Mobilization for Climate Justice in New York (MCJ-NYC) takes on corporate polluters and their “environmental” partners!
November 30th, 2009
To jump directly to the controversial research materials from our press packets and to videos of speeches made at the rally by Dr. Hansen, Sheinkopf, and Komanoff, please go here.
Report Back:
On November 30, one week before the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen open, and on the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Organization (WTO) protest in Seattle in 1999, major demonstrations, teach-ins and civil disobedience took place in cities around the U.S..
Across the nation and in midtown Manhattan, the climate justice movement came alive in these events one week before UN climate negotiations begin in Copenhagen. Hundreds of members of Mobilization for Climate Justice (MCJ) in New York City turned out on a cold wet day to unleash what environmental economist Charles Komanoff suggests is a “rebirth of the environmental movement based on environmental science and economics — and not on deal-making with corporate polluters.”
Mistress of Ceremonies, “the Future of Life on Earth”, opened the rally by declaring: “We are part of a nationwide network of organizations opposed to the climate profiteering behind the Waxman-Markey and Kerry-Boxer climate bills. Proposed U.S. climate policy is a betrayal of the environment and of future generations of life on earth. Our coalition demands equitable, democratic, and science-based solutions to climate change. We call for an end to hydrocarbon extraction and we reject carbon trading.”
The rally transformed into a march from the Bank of America to the offices of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) as activists chanted: “The earth, the earth, the earth is on fire. We don’t need no cap and trade, the market is a liar.”
The NRDC is being targeted by the environmental justice movement because of their membership in U.S. CAP and the pivotal lobbying role they played in shaping the massive Waxman-Markey & Kerry-Boxer climate bills and the even-more-egregious Kerry-Lieberman-Graham bill. The bills called for dangerously low emission reductions, while also creating an lucrative carbon trading market which, when put in place in Europe, has dramatically failed to match its boosters’ promises in reducing GHG emissions there. Many of the largest financial institutions that have been deemed “too big to fail” (Goldman Sachs, Bank of America) are salivating to cash in on what some activists have begun to call a new system of “climate profiteering.”
“Come back NRDC,” yelled out a voice in the crowd. The NRDC has aligned itself with a broader coalition of corporate interests whose goals and benchmarks for reducing carbon emissions are drastically below what is necessary according to prevailing climate science.
The MCJ proposes a range of solutions (including leaving hydrocarbons in the ground and more): http://www.actforclimatejustice.org/.
Please remember to read (and pass on) the controversial research materials we provided in our press packets and to view the videos of speeches given at the rally by Dr. Hansen, Sheinkopf, and Komanoff by clicking here.
Hi there – I attended and shot some good photo’s of the event. Check it out here:
Jim Hansen Takes on NRDC and Bank of America
http://wolfenotes.com/2009/11/jim-hansen-takes-on-nrdc-and-bank-of-america/
“Green” fraud has even penetrated grocery stores – watch for environmentally friendly labeling that’s not what it claims to be http://www.newsy.com/videos/the_problem_of_greenwashing
You are profoundly misrepresenting NRDC’s position. I would not be surprised to find that MCJ is really being used by the Coal Industry to fragment the environmental community to prevent us from eliminating coal-fired power plants in the US.
Hank, if anything, these activists don’t go far enough in critiquing NRDC and its duplicity. I can understand your confusion, since at times NRDC appears so righteously green in terms of the rhetoric to which it gives lip service; unfortunately the group will turn around and green-stamp political and corporate environmental malfeasance.