist Gilles-Eric Seralini, that indicated genetically modified corn caused tumors and other organ damage to laboratory rats. However, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has played down the significance of that study, which was published in the peer-reviewed journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, saying it was inconclusive.
A few days after the commission’s meeting, Pacheco said he had presented various studies and information that demonstrated the problems associated with allowing GM corn into the country.
But Pacheco’s stance against GMOs has locked him out of access to company information on the variety of seed DPL wants to import: Despite sitting on the commission, the company filed a legal motion to block him and other environmentalists from accessing information about the seed variety, Mon 603.
Barbosa said the varieties of corn the company plans on using in Costa Rica, if approved by the commission, are genetically modified to resist certain insects and to tolerate the application of pesticides. She said the seed is not for human consumption, but rather to generate more seed for export. She added that no scientifically rigorous studies exist showing that GM seeds are unsafe. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization and EFSA, Barbosa said, GMOs are just as safe as their conventional equivalents, which she said is supported by internationally accepted scientific research.
She added that although corn is openly pollinated, studies show that nearly 100 percent of pollen remains within 50 meters of the plant that emits it. Existing regulations of corn-seed certification establish 50 meters of separation with other corn crops to guarantee purity of the seed produced.
That statement is disputed by Luis Felipe Arauz, dean of the University of Costa Rica’s Agri-Food Sciences faculty. Arauz said that because corn pollen travels on the wind, it is impossible to keep it in a designated area. He is concerned that crossing local corn with GM corn could result in the introduction of Monsanto’s patented GM corn into local corn varieties. If that happens, he said, farmers would not be able to plant the hybrid corn, because they could risk legal action by Monsanto.
For Arauz, the risks outweigh the possible benefits for Costa Rica, and he urged commission members to reject the company’s request.
Leda Madrigal, a member of the commission representing the Agriculture and Livestock Ministry, said it is important for the public to know that the commission will base its decision on scientific and technical studies, as established by Costa Rican law.
According to a press release from the Culture Ministry, a group of citizens asked Culture Minister Manuel Obregón to declare local corn a national heritage, therefore affording local varieties official government protection. The request is based on the idea that a culture of corn generates different cultural products associated with many traditions that are represented in gastronomy, music, literature and indigenous culture, said Adrián Vindas, director of the Center for Research and Conservation of Cultural Patrimony.
The commission will vote on the company’s request Dec. 3.
Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog
Farewell CDM Watch – Welcome Carbon Market Watch!
November 16th, 2012
New initiative expands scope of work
Brussels, 16 November 2012–Today, CDM Watch was re-launched as Carbon Market Watch to expand its activities for scrutinizing a wider range of carbon market schemes. Visit the new website at www.carbonmarketwatch.org.
The launch of Carbon Market Watch was inspired by the rapid development of carbon market initiatives around the world. It will expand the activities of CDM Watch to other carbon market initiatives including Joint Implementation, new market mechanisms, mechanisms to reduce emissions from degradation and deforestation, the Emissions Trading Scheme and more.
Carbon Market Watch Director Eva Filzmoser commented “The CDM has failed on many levels to achieve real emissions reductions. At the same time, plenty of new carbon market initiatives are planned and being implemented around the world. They all need watching. The launch of Carbon Market Watch is not only a name changer, it will be a game changer”.
CDM Watch was set up in 2009 as an initiative of international NGOs to provide an independent perspective on CDM projects and policies. CDM Watch successfully advocated for stronger civil society participation, major policy changes at the UN and EU level and uncovered unprecedented scandals in the CDM.
The new Carbon Market Watch Network will work to strengthen the voice of civil society in carbon market developments. Based on the former CDM Watch Network, it connects more than 500 NGOs and academics from the global North and South.
“The global network grew out of CDM Watch’s civil society capacity-building around the world and gained enormous political leverage in CDM host countries, such as India” commented Jürgen Maier, Head of Forum Environment Development and co-founder of CDM Watch. He added “We look forward to working with the Carbon Market Watch Network”.
Carbon Market Watch is active on three levels – at the UN, in Europe and in the Global South. Continuing in the tradition of CDM Watch, Carbon Market Watch will scrutinise carbon markets and advocate for fair and effective climate protection.
More information:
- Visit the Carbon Market Watch Website
- Visit the Carbon Market Watch Twitter Page
- Visit the Carbon Market Watch Facebook Page
- Read the first Carbon Market Watch Newsletter
- Read the Carbon Market Watch NGO voices on the CDM (Watch This!)
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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog
Farewell CDM Watch – Welcome Carbon Market Watch!
November 16th, 2012
New initiative expands scope of work
Brussels, 16 November 2012–Today, CDM Watch was re-launched as Carbon Market Watch to expand its activities for scrutinizing a wider range of carbon market schemes. Visit the new website at www.carbonmarketwatch.org.
The launch of Carbon Market Watch was inspired by the rapid development of carbon market initiatives around the world. It will expand the activities of CDM Watch to other carbon market initiatives including Joint Implementation, new market mechanisms, mechanisms to reduce emissions from degradation and deforestation, the Emissions Trading Scheme and more.
Carbon Market Watch Director Eva Filzmoser commented “The CDM has failed on many levels to achieve real emissions reductions. At the same time, plenty of new carbon market initiatives are planned and being implemented around the world. They all need watching. The launch of Carbon Market Watch is not only a name changer, it will be a game changer”.
CDM Watch was set up in 2009 as an initiative of international NGOs to provide an independent perspective on CDM projects and policies. CDM Watch successfully advocated for stronger civil society participation, major policy changes at the UN and EU level and uncovered unprecedented scandals in the CDM.
The new Carbon Market Watch Network will work to strengthen the voice of civil society in carbon market developments. Based on the former CDM Watch Network, it connects more than 500 NGOs and academics from the global North and South.
“The global network grew out of CDM Watch’s civil society capacity-building around the world and gained enormous political leverage in CDM host countries, such as India” commented Jürgen Maier, Head of Forum Environment Development and co-founder of CDM Watch. He added “We look forward to working with the Carbon Market Watch Network”.
Carbon Market Watch is active on three levels – at the UN, in Europe and in the Global South. Continuing in the tradition of CDM Watch, Carbon Market Watch will scrutinise carbon markets and advocate for fair and effective climate protection.
More information:
- Visit the Carbon Market Watch Website
- Visit the Carbon Market Watch Twitter Page
- Visit the Carbon Market Watch Facebook Page
- Read the first Carbon Market Watch Newsletter
- Read the Carbon Market Watch NGO voices on the CDM (Watch This!)
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Corruption and REDD at the international level
November 16th, 2012
Corruption and REDD at the international level
November 16th, 2012
Victory! Patriot Coal to stop mountaintop removal mining
November 15th, 2012
By Vicki Smith, November 15 2012. Source: Associated Press
Photo: Concordia
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Bankrupt Patriot Coal Corp. agreed Thursday to become the first U.S. coal operator to phase out and eventually stop all large-scale mountaintop removal mining in central Appalachia under an agreement reached with three environmental groups that sued over pollution from several West Virginia operations.
St. Louis-based Patriot said the proposed agreement allows it to postpone as much as $27 million in expenses into 2014 and beyond, improving its liquidity and the likelihood it can successfully emerge from Chapter 11 protection as a viable business.
The deal comes as Patriot tackles litigation that must be resolved during those proceedings. The terms would be binding on any subsidiaries it sells or spins off.
Presented to U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers in Huntington for consideration, the agreement stemmed from water pollution lawsuits filed by the Sierra Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.
The continuation or expansion of large-scale surface mining is no longer in Patriot’s best long-term interests, President Ben Hatfield told the judge.
“Patriot Coal recognizes that our mining operations impact the communities in which we operate in significant ways,” he acknowledged, adding that the agreement will reduce the company’s environmental footprint.
In exchange for phasing out mountaintop removal and agreeing to caps on the amount of coal it produces from strip mining, Patriot gets additional time to install selenium treatment systems at several mines.
Patriot is one of the largest mountaintop removal operators in the region.
Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, called the agreement a historic moment in the fight against what he called an “abhorrent” form of mining.
“Patriot Coal may be the first company to cease mountaintop removal mining, but because of the tireless efforts of committed volunteers and community organizations, it certainly won’t be the last,” he said.
Mountaintop removal is a highly efficient but particularly destructive form of strip mining unique to West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. Coal companies blast apart mountain ridge tops to expose multiple coal seams. The resulting rock and debris is dumped in streams, creating so-called valley fills.
People who live near the operations complain about not only property damage but also health problems they believe are related to the dust and water pollution the operations create. Whether the practice should continue has been the source of intense conflict in West Virginia, where surface miners depend on it for their livelihoods.
The agreement caps the amount of coal that Patriot can mine from surface operations at 6.5 million tons in 2014, falling to 5 million tons in 2017. By January 2018, the amount is limited to no more than 3 million tons a year.
Under the settlement, Patriot agrees to immediately retire the giant dragline machine at its Catenary mine complex and to retire the dragline at the Hobet mine complex in 2015. It allows Patriot to sell that equipment at its discretion, as long as the buyers agree not to use them in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia or West Virginia.
It also will withdraw applications for two valley fill permits that are pending with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and surrender its right to a third permit.
Patriot says it will only conduct “small-scale surface mining” at existing and planned underground mines. That lets the company move ahead with plans to open the Huff Creek Surface mine next to a new underground mine.
The agreement also requires Patriot to make a $500,000 donation to a nonprofit land-use organization of the plaintiffs’ choosing and requires Patriot to ask the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for permission to pay the environmental group’s $96,000 in legal fees.
Cindy Rank of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy has long argued that if companies had to pay the “real costs” of mountaintop removal, it wouldn’t be economically feasible. Selenium pollution is one of those costs.
Selenium is a naturally occurring element that surface mining can release into waterways. Studies have found it’s toxic to aquatic life. In humans, high-level exposure can damage the kidneys, liver, and central nervous and circulatory systems.
“Hopefully, it’s now become clear that when coal companies are required to prevent illegal selenium pollution and pay the costs for cleanup themselves,” Rank said, “it simply doesn’t make economic sense to continue this destructive form of mining.”
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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog