Mobilization for Climate Justice

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Washington, D.C. – There are currently reports of a possible attempted coup d’etat underway in Ecuador. There have been violent protests by police and some elements of the military, reports that President Correa has been injured, and reports that the air force has closed down a number of airports.

The Organization of American States will convene an emergency meeting at 2:30 Eastern Standard Time in Washington D.C., to consider the situation.

Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center For Economic and Policy Research, called upon President Obama to state unequivocally that the United States will not recognize any government other than the democratically elected government of President Rafael Correa.

Weisbrot noted that the White House statement of June 28, 2009,  in response to the military coup in Honduras, did not make any such assertion, and in fact did not even condemn the coup.

“These types of statements are very important, in that the people who are trying to overthrow a democratic government are looking for signs of whether a coup government will be recognized by the United States. The first White House statement last year in response to the Honduran military coup sent the wrong signal at a crucial moment.”

At the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad in April 2009, President Obama stated: “I just want to make absolutely clear that I am absolutely opposed and condemn any efforts at violent overthrows of democratically elected governments, wherever it happens in the hemisphere.

“This is an important time for President Obama to live up to this commitment,” said Weisbrot.

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Contact: Dan Beeton, 202-239-1460

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

Today’s podcast features Global Justice Ecology Project’s Co-Director/Strategist Orin Langelle speak about his experience and thoughts regarding last Thursday’s (September 23)  meeting in Manhattan with Evo Morales Ayma, the Indigenous President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia and Pablo Salón, Bolivia’s Ambassador to the UN to discuss the preparations for the upcoming UN Climate Conference in Cancún.

Click here to listen to the Podcast

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

Today’s podcast features Global Justice Ecology Project’s Co-Director/Strategist Orin Langelle speak about his experience and thoughts regarding last Thursday’s (September 23)  meeting in Manhattan with Evo Morales Ayma, the Indigenous President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia and Pablo Salón, Bolivia’s Ambassador to the UN to discuss the preparations for the upcoming UN Climate Conference in Cancún.

Click here to listen to the Podcast

Cross-posted from Daily Yonder

Oil sands supporters describe it as a safe, secure source of oil from a stable government. Critics call it the “dirtiest oil in the world.” Dirty or safe, it may be coming our way soon.

GreenPeace Suncor Oil Sands Mine, Alberta, Canada

One of America’s top sources of imported oil is closer than we might imagine. About 20 percent of the United States oil comes from the oil sands or tar sand mines of Canada. This comprises nearly all of Canada’s current oil exports.

Oil from oil sands or tar sands mines was described by U. S. Representative Henry A. Waxman as “the dirtiest source of transportation fuel currently available,” in a New York Times story this summer.

Environmentalists, local communities and First Nations tribes on both sides of the border agree and are actively campaigning against a proposed pipeline extension from Alberta, Canada to Texas that would carry the synthetic crude from oil sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas.  First Nations leaders from the U. S. and Canada met with officials at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Department of Interior and others in Washington D.C. last week to discuss their concerns about the impact of increased oil sands mining on their communities.
“What we wanted to bring is the big picture of how tar sands development is impacting a vast territory in the North — from climate change, to chemicals in our water, to the caribou herds that are becoming endangered,” said François Paulette, a member of the Smith’s Landing Treaty 8 Dene First Nation, and one of three aboriginal leaders taking part in the meetings. “A lot of our people are really concerned. “

TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline A large group of Canadian diplomats also journeyed to Washington, promoting oil sands as a safer alternative to other sources. Alberta’s premier, Ed Stelmach told the New York Times that Canada is offering the U.S. a safe, secure supply of oil from a stable government.

The Obama administration is currently considering the Keystone XL pipeline proposal by TransCanada to build the massive pipeline that would pump up to 900,000 barrels of oil sands oil per day to the U. S. A decision on the project is due this fall.

Officials at TransCanada say that the Keystone pipeline system will play an important role in linking a secure and growing supply of Canadian crude oil with the largest refining markets in the U.S. The proposed Keystone Gulf Coast Expansion Project is an approximately 1, 661 mile long, 36 inch wide pipeline that would begin in Hardisty, Alberta and extend southeast through Saskatchewan, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. It would then link with current lines through Nebraska and Kansas to markets in Oklahoma before moving on to a delivery point near existing terminals in  Texas.

According to critics, there are problems not only with the pipeline proposal but also with the very notion of mining oil from oil sands in Canada or the U. S.

Although the Keystone XL doesn’t present the risk of a rig blowout such as the BP accident in the Gulf of Mexico, critics warn that American regulators have waived important safety standards for the pipeline according to the New York Times.

They point to the July oil spill in Michigan that resulted from a fracture in the Enbridge Energy pipeline. The spill released nearly a million gallons of oil into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River in Battle Creek.

An analysis by the Texas -based Perryman Group about the economic impact of the Keystone XL project and an assessment of the benefits of a more stable supply of oil is featured on the TransCanada website. According to the analysis report, local economies within the pipeline route will benefit from increased revenues and business activities associated with construction and enjoy the benefit of increased property taxes. Analyses from the Perryman Group predict that the pipeline project will create 250,348 permanent jobs.

CitizenShift.org Albion Oil Sand Mine

According to critics, however, the danger of oil sands development far outweighs any economic benefits.

Indigenous Environmental Network Canadian Tar Sands

Alberta’s Department of Energy describes Alberta’s Oil Sands as the largest source of oil in the world after Saudi Arabia. This source of oil, however, is located under one of the world’s most beautiful and pristine boreal forests in an area that is about the size of Florida. This area in the Athabascan, Cold Lake and Peace River regions lie within traditional First Nation’s territories. In an area where aboriginal communities rely heavily on the land, water and wildlife through fishing, trapping, hunting and gathering, the impact of pollution from the mines is immediate. There has been a three-fold increase in leukemias and lymphomas, seven-fold increase in bile duct cancers since mining began according to Alberta Health Services. These cancers are commonly linked to exposure to petroleum products.  According to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the development of oil sands represents a double barrel threat to the environment. First, producing the oil emits two to three times the global warming pollution of conventional oil and two; the process diminishes one of the best carbon reduction tools on the planet—Canada’s Boreal Forest.

Unlike conventional oil, the bitumen, heavy and viscous oil from oil sands, cannot be pumped directly from the ground. Tar sands must be mined and melted in order for bitumen to be retrieved.  Huge three story high shovels dig up the earth to expose the oil sands, transporting it to an extraction plant where a hot water process separates the bitumen from the sand, water and minerals. Open pit mining produces tailings or waste that is diverted into ponds. This waste is toxic to aquatic organisms and mammals. Although Canadian law prohibits the release of such waste directly into the Athabasca River, activists claims that toxic waste leaks into the groundwater.

The alternative in situ method of extraction involves injecting steam into the ground to melt the bitumen from the sands and pumping it to the surface. This method not only requires more energy than open pit mining, but also requires large amounts of water. Although most of the water can be recycled, environmentalists complain that some water remains stranded underground. This process, they claim, continually depletes water resources. Bitumen is much heavier than conventional crude oil and contains various contaminants requiring greater refining than crude oil. According to environmentalists, this refining process, which releases sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, are major contributors to smog and acid rain.

All of this, critics maintain, presents another dangerous precedent. It encourages more oil sands mining in the United States. The Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining gave final approval this month for a tar sands mine in Eastern Utah in the Uintah Basin to be operated by the Canadian based Earth Energy Resource, Inc. The Basin is estimated to contain roughly 11 billion gallons of oil. Water for use in the proposed in situ method of extraction would likely come from the Colorado River Basin.
The Huffington Post cites a World Wildlife Federation report finding that three barrels of water are required to produce one barrel of oil from oil sands.

Living Rivers, an environmental group based in Moab has appealed the decision. For now, the project is on hold.

Living Rivers conservation director John Weisheit told the Salt Lake Tribune, “This is just an inappropriate activity when the nation and the world are trying to adjust to climate change.”

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

With a gas mask on his head, Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa gestures as he runs away from tear gas during a protest of police officers and soldiers against a new law that cuts their benefits at a police base in Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, Sept. 30, 2010. Correa tried to speak with a group of police protesters but was shouted down.

Cross-posted from The Associated Press

QUITO, Ecuador — Hundreds of police protesting a new law that cuts their benefits plunged this small South American nation into chaos on Thursday, shutting down airports and blocking highways in a nationwide strike.

There were no reports of serious violence against the government, but President Rafael Correa was hospitalized due to the effects of tear gas after being shouted down and pelted with water as he tried to speak with a group of police protesters.

“If you want to kill the president, here he is! Kill me!” said Correa, refusing to back down.

Speaking by telephone from a hospital room where he said he was hooked to an intravenous drip to help him recover, Correa described the unrest as “as an attempted coup by the opposition” and said “history will judge them.”

“I call on patriotic police to submit” to his leadership, Correa added.

The protest appeared to have arisen spontaneously, literally overnight, and there was no immediate evidence that the opposition was involved.

The rebellious officers fired tear gas and burned tires after taking over barracks in Quito, Guayaquil and other cities. They also set up roadblocks that cut off highway access to the capital.

Schools shut down in Quito and many businesses closed due to the absence of police protection that left citizens and businesses vulnerable to crime.

Looting was reported in the capital — where at least two banks were sacked — and in the coastal city Guayaquil. That city’s main newspaper, El Universo, reported assaults on supermarkets and robberies due to the absence of police.

The U.S. Embassy issued a message warning U.S. citizens “of a “nationwide strike by all levels of police, including military police.” It warned them to “stay in their homes or current location, if safe.”

The Quito newspaper La Hora quoted the armed forces chief, Luiz Gonzalez, as saying that the military was loyal to Correa. However the National Assembly building was occupied by striking police.

The striking police were angered by a law passed by Congress on Wednesday that would end the practice of giving members of Ecuador’s military and police medals and bonuses with each promotion. It would also extend from 5 to 7 years the usual period required for before a subsequent promotion.

“They are a bunch of ungrateful bandits,” Correa said of the protesters. “No one has supported the police as much as this government,” he told reporters.

The law needs to be published before it takes effect and that has not happened.

Air force troops shut down the Quito’s Mariscal Sucre airport as the protests commenced Thursday morning. An airport official who refused to give her name said its “operations have been suspended.”

The airport’s president, Philippe Baril, told a local radio station that 300 troops had occupied runways, forcing flight cancelations. About 700 passengers were stranded, he said.

The U.S. Embassy said Guayaquil’s airport was also closed.

Dozens of Correa supporters marched toward the city center to support him.

Traditionally unstable politically, this nation of 14 million has seen relative peace and stability since Correa, a U.S.-trained economist allied with Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, took office in January 2007.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

With a gas mask on his head, Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa gestures as he runs away from tear gas during a protest of police officers and soldiers against a new law that cuts their benefits at a police base in Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, Sept. 30, 2010. Correa tried to speak with a group of police protesters but was shouted down.

Cross-posted from The Associated Press

QUITO, Ecuador — Hundreds of police protesting a new law that cuts their benefits plunged this small South American nation into chaos on Thursday, shutting down airports and blocking highways in a nationwide strike.

There were no reports of serious violence against the government, but President Rafael Correa was hospitalized due to the effects of tear gas after being shouted down and pelted with water as he tried to speak with a group of police protesters.

“If you want to kill the president, here he is! Kill me!” said Correa, refusing to back down.

Speaking by telephone from a hospital room where he said he was hooked to an intravenous drip to help him recover, Correa described the unrest as “as an attempted coup by the opposition” and said “history will judge them.”

“I call on patriotic police to submit” to his leadership, Correa added.

The protest appeared to have arisen spontaneously, literally overnight, and there was no immediate evidence that the opposition was involved.

The rebellious officers fired tear gas and burned tires after taking over barracks in Quito, Guayaquil and other cities. They also set up roadblocks that cut off highway access to the capital.

Schools shut down in Quito and many businesses closed due to the absence of police protection that left citizens and businesses vulnerable to crime.

Looting was reported in the capital — where at least two banks were sacked — and in the coastal city Guayaquil. That city’s main newspaper, El Universo, reported assaults on supermarkets and robberies due to the absence of police.

The U.S. Embassy issued a message warning U.S. citizens “of a “nationwide strike by all levels of police, including military police.” It warned them to “stay in their homes or current location, if safe.”

The Quito newspaper La Hora quoted the armed forces chief, Luiz Gonzalez, as saying that the military was loyal to Correa. However the National Assembly building was occupied by striking police.

The striking police were angered by a law passed by Congress on Wednesday that would end the practice of giving members of Ecuador’s military and police medals and bonuses with each promotion. It would also extend from 5 to 7 years the usual period required for before a subsequent promotion.

“They are a bunch of ungrateful bandits,” Correa said of the protesters. “No one has supported the police as much as this government,” he told reporters.

The law needs to be published before it takes effect and that has not happened.

Air force troops shut down the Quito’s Mariscal Sucre airport as the protests commenced Thursday morning. An airport official who refused to give her name said its “operations have been suspended.”

The airport’s president, Philippe Baril, told a local radio station that 300 troops had occupied runways, forcing flight cancelations. About 700 passengers were stranded, he said.

The U.S. Embassy said Guayaquil’s airport was also closed.

Dozens of Correa supporters marched toward the city center to support him.

Traditionally unstable politically, this nation of 14 million has seen relative peace and stability since Correa, a U.S.-trained economist allied with Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, took office in January 2007.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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URGENT
The situation is grave in the case the Mapuche political prisoners who have been on hunger strike for SEVENTYNINE DAYS in the Angol Prison.

Recent information-Tuesday Sept. 28th-tell us that Fernando Millacheo and Jose Queipul are in a very bad state of health fainting for 5 hours without being attended to.  Also Victor Llanquileo is in bad condition. The rest of the the brothers on hunger strike are in Victoria Hospital
under intensive care.

The Mapuche political prisoners from Angol, given the lack of interest of the Chilean State is solving their demands, assume that if the death of some of them is the solution in order to be heard, they are prepared to accept it and are calling for a national and international mobilization to support all the Mapuche political prisoners on hunger strike.

Victor Llanquileo has asked us to inform his words: “The government wants our death which it will have  assuming it is inevitable”.

The prisoners in Angol and Victoria have issued a call to the great Llillipun for this Saturday October 2 for a demonstration outside the Angol prison with an invitation to Mapuche and non-Mapuches who are mobilizing in the Wallmapu.
(translation by Earl Gilman)

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

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Cross posted from BBC News

President Correa told protesters the government would press ahead with reforms

About 150 members of the security forces in Ecuador have taken over the runway at the airport in the capital, Quito, forcing it to shut down.

It comes as police and troops in the country stage protests over government plans to cut their benefits.

A bridge and main access road into the capital are reported to have been blocked by protesters.

President Rafael Correa has appeared before protesters at a barracks in Quito to appeal for calm.

He told them: “If you want to seize the barracks, if you want to leave citizens undefended, if you want to betray the mission of the police force, go ahead. But this government will do what has to be done.”

The troops and police are protesting against austerity cuts which would reduce their bonuses.

Television stations have shown images of police setting tyres on fire in the streets of Quito, Guayaquil and other cities.

The mayor of Quito, Augusto Barrera, said all flights were suspended from the Mariscal Sucre International Airport.

“Unfortunately a group of people have occupied the runway,” the EFE news agency quoted him as saying.

The unrest came as it emerged that Mr Correa was considering dissolving the national assembly after failing to pass economic reforms.

He would then rule by decree until elections could be held.

The move would have to be approved by the country’s Constitutional Court.

Policy Minister Doris Solis said it was “a scenario that nobody would want but it is a possibility when the conditions for change do not exist”.

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

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Cross posted from The Center for Food Safety

September 29th

Court To Consider Appropriate Remedy For Industry’s Rush To Plant Monsanto’s Herbicide Resistant Crop

Late yesterday, Judge Jeffrey White, federal district judge for the Northern District of California, ruled that Plaintiffs Center for Food Safety, Organic Seed Alliance, High Mowing Organic Seeds, and the Sierra Club were likely to succeed on claims that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) illegally permitted the planting of genetically engineered (GE) sugar beets. The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by Earthjustice and Center for Food Safety on behalf of the coalition of farmers and conservation groups on September 9, 2010, and their immediate request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction halting planting of the crop. If granted, the injunction would stop – and, if necessary, remove – the recent plantings of GE sugar beet seedlings intended to produce seed for a 2012 sugar beet crop.

“Once again, USDA has bypassed environmental review and public comment to cater to industry preferences,” stated Paige Tomaselli, staff attorney for Plaintiff Center for Food Safety. “We cannot allow USDA to abdicate its responsibility to protect public health and the environment.”

Paul Achitoff of Earthjustice, lead counsel for the Plaintiffs, commented: “Both the USDA and the sugar beet industry played fast and loose with the law, hoping to evade effective court review by planting as fast as they could. Such conduct, especially on the part of the government, is outrageous and cannot be tolerated. The illegally planted crops must be removed.”

The crop at issue, Roundup Ready sugar beets, was engineered to resist the effects of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, which it sells to farmers together with the patented seed. Similar Roundup Ready crops have led to increased use of herbicides, proliferation of herbicide resistant weeds, and contamination of conventional and organic crops. In August, after earlier ruling that USDA had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by approving the Monsanto-engineered biotech crop without first preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), the court officially “vacated” USDA’s “deregulation” of the crop, making any future planting and sale unlawful until USDA complies with federal law. At the time, USDA had requested that the court delay its ruling, allowing planting to continue pending agency review. The court denied this request, a fact it noted in its decision yesterday.

As a result of Judge White’s August 13, 2010, order, USDA is in the process of preparing an EIS on the impacts of these GE sugar beets (as required under NEPA), which the agency has said it may complete in 2012. Only three weeks after Judge White’s order making further planting unlawful, USDA began issuing permits to seed companies to begin propagating seed for the still-regulated crop. Although USDA and the companies were aware of the Plaintiffs’ opposition, they rushed to complete the plantings in the hope of presenting the court with a fait accompli.

USDA and the companies argued this first step alone did not warrant any environmental review. Judge White rejected this attempt to artificially segment, or piecemeal, the sugar beet planting cycle into phases to avoid the very environmental review the court previously had ordered. The court stated there was “no reasonable basis to support” the government’s assertion that this recent planting was an act independent from the remainder of the planting cycle.  The court found no evidence that “the permits had any utility other than enabling the seed companies to take the first step in a multi-step process related to the commercial production of genetically engineered sugar beets.” This, the court held, “goes beyond the supposedly limited plantings at issue.”

In light of the court’s findings yesterday that the Plaintiffs had shown USDA likely had violated the law, the court set a hearing on October 22, 2010 to consider an appropriate remedy. The Plaintiffs have argued that the appropriate remedy is to order the unlawfully crops immediately destroyed.

Courts have twice rescinded USDA’s approval of biotech crops. The first such crop, Roundup Ready alfalfa, is also illegal to plant, based on the vacating of its deregulation in 2007 pending preparation of an EIS. Although Monsanto appealed that case all the way to the Supreme Court and the High Court set aside part of the relief granted, the full prohibition on its planting – based on the same initial remedy granted here, the vacatur – remains in place.

This case is Center for Food Safety v. Vilsack, No. C10-04038 JSW (N.D. Cal. 2010). The court order is
available HERE

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

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Traducción de español a continuación.
Persons with long experience will be part of the judging panel to formulate an ethical boundary for mining. Mission will consider and issue a ruling on the implications of this model of extraction in Latin America where there will be cases like the Pascua Lama project in Chile and Argentina. The judging panel is linked to the rights of the indigenous world, the association and advocate for protection of the environment.
The Court of Ethics to the Mining Frontier is a space to make visible a process of mining expansion in the Americas that has endangered the life and water of nearby communities to mining projects in border areas.
The panel of judges is composed of international personalities linked to the defense of human rights as Bishop Emeritus of Ancud Chile, Monsignor Juan Luis Ysern, Sister Elsie Monge, Executive Director of the Ecumenical Commission of Human Rights (CEDHU) of Ecuador , Lawrence Wheeler, Guambiano indigenous leader who has participated in many movements for the ancestral rights of indigenous peoples of Colombia, Karyn Keenan, Halifax Initiative program director in Canada, and Cristian Cuevas, Secretary of collective bargaining, conflict and solidarity of the Central Confederation of Workers of Chile (CUT).
The program will begin at 9 am on September 30 judges and will run until 18 pm with an extensive itinerary that includes exhibitions of the affected border Mexico-Guatemala, Guatemala, Salvador, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina and Chile with the Pascua Lama project. Following the Court issued a ruling on the implications of this model of extraction in Latin America.
The event was held in the Hall CUT, Alameda 1346, Metro Moneda. The ethical Court Frontier Mining will be broadcast Live on Radio Del Mar over the Internet for everyone in www.radiodelmar.cl.
Paths panel of Judges

Chilean Bishop Emeritus of Ancud, Monsignor Juan Luis Ysern, has had a long history in defense of cultural heritage, specifically the town Huilliche in Chiloé. He was recognized and accepted by his work as a member of the village Huilliche by the General Council of Chiefs of Chiloé and the Federation of Indigenous Communities of Chiloé. He received the National Prize of Culture for his career in the defense of Cultural Heritage and received the Medal of the Order of Merit Pablo Neruda Artistic and Cultural delivering the National Council for Culture and the Arts.
Sister Elsie Monge is currently Executive Director of the Ecumenical Commission of Human Rights (CEDHU) in Ecuador where he helps political refugees and expatriates of dictatorships like Chile. After living in Mexico, Colombia, Panama and Chile, returned to his native Ecuador where she worked with immigrants of African descent for identity and memory. Then supported the creation of the Federation of Chota, where farmers did a land reclamation process. She integrates the CEDHU since 1981 and is its director since 1986, alongside Ecuadorian created the Human Rights Front.

Lorenzo Wheels is Guambiano indigenous leader who has participated in many movements for the ancestral rights of indigenous peoples of Colombia. He was one of the founders of the Cauca Indigenous Regional Committee (CRIC) and the Indigenous Authorities of the South West (AICO), which today is called Indigenous Authorities of Colombia (AICO). He was elected governor of the indigenous community in 1985 Guambiano then become part of the Council of Elders who heads the City Council. Participated in the National Constituent Assembly that ended with the drafting of the 1991 Colombian Constitution. Three years later he was elected Senator of the Republic for the special indigenous for the constitutional period 1994-1998. In 2006 young people chose him as governor of Guambía, the highest office in the nation. Currently sits on the table between the government and the communities of Cauca to resolve a land dispute involving the Colombian and indigenous peoples. Despite years of struggle, Wheeler states that “much remains to be done.”
Karyn Keenan is director of program in Canada Halifax Initiative, a coalition bringing together more than twenty organizations working on the development, the environment, faith, human rights and labor rights. He has extensive experience in issues of social and environmental justice from which he has supported communities affected by the impacts of mining and oil extraction in Peru and Bolivia. In recent years he has participated in the round tables in Canada for Corporate Social Responsibility and the Canadian Extractive Industry in Developing Countries with the aim of achieving greater restrictions on Canadian companies operating in other countries.
Cristian Cuevas, son of a coal miner, his life has been involved in organizing for labor improvements and expand the rights of workers associated with mining. He was President of the Confederation of Copper Workers (CTC) and is currently Secretary of collective bargaining, conflict and solidarity of the Confederation of Workers of Chile. In 2007, he led a strike that lasted for 37 days taking access to the main CODELCO miners who achieved improvements in wages, health insurance, life insurance, scholarship and a major productivity bonus for workers subcontractors. Active member of the Communist Party of Chile where he supported the candidacy of the iconic leader Gladys Marin PC in 1999.

Communications OLCA

___________________________________________________

Tribunal Ético de Minería de Frontera:

Defensores de los derechos humanos constituyen panel de jueces

Personalidades con larga trayectoria serán parte del panel de jueces para elaborar un juicio ético a la minería de frontera. Tendrán la misión de reflexionar y emitir un pronunciamiento sobre las implicancias de este modelo extractivo en Latinoamérica donde se presentarán casos como el proyecto Pascua Lama entre Chile y Argentina. El panel de jueces está ligado a la defensa de los derechos del mundo indígena, al sindical y a la defensa de la protección del medio ambiente.

El Tribunal Ético a la Minería de Frontera es un espacio para visibilizar un proceso de expansión minera en el continente americano que ha puesto en peligro la vida y el agua de las comunidades aledañas a los proyectos extractivos en zonas fronterizas.

El panel de jueces está integrado por personalidades internacionales ligadas a la defensa de los derechos humanos como el Obispo chileno Emérito de Ancud, Monseñor Juan Luis Ysern; la Hermana Elsie Monge, Directora Ejecutiva de la Comisión Ecuménica de Derechos Humanos (CEDHU) de Ecuador; Lorenzo Muelas, líder indígena guambiano que ha participado en innumerables movimientos por los derechos ancestrales de los pueblos originarios de Colombia; Karyn Keenan, directora del programa Halifax Initiative en Canadá; y Cristian Cuevas, Secretario de negociación colectiva, conflictos y solidaridad de la Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Chile (CUT).

El programa comenzará a las 9 de la mañana del jueces 30 de septiembre y se extenderá hasta las 18 hrs con un extenso itinerario que contempla exposiciones de los afectados de las fronteras de México-Guatemala, Guatemala-Salvador, Perú-Ecuador, Bolivia-Brasil, y Chile-Argentina con el proyecto Pascua Lama. Al término del Tribunal se emitirá un pronunciamiento sobre las implicancias de este modelo extractivo en Latinoamérica.

La actividad se realizará en el Salón CUT, Alameda 1346, Metro Moneda. El Tribunal ético a la Minería de Frontera será transmitido en vivo y en directo por Radio del Mar a través de Internet para todo el mundo en www.radiodelmar.cl.

Trayectorias del panel de Jueces

El Obispo chileno Emérito de Ancud, Monseñor Juan Luis Ysern, ha tenido una amplia trayectoria en defensa del patrimonio cultural, específicamente del pueblo Huilliche en Chiloé. Fue reconocido y aceptado por su labor como miembro del pueblo Huilliche por el Consejo General de Caciques de Chiloé y por la Federación de Comunidades Indígenas de Chiloé. Recibió el Premio Nacional de la Cultura por su trayectoria en la defensa del Patrimonio Cultural y recibió la Medalla del Orden al Mérito Artístico y Cultural Pablo Neruda que entrega el Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes.

La Hermana Elsie Monge actualmente es Directora Ejecutiva de la Comisión Ecuménica de Derechos Humanos (CEDHU) en Ecuador desde donde ayuda a refugiados políticos y expatriados de dictaduras como la chilena. Luego de vivir en México, Colombia, Panamá y Chile, regresó a su Ecuador natal donde trabajó con inmigrantes afrodescendientes para fortalecer su identidad y memoria. Entonces apoyó la creación de la Federación de Trabajadores del Chota, donde los campesinos hicieron un proceso de recuperación de tierras. Ella integra el Cedhu desde 1981 y es su directora desde 1986, paralelamente creó el Frente Ecuatoriano de Derechos Humanos.

Lorenzo Muelas es líder indígena guambiano que ha participado en innumerables movimientos por los derechos ancestrales de los pueblos originarios de Colombia. Fue uno de los fundadores del Comité Regional Indígena del Cauca (CRIC) y de las Autoridades Indígenas del Sur Occidente (AICO), que hoy se llama Autoridades Indígenas de Colombia (AICO). Fue elegido gobernador de la comunidad indígena Guambiana durante el año 1985 para luego pasar a ser parte del Consejo de Ancianos que dirige el Cabildo. Participó de la Asamblea Nacional Constituyente que terminó con la redacción de la Constitución Política colombiana de 1991. Tres años después fue elegido Senador de la República por la circunscripción especial indígena para el período constitucional 1994-1998. En el año 2006 los jóvenes lo escogieron como gobernador de Guambía, el cargo más alto de su nación. Actualmente es miembro de la mesa que hay entre el gobierno y las comunidades del Cauca para resolver un conflicto de tierras que afecta al Estado Colombiano y a los pueblos indígenas. A pesar de los años de lucha, Muelas afirma que “aún falta mucho por hacer”.

Karyn Keenan es directora del programa Halifax Initiative en Canadá, una coalición que reúne a más de veinte organizaciones que trabajan en torno al desarrollo, al medioambiente, la fe, los derechos humanos y derechos laborales. Tiene una vasta experiencia en temas de justicia social y ambiental desde donde ha apoyado a comunidades afectadas por los impactos de la extracción minera y petrolera en Perú y Bolivia. En los últimos años ha participado de las mesas redondas de Canadá relativas a la Responsabilidad Social Empresarial y la Industria Extractiva Canadiense en países en Desarrollo con el objetivo de lograr mayores restricciones a las empresas canadienses que operan en otros países.

Cristian Cuevas, hijo de un minero del carbón, ha estado toda su vida involucrado en la organización sindical para lograr mejoras laborales y ampliar los derechos de los trabajadores ligados a la minería. Fue Presidente de la Confederación de Trabajadores del Cobre (CTC) y actualmente es Secretario de negociación colectiva, conflictos y solidaridad de la Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Chile. En el año 2007, lideró una huelga que se extendió por 37 días tomándose los accesos a los principales centros mineros de CODELCO en el que lograron mejoras salariales, seguro de salud, seguro de vida, beca escolar y un importante bono de productividad a los trabajadores subcontratados. Milita en el Partido Comunista de Chile desde donde apoyó la candidatura de la emblemática líder del PC Gladys Marín en 1999.

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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

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Featured in this video is Maria Gunnoe, who is a participant in Global Justice Ecology Project’s New Voices on Climate Change program.

Appalachia Rising was a mass mobilization in Washington DC on September 27, 2010 calling for the abolition of mountaintop removal and surface mining.

It is a culmination of the national movement against surface mining and a foundation upon which to build a pan-Appalachian movement for prosperity and justice.

Coalfield citizens and organizers envision a vibrant mobilization of thousands — coalfield residents, students youth, Christians people of all faiths, families, celebrities, underground miners, activists, artists, and all who yearn for justice — to converge on Washington DC for a day of non-violent action and dignified civil disobedience targeting the politicians and agencies who could abolish surface mining with the stroke of a pen.

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

On the occasion of the meeting of the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan, and to mark World Food Day on October 16, 2010, La Via Campesina calls for actions around the world to denounce the role of agribusinesses such as Monsanto and their destruction and corporatization of biodiversity and life.

Even though the UN declared 2010 the International year of Biodiversity, the CBD is meeting at a time of unprecedented biodiversity destruction. As well as animals, insects and birds, the world is also seeing the disappearance of thousands of plant varieties as agribusiness destroys, contaminates and privatizes the World Heritage stored inside the seeds and plants nurtured by generations of farmers over thousands of years of agriculture on Earth. Since 1900, approximately 90% of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops has been lost from farmer’s fields. Biodiversity is also endangered by land-grabbing and the displacement of communities who are actually protecting biodiversity.

Agribusiness corporations are attempting to monopolize seeds through the use of hybrid seeds, patents and laws that make farmers’ seeds illegal. Intellectual property rights systems that are upheld or enforced by institutions such as WTO or TRIPS are putting nature into private hands. Monsanto has become a true giant – the company owns almost a quarter of the patented seed market worldwide, and keeps taking over seeds companies particularly in Europe. The top ten biggest companies control almost 70% of the world’s seeds. The company is now entering the “aid business”, selling its seeds in Africa with the Bill Gates Foundation through the “Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)”.

Not only do the TNCs sell seeds, they also provide toxic chemicals with devastating effects. Huge monocultures treated with cocktails of agrochemicals will further destroy the world’s biodiversity as well as peasant communities. In the world of Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and others, there is no space for biodiversity, just uniformity, biotechnology and profit.

Within the decision making spaces on climate change, agribusiness promotes aggressively technologies that destroy biodiversity such as transgenic trees plantations or GM seeds, solutions which are fasly presented as better adapted to the new climate.

La Via Campesina knows that the future of our planet depends on our ability to protect, nurture and promote agro biodiversity. We, peasant men and women propose to develop the richness and diversity of our farms, plant varieties, cultures and traditions. Seeds are part of the World Heritage and should remain into public and community-based use, not private ownership.

It is the model of peasant agriculture in its diversity that will allow us to adapt to the demographic and climatic changes which are already upon us.

As we confront the agribusinesses in our fields through promoting our alternatives, we refuse to recognize their “rights” as owners of the planet’s biodiversity and we will also confront them through political actions in the coming weeks, at the FAO, the CBD and the UN Climate Talks (UNFCCC).

We call for Actions worldwide around October 16th to protect biodiversity and confront transnational corporations such as Monsanto.

La Via Campesina invites you to coordinate your actions with the call of the network “Climate Justice Action!” in order to organise direct actions worldwide for climate justice on October 12^th, 2010. (/www.climate-justice-action.org/)

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

On the occasion of the meeting of the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan, and to mark World Food Day on October 16, 2010, La Via Campesina calls for actions around the world to denounce the role of agribusinesses such as Monsanto and their destruction and corporatization of biodiversity and life.

Even though the UN declared 2010 the International year of Biodiversity, the CBD is meeting at a time of unprecedented biodiversity destruction. As well as animals, insects and birds, the world is also seeing the disappearance of thousands of plant varieties as agribusiness destroys, contaminates and privatizes the World Heritage stored inside the seeds and plants nurtured by generations of farmers over thousands of years of agriculture on Earth. Since 1900, approximately 90% of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops has been lost from farmer’s fields. Biodiversity is also endangered by land-grabbing and the displacement of communities who are actually protecting biodiversity.

Agribusiness corporations are attempting to monopolize seeds through the use of hybrid seeds, patents and laws that make farmers’ seeds illegal. Intellectual property rights systems that are upheld or enforced by institutions such as WTO or TRIPS are putting nature into private hands. Monsanto has become a true giant – the company owns almost a quarter of the patented seed market worldwide, and keeps taking over seeds companies particularly in Europe. The top ten biggest companies control almost 70% of the world’s seeds. The company is now entering the “aid business”, selling its seeds in Africa with the Bill Gates Foundation through the “Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)”.

Not only do the TNCs sell seeds, they also provide toxic chemicals with devastating effects. Huge monocultures treated with cocktails of agrochemicals will further destroy the world’s biodiversity as well as peasant communities. In the world of Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and others, there is no space for biodiversity, just uniformity, biotechnology and profit.

Within the decision making spaces on climate change, agribusiness promotes aggressively technologies that destroy biodiversity such as transgenic trees plantations or GM seeds, solutions which are fasly presented as better adapted to the new climate.

La Via Campesina knows that the future of our planet depends on our ability to protect, nurture and promote agro biodiversity. We, peasant men and women propose to develop the richness and diversity of our farms, plant varieties, cultures and traditions. Seeds are part of the World Heritage and should remain into public and community-based use, not private ownership.

It is the model of peasant agriculture in its diversity that will allow us to adapt to the demographic and climatic changes which are already upon us.

As we confront the agribusinesses in our fields through promoting our alternatives, we refuse to recognize their “rights” as owners of the planet’s biodiversity and we will also confront them through political actions in the coming weeks, at the FAO, the CBD and the UN Climate Talks (UNFCCC).

We call for Actions worldwide around October 16th to protect biodiversity and confront transnational corporations such as Monsanto.

La Via Campesina invites you to coordinate your actions with the call of the network “Climate Justice Action!” in order to organise direct actions worldwide for climate justice on October 12^th, 2010. (/www.climate-justice-action.org/)

By JONATHAN M. KATZ and MARTHA MENDOZA (AP)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Nearly nine months after the earthquake, more than a million Haitians still live on the streets between piles of rubble. One reason: Not a cent of the $1.15 billion the U.S. promised for rebuilding has arrived.

The money was pledged by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in March for use this year in rebuilding. The U.S. has already spent more than $1.1 billion on post-quake relief, but without long-term funds, the reconstruction of the wrecked capital cannot begin.

With just a week to go before fiscal 2010 ends, the money is still tied up in Washington. At fault: bureaucracy, disorganization and a lack of urgency, The Associated Press learned in interviews with officials in the State Department, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the White House and the U.N. Office of the Special Envoy. One senator has held up a key authorization bill because of a $5 million provision he says will be wasteful.

Meanwhile, deaths in Port-au-Prince are mounting, as quake survivors scramble to live without shelter or food.

“There are truly lives at stake, and the idea that folks are spending more time finger-pointing than getting this solved is almost unbelievable,” said John Simon, a former U.S. ambassador to the African Union who is now with the Center for Global Development, a Washington think tank.

Nor is Haiti getting much from other donors. Some 50 other nations and organizations pledged a total of $8.75 billion for reconstruction, but just $686 million of that has reached Haiti so far — less than 15 percent of the total promised for 2010-11.

The lack of funds has all but halted reconstruction work by CHF International, the primary U.S.-funded group assigned to remove rubble and build temporary shelters. Just 2 percent of rubble has been cleared and 13,000 temporary shelters have been built — less than 10 percent of the number planned.

The Maryland-based agency is asking the U.S. government for $16.5 million to remove more than 21 million cubic feet (600,000 cubic meters) of additional rubble and build 4,000 more temporary houses out of wood and metal.

“It’s just a matter of one phone call and the trucks are out again. We have contractors ready to continue removing rubble. … We have local suppliers and international suppliers ready to ship the amount of wood and construction materials we need,” said CHF country director Alberto Wilde. “It’s just a matter of money.”

Last week the inaction bore tragic results. On Friday an isolated storm destroyed an estimated 8,000 tarps, tents and shacks in the capital and killed at least six people, including two children. And the threat of violence looms as landowners threaten entire camps with forced eviction.

In Washington there is confusion about the money. At a July hearing, Ravij Shah, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, thanked members of Congress for approving the funds, saying, “The resources are flowing and are being spent in country.”

It wasn’t true then, and still hasn’t happened.

When the earthquake hit, U.S. agencies sent troops, rescuers, aid workers and supplies to the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince. On March 24, President Barack Obama asked Congress for $2.8 billion in emergency aid to Haiti — about half to pay back money already spent by USAID, the Defense Department and others. An additional $212 million was to write off debt.

The heart of the request was $1.15 billion in new reconstruction funds.

A week later, Clinton touted that figure in front of representatives of 50 nations at the U.N. secretariat, the president of Haiti at her side.

“If the effort to rebuild is slow or insufficient, if it is marked by conflict, lack of coordination or lack of transparency, then the challenges that have plagued Haiti for years could erupt with regional and global consequences,” Clinton said.

That was nearly six months ago. It took until May for the Senate to pass a supplemental request for the Haiti funds and until July for the House to do the same. The votes made $917 million available but did not dictate how or when to spend it. Without that final step, the money remains in the U.S. Treasury.

Then came summer recess, emergencies in Pakistan and elsewhere, and the distractions of election politics.

Now the authorization bill that would direct how the aid is delivered remains sidelined by a senator who anonymously pulled it for further study. Through calls to dozens of senators’ offices, the AP learned it was Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma.

“He is holding the bill because it includes an unnecessary senior Haiti coordinator when we already have one” in U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten, Coburn spokeswoman Becky Bernhardt said.

The bill proposes a new coordinator in Washington who would not oversee U.S. aid but would work with the USAID administrator in Washington to develop a rebuilding strategy. The position would cost $1 million a year for five years, including salaries and expenses for a staff of up to seven people.

With the bill on hold, the State Department is trying to move the money along by avoiding Congress as much as possible. It sent lawmakers a “spending plan” on Sept. 20 and gave legislators 15 days to review it. If they fail to act on the plan, the money could be released as soon as specific projects get the OK.

“We need to make sure that the needs of the Haitian people are not sacrificed to procedural and bureaucratic impediments,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry told the AP by e-mail. “As we approach nine months since the earthquake, further delays on any side are unacceptable.”

Asked when the money will actually come, State Department spokesman Charles Luoma-Overstreet said the department expects to start spending in the coming weeks and months. He added that $275 million in “bridge” funds were released in March and have gone toward agriculture, work, health and shelter programs — not long-term reconstruction.

Haitian advocates say that is not enough.

Jean-Claude Bajeux of the Ecumenical Center for Human Rights in Port-au-Prince said this phase was supposed to be about building semi-permanent houses.

“Where are they? We haven’t seen them,” he said. “There is not much money that is being used. There is not much work that has actually been done.”

Of course there is no guarantee that the money would lead to the successful rebuilding of Haiti. Many past U.S. aid efforts have fallen short.

“I don’t think (the money) will make any difference,” said Haitian human rights advocate Pierre Esperance. “Haitian people are not really involved in this process.”

But officials agree the funds could pay for new approaches to make Haiti more sustainable, and rebuilding projects could improve millions of lives.

The AP found that $874 million of the funds pledged by other countries at the donors conference was money already promised to Haiti for work or aid before the quake. An additional $1.13 million wasn’t ever going to be sent; it was debt relief. And $184 million was in loans to Haiti’s government, not aid.

The Office of the Special Envoy has been tracking the money delivered so far but does not know who got it. The envoy himself, former President Bill Clinton, told the AP in July and again in August that he was putting pressure on donors to meet their pledges.

On the streets of Haiti, many simply feel abandoned. Mishna Gregoire, 22, said she was happy when she heard about the donors conference. But six months later she is still in a tarp city with 5,000 other people, on a foul-smelling plaza in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville.

“I thought it was something serious they were really going to do,” Gregoire said, standing amid tarps torn apart by the sudden storm. “But nothing has been done. And I don’t think anything will be done.”

Associated Press writers Jonathan M. Katz reported his story from Port-au-Prince and Martha Mendoza from Santa Cruz, Calif.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

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By Anne Petermann, Executive Director, Global Justice Ecology Project

On Thursday, September 23rd, Global Justice Ecology Project co-Director/ Strategist Orin Langelle and I traveled to Manhattan for a meeting with Evo Morales Ayma, the Indigenous President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia and Pablo Salón, Bolivia’s Ambassador to the UN to discuss the preparations for the upcoming UN Climate Conference in Cancún. Invited to the event were a small number of people representing NGOs, Indigenous Peoples’ Organizations and social movements including Indigenous Environmental Network, La Via Campesina, Grassroots International, the National Family Farm Coalition, and Institute for Policy Studies, among others.

After gathering at the Bolivian Mission on 2nd Avenue, our group of 30 or so negotiated the maze of police barricades and uniformed officers to arrive at the Church Center for the United Nations, directly across the street from the massive UN building.

We waited for an hour or so in the “Boss Room” of the Church Center until news came that President Morales was speaking to the UN General Assembly at that very moment, and would arrive at our meeting as soon as he was finished.  The techies in the room did their best to transmit the live broadcast of Evo’s speech through the LCD projector but managed to finally get it working just in time to hear the applause as Morales exited the stage.

President Morales and his entourage finally arrived, greeting and shaking hands with new friends and old, along the walk to the front of the room.  Pablo Salón opened the meeting with an update on the status of the negotiations going on at the UN General Assembly across the street.  He was not optimistic in where they were headed, and instead emphasized the importance of the upcoming UN Climate meetings in Cancún for advancing the “Cochabamba Accord” and the “Rights of Mother Earth.”  Both of these emerged in April of this year as outcomes from the World Peoples’ Summit on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth that took place in Cochabamba, Bolivia.  Morales organized the summit to bring together climate justice and Indigenous leaders from around the world to discuss a peoples’ alternative to Obama’s heavy handed and highly undemocratic “Copenhagen Accord” that had been “acknowledged” but not adopted at the Copenhagen Climate Summit last December.  Obama, Salón pointed out, had just that morning at the UN General Assembly pushed his Copenhagen Accord.

Ambassador Salón emphasized that, although language from the Cochabamba agreement had so far been included in the text of the negotiations at the interim climate meetings, it was going to take a major social mobilization before and during Cancún to ensure that the Cochabamba language makes its way into the final text.  This call to mobilize had been raised at the recent Social Forum of the Americas in Paraguay and was being taken up by social movements around Latin America.

Next on the agenda, Representatives from Mexican social movements discussed the plans already being organized for Cancún.  The crux of this long and detailed series of presentations was that, although there have been some differences between the Mexican social movements and organizations in terms of tactics and objectives, (differences which were being exploited by the government and the media), they were trying to put aside those differences to create one unified alternative space in Cancún–a space where social movements of all types could come together and share strategies and information with the aim to advance the struggle for climate justice.

Caravans of social movements to Cancún are being planned from points throughout the Americas.  On the 20th of November, a huge march will take place in Mexico City on the 100th Anniversary of the Mexican revolution.  And on the 7th of December, Via Campesina has called for “Thousands of Cancuns” to take place all over the world.

When President Morales finally spoke, he too emphasized the need to show a united front.  He insisted, “It’s up to us.  If we want the Cochabamba Accord, it will be up to the power of the people.”  He continued, explaining, “I don’t believe very much in governments, but we need an alliance of social movements and progressive governments to find solutions, otherwise the planet is going to cook.  We need a party in Cancun.  We must cool the earth down and heal the earth of her fever.”

When the topic moved on to discussing the advancement of REDD–the UN’s hotly contested scheme to supposedly reduce deforestation by including forests in the carbon market–Pablo Salón explained that REDD will be a major focus of the negotiations in Cancún.  He emphasized that the pro-REDD forces there are stacking the deck, hand picking who will be allowed to participate.  Meanwhile the Mexican government is doing its best to legitimize REDD.  “They are trying to manipulate the process to make it seem like Indigenous Peoples support REDD. REDD will be a crucial battle.  It must be clear that there is no agreement among Indigenous Peoples about REDD.”  He concluded by saying, “Using Indigenous Peoples to legitimize the buying and selling of nature is a big problem and we will do what we can to stop it.”

The consensus of the meeting was that the movements supporting the Cochabamba Accord and the Rights of Mother Earth need a unified message–one that is strongly opposed to carbon markets and against REDD.  But it was also agreed that it is not so much the Cochabamba Accord itself that must be supported, but its ideas and positions.

The final take away message of the meeting was that social movements must continue to organize and coordinate in preparation for Cancún, and that this must include a concerted effort to raise the issues in the media.  As Pablo Salón explained, “We need as much media coverage as possible.”

Those of us who attended are now tasked with taking these mandates to our allies and our constituencies in the countdown toward Cancún.  Global Justice Ecology Project is taking this up and will be focused on connecting mainstream and alternative media with the voices of people resisting the impacts of climate change and fossil fuels, and with the messages of social movements fighting for climate justice.  We will be doing our part to advance the principles of the Cochabamba Accord and the Rights of Mother Earth.

See you in the streets!

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog