Saturday, December 15, 2007

PRESS RELEASE
14 December 2007


What’s missing from the climate talks? Justice!



BALI (INDONESIA), 14 December 2007 – Peoples from social organizations and movements from across the globe brought the fight for social, ecological and gender justice into the negotiating rooms and onto the streets during the UN climate summit in Bali. [1]


Inside and outside the convention centre, activists demanded alternative policies and practices that protect livelihoods and the environment.


In dozens of side events, reports, impromptu protests and press conferences, the false solutions to climate change – such as carbon offsetting, carbon trading for forests, agrofuels, trade liberalization and privatization pushed by governments, financial institutions and multinational corporations – have been exposed.


Affected communities, Indigenous Peoples, women and peasant farmers called for real solutions to the climate crisis, solutions which have failed to capture the attention of political leaders. These genuine solutions include:


reduced consumption.
huge financial transfers from North to South based on historical responsibility and ecological debt for adaptation and mitigation costs paid for by redirecting military budgets, innovative taxes and debt cancellation.
leaving fossil fuels in the ground and investing in appropriate energy-efficiency and safe, clean and community-led renewable energy.
rights based resource conservation that enforces Indigenous land rights and promotes peoples’ sovereignty over energy, forests, land and water.
sustainable family farming and peoples’ food sovereignty.


Inside the negotiations, the rich industrialized countries have put unjustifiable pressure on Southern governments to commit to emissions’ reductions. At the same time, they have refused to live up to their own legal and moral obligations to radically cut emissions and support developing countries’ efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts. Once again, the majority world is being forced to pay for the excesses of the minority.


Compared to the outcomes of the official negotiations, the major success of Bali is the momentum that has been built towards creating a diverse, global movement for climate justice.


We will take our struggle forward not just in the talks, but on the ground and in the streets – Climate Justice Now!






Notes
[1] Many social movements and groups that came together in Bali have agreed to establish a coalition called Climate Justice Now! in order to enhance exchange of information and cooperation among themselves and with other groups with the aim of intensifying actions to prevent and respond to climate change. Justice must be at the heart of tackling climate change, and must in no way be sacrificed.


Members of this coalition include: Carbon Trade Watch, Transnational Institute; Center for Environmental Concerns; Focus on the Global South; Freedom from Debt Coalition, Philippines; Friends of the Earth International; Gendercc – Women for Climate Justice, Global Forest Coalition; Global Justice Ecology Project; International Forum on Globalization; Kalikasan-Peoples Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE); La Via Campesina; Members of the Durban Group for Climate Justice; Oilwatch; Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environment Coalition, Aotearoa/New Zealand; Sustainable Energy and Economy Network; The Indigenous Environmental Network; Third World Network; WALHI/ Friends of the Earth Indonesia; World Rainforest Movement




International press contacts:
Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South. Mobile: +62 852 387 14793 or +66 81 935 0633
Henry Saragih, La Via Campesina. Mobile: +62 816344441
Joseph Zacune, Friends of the Earth International. Mobile: +62 81 338969955
Tamra Gilbertson, TNI +62 8174779110
Sandy Gauntlett, Global Forest Coalition. Mobile: +62 81 338938574
Janet Redmann, Sustainable Energy and Economy Network. Mobile +81 338984882
Dr. Michael Dorsey. Mobile +62 81 338 950482 or +1734 945 6424

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Bosque de algarrobo talado con anuencia del INRENA

Informacion en el Comercio

Friday, May 11, 2007

Indigenas Achuar demandan a la OXY

En RPP Noticias

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Mining in Honduras

Gritos de alarma

Deforestacion en el Mundo (Articulo en EL Pais)

Saturday, April 21, 2007

"[T]he message that we are 'all in the same boat (or spaceship)' is nottrue; there are at least two boats, and one of them is pulling the othertoward catastrophe".

-Alf Hornborg, The Power of the Machine, 2001: 35.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Nueva Ley Forestal en Colombia

Foro en Tropenbos. Nueva ley forestal y los derechos indigenas y de comunidades rurales a sus territorios.
Optimismo Ecologico

Articulo de Irina Tuuli
Climate change and Human Rights

Un articulo de W. Sachs

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Convinient Fiction

Una critica a la pelicula de Al Gore es otra pelicula: "Unconvinient truth ...or convinient fiction", seria bueno verla.
Bueno sobre la base cientifica del calentamiento global y las causas humanas de esta hay pocas dudas, como estos mismos críticos reconocen, aparentemente lo que critican es el pesimismo de la posicion de Gore. Supongo que ellos diran que el mercado y la tecnologia nos puede salvar, pero esa no es la respuesta, si seguimos con "business as usual" las consecuencias seran catastroficas para la vida en el planeta.

Actualización: es increible la poca información del público sobre estos temas, como lo pueden comprobar en los comments en este post sobre las extremas temperaturas en Puno. Aunque la temperatura global aumentará eso no quiere decir que los efectos locales sean los mismos en todo el planeta, y en una sola dirección, lo que habrá será una gran varibilidad en el clima, con un aumento de las condiciones extremas, sea de extrema sequía o inundaciones, veranos super calientes o inviernos muy crudos. En realidad se debería hablar más apropiadamente de CAMBIO CLIMATICO aunque es cierto que en general el aumento de CO2 aumentara la temperatura media global.
Aquí el sitio más autorizado al respecto el REporte del IPCC (Intergovermental Panel of Climate Change), aquí el resumen en español (de 144 pgs. para que vean como es el reporte entero), por favor lean antes de opinar. Y sobretodo los peruanos, el Perú será uno de los paises más afectados.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Desertificación por usos mineros en el Norte del Perú

Estudio presentado Zonas Aridas, 2005

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Paises pobres más vulnerables al calentamiento global

Articulo del NY Times

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

El Rostro de las Corporaciones

Aqui una entrevista con el presidente regional de la Transnacional Alcatel-Lucent, dice "al final las corporaciones estan hechas de seres humanos". Pero como es entonces que toman la decision de contaminar, hostigar a la poblacion o seguir con actividades que a la larga pueden destruir el planeta.

Friday, March 23, 2007

From GDP to Well-being index

A proposito de la discusión sobre crecimiento económico. Aqui un artículo sobre como medir el "bienestar" a nivel nacional.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Human population

Meyerson

Replacement migration

Human population density, deforestation and protected areas: the Maya case

Migration in Central America
The Consumption Gap

"the worlds richest countries, with 20% of the global population, account for the 86% of total private consumption, whereas the poorest 20% of the world's people account for just the 1.3 %."

The State of the world Population 2001. UNFPA. UN

Cuando hablan de que es el crecimiento poblacional el principal causante del deterioro ambiental, se olvidan de estas cifras. O sea que el 60% de la población mundial que no es tan pobre, vive con 13% de los recursos?. Y habría que ver las cifras para el comsumo industrial, que también debe ser más grande aún comparando con el comsumo privado. Obviamente el crecimiento poblacional crea problemas a nivel local y a otros niveles, pero acusarlo a rajatabla como el culpable de todo desde la deforestación, la escasez de agua o el calentamiento global es simplemente una falacia. La mayoria de veces esconde a los verdaderos culpables y distrae la atención de las posibles verdaderas soluciones a nivel global que se tienen que dar estos problemas.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Pacto Ecologico? el engaño de las palabras

Artículo de Oswaldo Rivero

Monday, March 19, 2007

Carta blanca para las mineras

Otro intento más de atraer a las mineras haciendo más debiles las leyes ambientales. Artículo de La Républica.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

La maldita soya

Articulo en El Pais

Y las consecuencias sociales
Articulo de O'Globo
Community Conserved Areas

Dear colleagues,
> As you know, Community Conserved Areas (CCAs) are> natural sites, resources and species’ habitats> conserved in a voluntary and self-directed way by> indigenous peoples and local communities throughout> the world. This conservation practice, profoundly> intertwined with local strategies for livelihoods> and with the spiritual and material values of local> cultures, is the oldest on earth. Paradoxically, it> is also the least understood and recognised, and it> is in extreme jeopardy today. Through the last> couple of centuries, conservation has come to be> considered the nearly exclusive domain of> professional experts, state agencies and dedicated> non-governmental organisations and companies.> Indigenous peoples and local communities have been> asked (in the best of cases) to participate in> activities conceived and directed by others. Rarely,> if ever, they have been assisted to strengthen their> own unique knowledge, skills and institutions and to> apply them to natural resource management and> conservation. On the contrary, their local> knowledge, skills and institutions have been> systematically neglected when not actively> undermined.> The World Parks Congress of 2003, the Programme of> Work on Protected Areas of the Convention on> Biological Diversity (CBD) of 2004 and First> Congress on Marine Protected Areas of 2005 marked a> broad reassessment of the situation described above.> Community Conserved Areas have been re-discovered as> one of the few remaining avenues to strengthen the> edifice of sustainable natural resource use and> conservation, crumbling under the imperatives of> market-based development. These undoubtedly> important advances in international conservation> policy are rarely fully reflected, however, in> national policies or practices, and much basic> knowledge on CCAs is still to be gathered and> analysed.> Having played a substantive role in promoting the> broad conservation policy reassessment mentioned> above, TILCEPA> http://www.iucn.org/themes/ceesp/Wkg_grp/TILCEPA/TILCEPA.htm,> TGER http://www.iucn.org/themes/ceesp/TGER.html and> TSL> http://www.iucn.org/themes/ceesp/Wkg_grp/SL/SL.htm> have joined forces with SwedBio> http://www.swedbio.com/about.htm and SSNC> http://www.snf.se/english.cfm to develop and support> a new CCA initiative . The initiative seeks to> deepen the understanding of the CCA phenomenon with> respect to varying historical/ regional contexts; to> identify field-based crucial initiatives where CCAs> can be safeguarded, enabled, strengthened and/or> promoted in practice; and to support consequent> national, regional and international policy , in> particular through the CBD Programme of Work on> Protected Areas and the Millennium Development Goal follow up mechanisms. [...]"
Dr. Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend
Chair, TGER (IUCN/ CEESP)
Co-chair TILCEPA (CEESP/ WCPA)
Ancienne Ecole Bugnaux CH 1180 Switzerland

Friday, February 16, 2007

Algunos numeritos

Bueno hay cosas mas importantes que perder algunos sitios para esquiar, como que el desglaciamiento de los glaciares del Himalaya y los Andes afectara a millones de personas, pero aqui van algunos numeritos de como el calentamiento global esta afectado a la industria del esqui, algo con que llamar la atencion a los que pensaban a darse una vueltita por Aspen:

* Last year was the warmest in the continental United States in the past 112 years. The ten hottest years on record have all occurred since 1990. (National Climatic Data Center)

*In Aspen, winter starts 18 days later and ends 10 days earlier than it did fifty years ago. (City of Aspen Canary Institute)

*In New England, the average winter temperature has increased 4.4 degrees F over the last 30 years, and the snow season has decreased more than 15 days. (Union of Concerned Scientists, New Hampshire)

*In Utah's ski areas, temperatures are projected to rise 6 to 15 degrees F by the end of the century. This could mean no snow whatsoever on Park City's mountains (Stratus Consulting, 2007)

*In the Alps, warming has been about three times the global average and is threatening alpine ski resorts and local economies. (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development)

*Several World Cup races scheduled for November 2006 in Europe had to be cancelled because the weather was too warm for snow making (New York Times, November 2006)

*In Canada, not one of Toronto's natural ponds opened last winter for ice skating. As winter temperatures continue to rise, skating on natural ice may be a thing of the past. (Toronto Star, November, 2006)

*Global warming threatens the world's ski resorts, with melting at lower altitudes forcing the sport to move higher and higher up mountains. Downhill skiing could disappear altogether at some resorts as soon as 2030. (United Nations Environment Program report, December 2002)

*Global warming threatens future Winter Olympic Games. The most dramatic consequence of global warming to date is evident in the alpine regions of the world, where the best snows are often found near glaciers. Glaciers are melting at an alarming rate all over the world, and climate scientists estimate that half of the alpine glaciers could disappear in the next 100 years. (World Resources Institute)

Source: GlobalExchange

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Los campesinos: los mejores guardianes del ambiente

Articulo sobre el "greening" en Niger.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Petróleo y los pueblos indigenas en el Perú.

Mensaje de Mariela Sanchez,
"Hola familia y amigos, les envio esta carta para contarles una de las cosas mas cheveres que hice. Pues resulta que después de unos cuantos pero muy destructivos proyectos de desarrollo que se esta dando en la Selva amazónica del Perú ahora resulta que el gobierno peruano a puesto en venta por asi decirlo, el 70% de la selva amazonica a empresarios petroleros que quisieran invertir en la explotación de petróleo y gas en estas areas. Lo absurdo de todo esto es que en muchos de los territorios involucrados habitan gente indigena contactada y no-contactada. El goberno se ha tomado la ilegal autoridad de poner en subasta esas tierras sin ni siquiera preguntar la opinión de la gente que habita en esas zonas. (lean los links de noticias)
[...] Pero lo mas impactante fue cuando al final de la presentación de Perupetro en el Club Petrolero de Houston, Washington y Robert (dos lideres indigenas del AIDESEP , Peru ) y yo nos armamos de valor para dar nuestro mensaje a mas de 200 ricos inversionistas petroleros que estaban interesados en explotar los territories que Perupetro los ofecia. [...] En fin di el mensaje y fue este: que los lideres indigenas que se encontraban alli me pidieron que les diga a todos que, los pueblos indigenas de la selva peruana estan en contra de cualquier intento de explotación petrolera en sus territories hasta que los actuales problemas que han ocasionado las ya instaladas compañias sean resueltos. Cualquier intento de ir en contra de voluntad se van a chocar con feroz resistencia .
Esas palabras fueron tan ponderosas que dejo un silencio profundo en ese centro de convenciones, no estaba previsto ni planeado pero si fue muy remarcable.
Y ahora el gobierno peruano esta evaluando sus propuestas y sus ofertas antes de volverlas a divulgar el Inglaterra y Canada.
No es que realmente la Federación Indigena Amazonica del Peru este en contra de todo tipo de desarrollo como muchos piensan, pero si cansados de tanta injusticia y atropello a sus derechos. Estamos seguros que si ese mensaje no hubiese sido dado en ese salon de convenciones y no hubiese avergonzado al gobierno peruano por su actual política en el tema, no hubiesen habido cambios. Sin querer queriendo fui la primera mujer de descendencia indigena peruana que con solo 2 minutos de speech pude hacer algo a favor de mi propia gente. A Houston fueron muchos directores de ONGs que trabajaron intensamente por hacer esta protesta y involucrar a la prensa en nuestra causa.
Esos dos minutos de mi vida fueron los que en parte apaciguaron mi sed de justicia.

Y para los que me vean como una loca que ha hecho ver mal al Peru en medio de tantos empresarios, no me mal entiendan, vayan a Camisea o Rio Corrientes y visiten nuestros hermanos indigenas por ahi y se daran cuenta de lo que hablo. Creo que ya es hora que cualquier empresa que venga a inverstir a nuestro pais deje REALES beneficios a nuestro país y a los pueblos cuyos territorios estan involucrados. Y de una vez por todas se pare con la pobreza, contaminación y otros impactos negativos que al final nos dejan con más miseria.
Al final que es lo que piensas tu?"
NEWS LINKS:
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2007/2007-02-06-02.asp

http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/30&fp=45ca92759308a31a&ei=wDLKRYK7J4ygsQH04YSKBw&url=http%3A//abc.net.au/message/news/stories/ms_news_1839702.htm&cid=0

http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/40&fp=45ca92759308a31a&ei=wDLKRYK7J4ygsQH04YSKBw&url=http%3A//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6326741.stm&cid=0

http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/50&fp=45ca92759308a31a&ei=wDLKRYK7J4ygsQH04YSKBw&url=http%3A//biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070131/law076.html%3F.v%3D82&cid=0

http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/60&fp=45ca92759308a31a&ei=wDLKRYK7J4ygsQH04YSKBw&url=http%3A//www.ipsnews.net/news.asp%3Fidnews%3D36423&cid=0

http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/10&fp=45ca16d2f956d720&ei=bDPKRaPAA7n6sAHf7ICIBw&url=http%3A//www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/03/america/LA-GEN-Peru-Indians-Oil.php&cid=0

Monday, February 05, 2007

El paraiso blanco se desmorona

Problemas ambientales en Islandia, este artículo del NYTimes muestra la aparente dicotomia entre desarrollo y conservación, los politicos y los industriales siempre dicen que se tiene que hacer concesiones en favor del desarrollo, lo que nunca dicen es que la mayoría de los estudios demuestran, como en este caso que las ganacias económicas a corto plazo no justifican y no compensan las pérdidas que se daran a largo plazo, no solo ambientales pero también ecónomicas y sociales.

Saturday, February 03, 2007



Calentamiento Global
Today was released the last report of the IPCC about the scientific basis of climate change. The report was written by 450 scientists and reviewed by more than 2500 experts. This new report, based on a massive survey of the world's peer-reviewed literature on global warming in recent years, states that global warming is caused by humans with a 90% of certainty. In the past report in 2001, the certainty was only 66%. Also some of the predictions are worse than in the past report. Here is a news release and the official summary for policy makers.
Here the press release of the Union of Concerned Scientists with more information.

And the NYTimes news cover.


Do you know any other planet to live?

Wednesday, January 31, 2007


Lights out around the world for 5 minutes
The 1st of February 2007:Participate in the biggest mobilization of Citizens Against Global Warming!The Alliance for the Planet [a group of environmental associations] is calling on all citizens to create 5 minutes of electrical rest for the planet. http://www.lalliance.fr People all over the world should turn off their lights and electrical appliances on the first of February 2007, between 1.55 pm and 2.00 pm in New York, 18.55 for London, and 19.55 for Paris, Bruxelles, and Italy. 1.55pm in Ottawa, 10.55am on the Pacific Coast of North America.This is not just about saving 5 minutes worth of electricity; this is about getting attention.Five minutes of electrical down time for the planet: this does not take long, and costs nothing, and will show leaders that global warming is an issue that needs to come first and foremost. Why February 1? This is the day when the new UN report on global climate change will come out in Paris.