350 Reasons Carbon Trading Won’t Work
October 23rd, 2009
Rising Tide North America, with Carbon Trade Watch and the Camp for Climate Action would like you to join us on the October 24th day of global climate action to spread the word about the biggest financial scam in history – Carbon Trading.
In order to stabilize the climate before billions of people around the world suffer the consequences, it is imperative that carbon-trading schemes are stopped and real, democratically determined solutions are implemented.
www.350Reasons.org
We cannot afford to waste any more valuable time and resources relying on such market-driven strategies to deliver science-based goals (such as 350 ppm of CO2) when so many lives and livelihoods are at stake. If we truly wish to protect people and planet, then we must put climate justice before corporate profits.  However, first and foremost, we need to dispel the misguided notion that carbon trading has anything at all to do with climate change mitigation, or the present and future wellbeing of our communities.
We are proud to announce the launch of www.350reasons.org – a website presenting 350 reasons why carbon trading will not serve to stabilize the climate. A staggering amount of reasons sent in by site visitors was pored over, organized, and consolidated into an upcoming on-site gallery– 35 exemplary ones  are included in the 350 Reasons ‘zine (downloadable below).  Visit 350reasons.org for printable format versions
Online Reading version
A few samples:
350 Reasons Why Carbon Trading Does Not Work
Here are just a few:
Carbon Trading prevents the world’s largest historical debt from being paid. The world’s major polluting corporations owe this debt to poor, frontline communities around the world – communities that contribute the least to, and suffer the lion’s share of the impacts of climate change.
Carbon Trading creates fraudulent derivative markets that reward the biggest industrial polluters and their financiers with windfall profits, while stealing natural resources such as clean air, clean water, clean soil and clean food from the global commons.
Carbon Trading allows corporations to finance or create carbon dumps in the Developing World while continuing to emit toxic climate pollution in the backyards of working poor, Indigenous and people of color communities in Developed Countries.
Carbon Trading impedes democratic governanceby allowing corporate polluters, market managers, and commodity traders to determine whether and where to reduce greenhouse gases and toxic co-pollutants without allowing frontline communities to participate in those decisions.
Carbon Trading perpetuates subsidies and support for major industrial polluters such as big oil and energy companies, and creates new financing for bogus corporate solutions such as clean coal, safe nuclear, bio-fuels and waste incineration – adding more polluting smokestacks in the backyards of already-burdened communities
Carbon Trading keeps much-needed resources from being invested in real solutions and just transition strategies in renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy conservation, waste reduction, economic localization, closed-loop production, healthcare, public education and affordable housing.
Goals of this Project
The purpose of this project is to articulate the need for an entirely different approach to climate change solutions. The international day of action serves as an important platform to remind us that we share a common purpose. However, science-based targets such as 350 ppm (The safe upper limit of CO2 in the atmosphere) are meaningful only in the context of social and economic guidelines that define a pathway for “climate justiceâ€. A justice-based approach recognizes the fact that there is no “silver bullet†solution to climate change and accommodates the full diversity of strategies required by communities to democratically determine the sustainable use of their energy resources.
A durable climate justice solution needs to be:
- Guided by principles of equity and economic justice.
- Democratically determined and guided by the frontline communities and workers most impacted.
- Locally appropriate and locally managed. This inevitably means that local communities are empowered to design, implement and manage solutions that are uniquely suited to its needs.
- Free from the influence and control of the major climate polluters
How You Can Help
- Organize a Climate Justice action or meeting in your neighborhood
- Write a blog post or letter to your local media about the carbon trading scam
- Distribute this message, stickers and pamphlets to your friends and networks
- Join our Facebook page and invite your friends to do so
- Let your local elected officials know why you oppose carbon trading
For More Information: www.350reasons.org
Email: falsesolutions@risingtidenorthamerica.org
Phone: 503-438-4697
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