Mobilization for Climate Justice

Archive for April, 2011

Indigenous tribes sue government for “illegally” licensing timber and palm oil firms.

source: Al  Jazeera

The long tussle over resources from rainforests in Malaysia’s Sarawak province has pitted strong logging and palm oil companies against the indigenous tribes in the area.

Three tribes from the state, accusing the government of illegally handing out timber and palm oil licences to companies, have approached the country’s highest court over their rights on the land.

The government says it is trying to alleviate poverty and bring the state’s natives into mainstream society and that forest management practices are helping the environment.

But conservationists say 70 per cent of the rainforests have already been felled.

Al Jazeera’s Azhar Sukri reports from Sarawak.

To view the video, click here

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

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Filed under Carbon Trading, Climate Change, Climate Justice, KPFK

Tagged as AB32, carbon trading, Climate Justice, KPFK

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

Indigenous representatives from Porgera, Papua New Guinea traveled to Canada this week to speak at Barrick Gold’s annual general meeting (AGM). This year marks the fourth year that the Porgerans have visited Barrick Gold’s AGM, each time raising serious human rights and food security issues.

Article by Sakura Saunders, Editor of ProtestBarrick.net. Originally posted athttp://www.engagemedia.org.

“We are attacked continuously and we are attacked often by a very noisy and very articulate opposition,” Peter Munk, Barrick Annual General Meeting, 2010

Jethro Tulin, Akali Tange Association a member of the Porgera Alliance said, “Since 2008 we have stood here at Barrick shareholder meetings and told them about the abuses our people suffer at the hands of Barrick’s security forces – beatings, shootings, rapes and gang rapes.”

“At past AGM meetings, the board has assured the shareholders that our words were not true. But now, the world knows that there are serious abuses occurring at your Porgera Mine in PNG.”

In 2011, due to pressure from an investigation by Human Rights Watch, Barrick finally allowed for an investigation of their security regarding the allegations of gang rapes. Five Barrick employees were fired, while eight former employees were implicated in the abuse.

Barrick founder and Chairman, Peter Munk, was later quoted in the Globe and Mail saying “gang rape is a cultural habit” in the countries like Papua New Guinea, angering the Porgeran community and prompting the country’s Mining Minister, John Pundari, to demand a public apology.

Instead of an apology, Barrick Gold’s Australia-Pacific President, Gary Halverson stated that Munk’s comments were taken out of context, lamenting that “only a small portion of this conversation was included” in the Globe and Mail article. The Porgera Alliance has since called for accountability in addition to backing the Mining Minister’s call for an apology.

Similarly, a Amnesty International report released in 2010 showed evidence of at least 130 structures adjacent to Barrick’s Porgera mine were burned down, many of which were houses, while villagers were beaten, harassed, and detained.

“Barrick is continuing to house, feed and provide fuel to Mobile Units of the Papua New Guinea state who are responsible for burning down local landowners’ houses in 2009, and who continue to carry out beatings, rapes and house burnings around the mine.”

Ekepa and Tulin traveled again to Canada this year to bring attention to these issues and call for the relocation of all the indigenous landowners who live in the Special Mine Area as well as the end to the practice of dumping toxic waste directly into their 800 km-long river system.

Background:

PNG Mining Minister Responds to Munk’s Statement about Gang Rape, Porgera Alliance demands Accountability:
http://www.porgeraalliance.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Munk-Respond-Pundari.pdf

Porgera Alliance Letter to Peter Munk regarding his statement: “Gang Rape is a Cultural Habit”: http://www.porgeraalliance.net/2011/03/letter-to-peter-munk-regarding-his-statement-gang-rape-is-a-cultural-habit/

Barrick says chief’s comments taken out of context
http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20110328/news15.htm

Follow ProtestBarrick.net :: facebook.com/protestbarrick :: twitter.com/stopbarrick ::youtube.com/waysofseeing

Indigenous representatives from Porgera, Papua New Guinea traveled to Canada this week to speak at Barrick Gold’s annual general meeting (AGM). This year marks the fourth year that the Porgerans have visited Barrick Gold’s AGM, each time raising serious human rights and food security issues.

Article by Sakura Saunders, Editor of ProtestBarrick.net. Originally posted athttp://www.engagemedia.org.

“We are attacked continuously and we are attacked often by a very noisy and very articulate opposition,” Peter Munk, Barrick Annual General Meeting, 2010

Jethro Tulin, Akali Tange Association a member of the Porgera Alliance said, “Since 2008 we have stood here at Barrick shareholder meetings and told them about the abuses our people suffer at the hands of Barrick’s security forces – beatings, shootings, rapes and gang rapes.”

“At past AGM meetings, the board has assured the shareholders that our words were not true. But now, the world knows that there are serious abuses occurring at your Porgera Mine in PNG.”

In 2011, due to pressure from an investigation by Human Rights Watch, Barrick finally allowed for an investigation of their security regarding the allegations of gang rapes. Five Barrick employees were fired, while eight former employees were implicated in the abuse.

Barrick founder and Chairman, Peter Munk, was later quoted in the Globe and Mail saying “gang rape is a cultural habit” in the countries like Papua New Guinea, angering the Porgeran community and prompting the country’s Mining Minister, John Pundari, to demand a public apology.

Instead of an apology, Barrick Gold’s Australia-Pacific President, Gary Halverson stated that Munk’s comments were taken out of context, lamenting that “only a small portion of this conversation was included” in the Globe and Mail article. The Porgera Alliance has since called for accountability in addition to backing the Mining Minister’s call for an apology.

Similarly, a Amnesty International report released in 2010 showed evidence of at least 130 structures adjacent to Barrick’s Porgera mine were burned down, many of which were houses, while villagers were beaten, harassed, and detained.

“Barrick is continuing to house, feed and provide fuel to Mobile Units of the Papua New Guinea state who are responsible for burning down local landowners’ houses in 2009, and who continue to carry out beatings, rapes and house burnings around the mine.”

Ekepa and Tulin traveled again to Canada this year to bring attention to these issues and call for the relocation of all the indigenous landowners who live in the Special Mine Area as well as the end to the practice of dumping toxic waste directly into their 800 km-long river system.

Background:

PNG Mining Minister Responds to Munk’s Statement about Gang Rape, Porgera Alliance demands Accountability:
http://www.porgeraalliance.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Munk-Respond-Pundari.pdf

Porgera Alliance Letter to Peter Munk regarding his statement: “Gang Rape is a Cultural Habit”: http://www.porgeraalliance.net/2011/03/letter-to-peter-munk-regarding-his-statement-gang-rape-is-a-cultural-habit/

Barrick says chief’s comments taken out of context
http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20110328/news15.htm

Follow ProtestBarrick.net :: facebook.com/protestbarrick :: twitter.com/stopbarrick ::youtube.com/waysofseeing

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

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Filed under Bioenergy / Agrofuels, Climate Change, Climate Justice, False Solutions to Climate Change, Forests and Climate Change, Latin America, REDD

Tagged as chiapas, Climate Justice, forests, indigenous rights, REDD

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

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Filed under Bioenergy / Agrofuels, Climate Change, Climate Justice, False Solutions to Climate Change, Forests and Climate Change, Latin America, REDD

Tagged as chiapas, Climate Justice, forests, indigenous rights, REDD

Crown asks for six months in prison

Note: Global Justice Ecology Project’s Co-Director/Strategist Orin Langelle submitted a letter to the court  in support of Jaggi Singh, which stated, ”I understand Mr. Singh’s comments in Toronto at the fence. And so do people who are exploited. The fences of injustice and exploitation must be torn down for the sake of humanity and all inhabitants of Earth.”

–The GJEP Team

“Sometimes you put up walls not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.” - Anonymous

TORONTO, APRIL 28, 2011 — Today, at the Ontario Court of Justice at Old City Hall, Montreal-based G20 protester Jaggi Singh has pled guilty to urging people to tear down the G20 security fence.

Jaggi, a member of the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC) and No One Is Illegal-Montreal, has technically pled guilty to “counselling to commit mischief over $5000”. His specific crime occurred during a short speech and subsequent replies to media questions during a No One Is Illegal press conference at the $5.5 million G20 security fence on June 24, 2010, just a few days before the G20 conference officially began in downtown Toronto.

Jaggi’s remarks, which will be entered into evidence, can be viewed online in two segments:

  (begin at :030).

For Jaggi’s words, the Crown is demanding six months in prison, while his lawyer, Peter Rosenthal, is arguing for a much lesser penalty.

In return for Jaggi’s plea, the Crown is withdrawing all criminal conspiracy charges, charges still being faced by 17 other former co-accused who will begin their preliminary inquiry in September.

As part of the plea agreement between the Crown and Jaggi: i) the Crown will not call Jaggi as a witness in any G20-related case; ii) Jaggi’s plea cannot be used by the Crown in any other G20 prosecutions; iii) Jaggi will offer no cooperation to the Crown or the police; iv) Jaggi will offer no apologies for his actions and words; v) the entirety of my agreement will be public and not subject to any publication ban (plea agreement and related exhibits are linked below).

Sentencing arguments are being heard in front of Justice Bigelow at the Ontario Court of Justice today, and it is expected that he will deliver his ruling on sentence on June 21.
_________________________________________________

The following groups have today issued public support letters in support of Jaggi:

* No One Is Illegal (Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto Vancouver): On the Justice of Tearing Down Fences and Dismantling Borders

* Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC): In Montreal, In Toronto and Everywhere, the Walls Must Fall!

* Solidarité sans frontières: Déclaration de soutien avec Jaggi

* QPIRG Concordia: A Public Statement in Support of Jaggi Singh

* Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP): Support Jaggi Singh and Resistance to Capitalist Austerity

* Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW): (to be posted shortly)

If your group or organization would also like to write a support letter, or endorse an existing one, please contact the CLAC in Montreal via blocampmontreal@gmail.com
_________________________________________________

276 letters were submitted to the judge today in support of Jaggi. Many letter-writers indicated their full support for Jaggi’s words at the fence, and expressed agreement that the G20 security fence should have been removed. All letter-writers have urged the judge to impose a minimal sentence.

Among the groups who submitted support letters for Jaggi (as organizations, or as individuals on behalf of the organization): Anarchist Bookfair Collective (Montreal), Artivistic, l’Association pour la Défense des Droits et l’Inclusion des personnes qui Consomment des drogues du Québec (ADDICQ), Beehive Design Collective, Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), Center for Community Organizations (CoCo), le Centre des femmes d’ici et d’ailleurs, CKUT Board of Directors, Committee to Aid Refugees (CAR), Le comité exécutif de L’R, Coopérative Nos Rêves (Parc Extension), Community Solidarity Network (Toronto), Dignidad Migrante, le Bibliothèque Anarchiste DIRA, Le Frigo Vert Collective, le Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU), le Front commun des personnes assistées sociales du Québec, le Groupe de Recherche en Intérêt Public de l’Université du Québec à Montréal (GRIP-UQÀM), Head Hands (NDG), Immigrant Workers Center, Institut de recherche et d’informations socio-économiques (IRIS), JOC-Montréal, Montréal-Nord Républik, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (Oakland, CA), Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (Toronto), OPIRG Toronto, People’s Potato Collective, Prisoner Correspondence Project, le Projet accompagnement solidarité Colombie (PASC), Purple Thistle Collective (Vancouver), QPIRG Concordia, QPIRG McGill, Radical Reference Montréal, Re-Con, le Regroupement intersectoriel des organismes communautaires de Montréal, Solidarité sans frontières, South Asian Women’s Community Centre, Stella, le Table des regroupemens provinciaux d’organismes communautaires et bénévoles, Toronto People’s Assembly on Climate Justice

As well, many more individuals (and other groups) from Montreal, Toronto, as well as all over Quebec, Canada, the USA and overseas have submitted letters of support.

_________________________________________________

After today’s plea, Jaggi Singh has issued the following short statement:

“By pleading guilty to counseling to commit mischief, I can openly state that the fence deserved to come down, and that the G20 deserved to be confronted. I’ll pay a price for having said so openly, but I am ready to assume that responsibility,

I assume that responsibility knowing that I have amazing and deep support from an engaged community of social justice organizers and activists in Quebec, Canada and beyond. I would like to express my profound thanks to everyone who’s offered me support in the past few months, in so many touching and diverse ways.

Importantly, I would like to particularly express a public note of solidarity and support for all remaining G20 defendants who continue to fight their criminal charges. They are all deserving of everyone’s interest and active support, and I encourage all concerned about police and state repression to provide it, tangibly.

By pleading guilty now, I am ending this legal matter, relatively speaking, on my own terms and timetable, and I’m looking forward to returning to the streets and protests of Montreal shortly.”
_________________________________________________

SUPPORT G20 DEFENDANTS:

- “Support G20 Defendants” Flyer: http://guelphprisonersolidarity.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/new-g20-support-flyer/

- Free Byron Sonne: http://freebyron.org/index.php/Main_Page

- Community Solidarity Network Updates: http://g20.torontomobilize.org/

CONTRIBUTE:

- The G20 Legal Fund (Québec): http://www.clac2010.net/en/node/193
“The G20 Legal Fund considers that all arrests occurred in the context of a legitimate struggle against the capitalist policies of the G20, and that all charges should be dropped immediately.”

- Guelph ABC G20 Support Fund: http://guelphprisonersolidarity.wordpress.com/g20-support/
“An accessible alternate fund for G20 arrestees, mostly those facing serious charges. The fund is for immediate short-term needs of the defendants.”

- The G20 Legal Defence Fund (Toronto): http://g20legaldefencefund.wordpress.com/
“A fund that exists to hold and give out funds raised to support legal costs, fees, and other associated costs of legal defense for people facing charges stemming from the June 2010 Toronto G20 Summit.”

INFO: www.clac-montreal.net/en/jaggi

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

Speech by Ambassador Pablo Solón, Permanent Representative of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to the United Nations, on the Occasion of the General Assembly Interactive Dialogue on Harmony with Nature

New York, April 20th, 2011

Victor Hugo, the author of Les Misérables, once wrote: “How sad to think that nature speaks and mankind doesn’t listen.”

We are here today to attempt to have a dialogue not just among States, but also with nature. Although we often forget it, human beings are a force in nature. In reality, we are all a product of the same Big Bang that created the universe, although some only see wood for the fire when they walk through the forest.

These three questions are the point of departure for our discussion today:

First, what is nature? Is it a thing, a source of resources, a system, a home, a community of living and interdependent beings?

Second, are there rules in nature? Are there natural laws that govern its integrity, interrelationships, reproduction and transformation?

And third, are we as States and as a society recognizing, respecting and making sure that the rules of nature prevail?

The philosopher Francis Bacon said that we cannot command nature except by obeying her. The time for superheroes and superpowers is coming to an end.

Nature cannot be submitted to the wills of the laboratory. Science and technology are capable of everything including destroying the world itself.

It is time to stop and reaffirm the precautionary principle in the face of geo-engineering and all artificial manipulation of the climate. All new technologies should be evaluated to gauge their environmental, social and economic impacts.

The answer for the future lies not in scientific inventions but in our capacity to listen to nature.

The green economy considers it necessary, in the struggle to preserve biodiversity, to put a price on the free services that plants, animals and ecosystems offer humanity: the purification of water, the pollination of plants by bees, the protection of coral reefs and climatic regulation.

According to the green economy, we have to identify the specific functions of ecosystems and biodiversity that can be made subject to a monetary value, evaluate their current state, define the limits of those services, and set out in economic terms the cost of their conservation to develop a market for environmental services.

For the green economy, capitalism’s mistake is not having fully incorporated

nature as part of capital. That is why its central proposal is to create “environmentally friendly” business and green jobs and in that way limit environmental degradation by bringing the laws of capitalism to bear on nature.

In other words, the transfusion of the rules of market will save nature.

This is not a hypothetical debate, since the third round of negotiations of the World Trade Organization will be about the trade in services and environmental goods.

Humanity finds itself at a crossroads: Why should we only respect the laws of human beings and not those of nature? Why do we call the person who kills his neighbor a criminal, but not he who extinguishes a species or contaminates a river? Why do we judge the life of human beings with parameters different from those that the guide the life of the system as a whole if all of us, absolutely all of us, rely on the life of the Earth System?

Is there no contradiction in recognizing only the rights of the human part of this system while all the rest of the system is reduced to a source of resources and raw materials – in other words, a business opportunity?

To speak of equilibrium is to speak of rights for all parts of the system. It could be that these rights are not identical for all things, since not all things are equal. But to think that only humans should enjoy privileges while other living things are simply objects is the worst mistake humanity has ever made. Decades ago, to talk about slaves as having the same rights as everyone else seemed like the same heresy that it is now to talk about glaciers or rivers or trees as having rights.

Nature is ruthless when it goes ignored.

It is incredible that it is easier to imagine the destruction of nature than to dream about overthrowing capitalism.

Albert Einstein said, “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”

We have not come here to watch a funeral.

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

Speech by Ambassador Pablo Solón, Permanent Representative of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to the United Nations, on the Occasion of the General Assembly Interactive Dialogue on Harmony with Nature

New York, April 20th, 2011

Victor Hugo, the author of Les Misérables, once wrote: “How sad to think that nature speaks and mankind doesn’t listen.”

We are here today to attempt to have a dialogue not just among States, but also with nature. Although we often forget it, human beings are a force in nature. In reality, we are all a product of the same Big Bang that created the universe, although some only see wood for the fire when they walk through the forest.

These three questions are the point of departure for our discussion today:

First, what is nature? Is it a thing, a source of resources, a system, a home, a community of living and interdependent beings?

Second, are there rules in nature? Are there natural laws that govern its integrity, interrelationships, reproduction and transformation?

And third, are we as States and as a society recognizing, respecting and making sure that the rules of nature prevail?

The philosopher Francis Bacon said that we cannot command nature except by obeying her. The time for superheroes and superpowers is coming to an end.

Nature cannot be submitted to the wills of the laboratory. Science and technology are capable of everything including destroying the world itself.

It is time to stop and reaffirm the precautionary principle in the face of geo-engineering and all artificial manipulation of the climate. All new technologies should be evaluated to gauge their environmental, social and economic impacts.

The answer for the future lies not in scientific inventions but in our capacity to listen to nature.

The green economy considers it necessary, in the struggle to preserve biodiversity, to put a price on the free services that plants, animals and ecosystems offer humanity: the purification of water, the pollination of plants by bees, the protection of coral reefs and climatic regulation.

According to the green economy, we have to identify the specific functions of ecosystems and biodiversity that can be made subject to a monetary value, evaluate their current state, define the limits of those services, and set out in economic terms the cost of their conservation to develop a market for environmental services.

For the green economy, capitalism’s mistake is not having fully incorporated

nature as part of capital. That is why its central proposal is to create “environmentally friendly” business and green jobs and in that way limit environmental degradation by bringing the laws of capitalism to bear on nature.

In other words, the transfusion of the rules of market will save nature.

This is not a hypothetical debate, since the third round of negotiations of the World Trade Organization will be about the trade in services and environmental goods.

Humanity finds itself at a crossroads: Why should we only respect the laws of human beings and not those of nature? Why do we call the person who kills his neighbor a criminal, but not he who extinguishes a species or contaminates a river? Why do we judge the life of human beings with parameters different from those that the guide the life of the system as a whole if all of us, absolutely all of us, rely on the life of the Earth System?

Is there no contradiction in recognizing only the rights of the human part of this system while all the rest of the system is reduced to a source of resources and raw materials – in other words, a business opportunity?

To speak of equilibrium is to speak of rights for all parts of the system. It could be that these rights are not identical for all things, since not all things are equal. But to think that only humans should enjoy privileges while other living things are simply objects is the worst mistake humanity has ever made. Decades ago, to talk about slaves as having the same rights as everyone else seemed like the same heresy that it is now to talk about glaciers or rivers or trees as having rights.

Nature is ruthless when it goes ignored.

It is incredible that it is easier to imagine the destruction of nature than to dream about overthrowing capitalism.

Albert Einstein said, “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”

We have not come here to watch a funeral.

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Filed under Biodiversity, Climate Change, Forests and Climate Change, Photo Essays by Orin Langelle, REDD

Tagged as chiapas, forests, indigenous peoples, indigenous rights, photos, REDD

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

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Filed under Biodiversity, Climate Change, Forests and Climate Change, Photo Essays by Orin Langelle, REDD

Tagged as chiapas, forests, indigenous peoples, indigenous rights, photos, REDD

Note: While social programs and other benefits to poor Americans are slashed and burned, the paper industry is reaping in yet more profits by turning toxic effluent into a supposedly “alternative fuel” and calling it cellulosic biofuel.

GJEP has been opposed to the manufacture of real cellulosic biofuels because of the massive new demand it would create for wood–and especially for trees genetically engineered to be more easily digested into liquid fuel.  Now we have a new reason to oppose government subsidies for wood-based liquid fuels.  The paper industry is using it as a loophole to steal tax dollars.  And congress is more than happy to go right along with it.  So what’s new.

–The GJEP Team

To read the article, click here

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

Toronto’s High Park, located near the edge of Lake Ontario, is home to more than four dozen Haudenosaunee burial mounds, some of which could date back 3000 years, making them older than Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Today, some of those burial mounds are being casually desecrated with the implicit sanction of Toronto’s City Council.

Snake Mound South Entrance Barricade March 19, 2011. Photo Taiaiako’n Historical Preservation SocietyRoughly 4,200 kilometres away from Vallejo, California, where Indigenous Peoples have gathered to prevent a sacred burial ground from being converted into a public park, members of the Haudenosaunee Nation are speaking out against the continued desecration of burial mounds within Toronto’s largest park area.

“The territory that is now known as High Park was home to an Iroquoian people known as the Erie/Neutrals , ancestral to Meadowood Complex, who, over the course of the Woodland Period (1000 bce – 1614 ce) built earthwork mounds for honouring and burying their dead,” explains the Taiaiako’n Historical Preservation Society (THPS).

“The Six Nations are the custodians of the burial mounds… When John Howard bequeathed the park to the city [in the 1800's] he also provided the condition that the Six Nations would continue their custodian role over their sacred sites. It is their duty to maintain the mounds and connection with the ancestors for future generations.” Led by Rastia’ta’non:ha from the Seneca Wolf Clan, THPS was founded to carry out this duty.

Unlike Glen Cove, which has not yet been desecrated, for years the burial mounds in High Park have been stepped on, dug out, driven over with bikes and just simply ignored.
THPS says that “No fewer than fifty-seven such mounds have been identified, and yet they are generally overlooked and unknown. Worst yet, these significant archaeological sites are being desecrated by some. One site, Snake (or Serpent) Mound, has been almost totally destroyed due to off-road BMX enthusiasts, who have actually dug up the mounds and installed ramps to make a dirt jumping course at the south-eastern corner of the park.”

An off road bike jump course at the on the Snake/Serpent Mound. Photo THPS

“Determined efforts to reason with the perpetrators have so far proven unproductive, and repeated attempts to engage the Park Board and City Hall to intercede on this issue have been met with puzzling indifference,” THPS adds.

The City Council continues to ignore valid archaeological evidence along with historical facts and claims by the Haudenosaunee. They have also refused to apply any of their own by-laws concerning the construction of ramps (video) and use of bicycles within the park and dismissed requests (pdf) from the High Park Community Advisory Council (HPCAC) to meet with their representatives. Among other concerns, the government has also used apparently unlicensed archaeological consultants.

Despite the veritable stone wall they’ve been pushing against to secure the ancient mounds, THPS clearly has no intention of giving up. In fact, after ten years of diligence, their effort is finally getting public support. Most recently, on April 18, THPS held a public event withFriends of Snake Mound welcoming Seneca Chief Arnie General and a group of Clanmothers and faithkeepers to discuss the issue. They are also now preparing for a public gathering at Snake Mound on May 1, 2010 to answer questions and discuss a strategy specifically for Snake Mound.

For background and more information, please visit Taiaiakoo’n Historical Preservation Society website at http://taiaiakon.wordpress.com; or contact THPS

T a i a i a k o ‘ n H i s t o r i c a l P r e s e r v a t i o n S o c i e t y
410-223 Jackson St. W., Hamilton, Ontario, L8P 4R4
905-522-5717 – ogetgwiaotahioni@cogeco.ca – attention: Rastia’ta’non:ha
Website: http://taiaiakon.wordpress.com/

Tell the City of Toronto to Do it’s Job!

Mayor Rob Ford
E-mail: mayor_ford@toronto.ca
Mail: Office of the Mayor – Toronto City Hall, 2nd Floor, 100 Queen St. West, Toronto ON M5H 2N2
Phone: 416-397-FORD (3673)

Councillor Sarah Doucette
City Hall
E-mail: councillor_doucette@toronto.ca
Mail: 100 Queen Street West, Suite C46, Toronto, ON M5H 2N2
Phone: 416-392-4072
Fax: 416-696-3667

Councillor Gord Perks
City Hall
E-mail: councillor_perks@toronto.ca
Mail: 100 Queen Street West, Suite A14, Toronto, ON M5H 2N2
Phone: 416-392-7919
Fax: 416-392-0398

For By-law/Municipal Code inquiries, please contact (Unconfirmed):
12th floor, West Tower, City Hall, 100 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON M5H 2N2 Fax: 416-392-2980
Gil Golka ggolka@toronto.ca
Sylvia Alfano salfano@toronto.ca
Karen Lunn klunn@toronto.ca
416-392-4364 416-392-0552 416-392-6665

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

Barrick Gold Clean Up Your Act!   Right to Life Over Gold Profits’

TORONTO [CANADA], April 27, 2011 – Today, during the annual general
meeting (AGM) of mining company Barrick Gold in Toronto (Canada), Friends
of the Earth International is supporting a loud call from communities
around the world for a halt to gold mining and Barrick Gold’s destructive
practices. Campaigners are present at the meeting and join a protest rally
outside the meeting venue. Barrick Gold, the largest gold miner in the
world, has been the subject of many documented studies of human rights
abuses and environmental devastation globally, including in the
Philippines, Tanzania and Australia.

Friends of the Earth International calls in to question the necessity of
the Canadian-owned corporation’s gold mining operations. With the vast
majority of gold used for jewellery, Barrick’s gold mines on average use
more water[1] than the entire bottle water industry in Canada[2], and this
water is polluted with mining waste products such as cyanide, mercury,
arsenic, cadmium, selenium, and sulphides.

Romel de Vera, coordinator of Friends of the Earth Internationals program
on Resisting Mining, Oil and Gas, said: “All this waste, pollution and
impacts on communities lives and livelihoods is in exchange for a product
that has very few practical applications. With environmental costs almost
entirely unaccounted for, the processing costs are all that stand in the
way for companies to realise huge profits at the expense of those living
next to the mines.”

Last year, the Norwegian Pension fund divested 230 million dollar from
Barrick for ethical reasons[3], especially related to their mine in Papua
New Guinea. And when Swiss Research firm Covalace compiled both
quantitative and qualitative data spanning seven years and 581 companies
they listed Barrick as the 12 least ethical company in the world[4].

Heri Ayubu, from Lawyers Environmental Action Team/Friends of the Earth
Tanzania said: “ There have been two reports[5,6] confirming lasting
negative effects of a toxic spill from Barrick Gold’s North Mara operation
in Tanzania that occurred in May 2010. Villagers alleged that up to 40
people and from 700 to 1000 herds of livestock died from the contaminated
water and the nearby community are still experiencing health problems to
date. Despite this Barrick has taken no action and is still endangering
peoples’ right to life.”

Natalie Lowrey, from Friends of the Earth Australia, who is inside Barrick
Gold’s Annual General Meeting in Toronto, Canada and joining the rally
outside, said: “In Australia, Barrick has desecrated an ecologically and
culturally significant site on Wiradjuri lands[7] with an open-pit mine in
the bed of Lake Cowal within a flood plain. Wiradjuri Traditional Owners
have been fighting Barrick in the courts for 10 years on the desecration
of sacred sites at Lake Cowal and on the protection of Wiradjuri Native
Title Rights.”

Friends of the Earth is joining ProtestBarrick.net with Barrick Gold
impacted communities from Tanzania, Philippines and Papua New Guinea on a
two week speaking tour in Canada from 27 April until 15 May.

Actions protesting Barrick Gold are also taking place in Latin America:
http://protestbarrick.net/article.php?id=691

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog

Basados en un acuerdo entre los gobiernos de Chiapas y de California, con la colaboración de instituciones como El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (Ecosur) y trasnacionales conservacionistas, avanzan en Chiapas los proyectos llamados REDD, que significan la privatización del aire de los bosques, despojando a las comunidades que los habitan de su derecho al territorio.

Para definir lo que se puede vender en indulgencias de carbono al gobierno de California y a las empresas contaminantes que lo sostienen, la administración chiapaneca intenta, como otras anteriores desde hace décadas, abrir una brecha en la Selva Lacandona que delimite la zona a comercializar, renovando agresiones y despojos a las comunidades indígenas. En marzo de 2011, funcionarios del gobierno estatal dijeron a la organización Justicia Ecológica Global (www.globaljusticeecology.org) que sólo les falta unir la brecha en la zona de las cañadas, donde hay comunidades zapatistas.

Justamente, el intento de demarcación en la zona lacandona hace cuatro décadas, a favor de uno de los siete pueblos indígenas que la habitan fue lo que motivó la creación de una unión de todos los otros pueblos de la región contra la brecha lacandona, resistencia entretejida con el origen del EZLN.

En 1971, el gobierno concedió 614 mil 321 hectáreas de selva a 66 comuneroslacandones (que no es su nombre original, ni son pobladores originarios de esa región), exacerbando el caos de sobreposición de títulos de tierra que ya existía en la región. Nunca se marcaron los linderos (la resistencia a la brecha lo impidió), pero desde entonces los lacandones son quienes firman el consentimiento a proyectos y contratos que les presenta el gobierno, sean madereros, turísticos o como ahora, REDD. Las otras comunidades fueron desplazadas o viven bajo amenaza permanente.

REDD (Reducción de Emisiones por Deforestación y Degradación evitada de bosques) es supuestamente un programa para evitar la emisión de gases con efecto invernadero provocados por la deforestación, pagando con bonos de carbono a las compañías para que deforesten un poco menos. O a las comunidades, para que técnicos foráneos certificados les hagan un plan de manejo, que en la práctica significa que no pueden usar el bosque y pierden autonomía sobre el territorio.

Para las empresas es un tremendo negocio, porque pueden seguir contaminando y además revender parte de los bonos a un precio mayor a otras empresas. O sea, no les cuesta nada y burlan las leyes ambientales. El 7 de abril 2011, Greenpeace Internacional publicó el informe Bad influence denunciando cómo la consultora internacional McKinsey –que tiene larga historia de asesorar privatizaciones y ahora asesora a países que quieren conseguir dinero de REDD–, había hecho una base de cálculos falseados para los gobiernos de Guyana y Congo, para mostrar una perspectiva de deforestación futura mucho mayor que la real. De ese modo, podrían incluso aumentar la deforestación y además cobrar REDD, alegando que con ello deforestan menos de lo proyectado.

Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog