It’s Getting Hot In Here

This video was made by Yong Ping Loo from Singapore from the last day of youth action at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Conference of Parties (COP14).

We are everywhere.
xo,
joshua

Youth action frames the conversation at the UNFCCC in Poznan, Poland

Young people from around the world made their voice heard today at the UN Framework Convention on Climate change in Poznan, Poland. After an inspiring speech from Al Gore, over 200 young people from India to the U.S. to the Congo held a spontaneous action inside, with banners that read “SURVIVAL IS NON-NEGOTIABLE.”

The demonstration was the next step in our “project survival” - inspired by a speech earlier this week by a representative from the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), stating that current emissions targets set by powerful countries condemn their nations to extinction. In the last two days youth have mobilized to get over 80 country delegations to sign a pledge to “safeguard the survival of all peoples and nations.” Youth organized actions, tracked down delegates in the halls, lined the entrance to the plenaries, and knocked on meeting room doors to push their countries to sign the Survival Pledge. This morning our text has been adopted in the official UN Ministerial declaration document emerging from COP14, the COP President’s text on long-term vision. Heads of state referenced our call in major speeches. “It’s been an amazing success,” said Amanda McKenzie, of the Australian Youth Climate Network. “Hearing Australia’s Climate Minister Penny Wong commit to ’survival’ yesterday had me cheering in the halls. Now, it’s time to make sure she delivers.”

Actions like the one that happened 15 minutes ago aim to create the pressure to do just that. At the end of our action (after engaging with some angry UN people) several delegates and dignitaries came to thank the Youth for their action. A woman said “I am in a very high position in my government in Norway. Youth doing actions like this makes my work easier. Thank you.”

We’ve had an exciting victory, but we know we must continue to organize to make the implications of that statement meaningful - we know that any targets less than 350ppm will not insure the survival of all peoples and nations, and we know that any solution that is not equitable and just, is no solution at all.

Click below for many more photos and reflections.
Continue reading ‘SURVIVAL IS NON-NEGOTIABLE’

Young people in Poznan, Poland are stepping into the empty shoes of our stalling government.

Young people from the United States have been engaging full force in the 14th Conference of Parties (COP) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Unfortunately, we can’t say the same of our government. Instead of waiting around for our government to change its tune on the international stage, we’ve decided to set up dozens upon dozens of meetings with countries across the globe, especially those countries whom our country has disrespected in the past. Even if our own government isn’t listening to some of the most affected stakeholders in this negotiation, we will. We’re hoping the next wave of U.S. engagement will follow our lead.

See our letter, which as already been getting very enthusiastic response from countries around the world.

We’re here from Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, SustainUS, Rainforest Action Network, Energy Action Coalition, Indigenous Environmental Network, 350.org

Or just read the text of the U.S. letter to other delegations here.
Continue reading ‘U.S. Youth Lead where U.S. State Dept Won’t in UNFCCC Negotiations’

The economic crisis is an opportunity to transform our economy
Cross Posted from Grist

It’s day four of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations in Poznan Poland, but it feels like I’ve been here for months. I’m up before the sun rises and in bed after midnight – and the action is nonstop. I with 500 youth delegates here from over 54 countries across the globe, from India to Peru, to Australia. Young people have been meeting with governments, participating in negotiations, harassing corporations, training each other in everything from climate justice to organizing skills, and speaking clearly and loudly: young people are collaborating across borders and have a shared vision. We want binding, equitable, science-based targets, and we’re going to fight for them.

One of the ways that we’ve been telling our story is through actions – we’ve been coordinating two per day! This afternoon, we hosted a “Who Wants To Be a Trillionaire?” game show. One contestant was the “big banks,” who have recently won 4.1 trillion dollars in government bailouts from the E.U. and the U.S. The other was a “climate rescue plan” which got over 40 times less - a measly 13.1 billion (if that doesn’t sound like a big disparity, check out the graph on this report here: http://www.ips-dc.org/getfile.php?id=314). The United States Congress has committed zero dollars (http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/913). Despite getting all the questions wrong, the “big banks” got all the money anyway. A rambunctious game show audience held a banner that said: “EU Bailout: $2.8 Trillion. US Bailout: $1.3 Trillion. Climate Rescue: Priceless”

Our point was simple: the same people who have spent decades telling us they can’t afford to save our planet, can clearly move trillions of dollars within weeks (when their own pocketbooks are directly affected). The issue is not lack of resources, its lack of political will. Youth are demanding our governments invest in a strong green economy, our planet, and our future.

Lucky for us, this economic crisis presents us with a wonderful opportunity. The opening day here in Poland, the UNFCCC said that the economic crisis is no excuse for inaction. We are saying that in fact, it’s the best reason in the world to invest in clean energy now, creating green jobs and sparking opportunity worldwide.
Continue reading ‘International Youth call for a Climate Rescue Plan at the UN’

Some thoughts from AFP

Oh dear… The BINGOs are at odds with the TUNGOs and the RINGOs over the NAMAs and the NAPAs. RFUK is concerned about what REDD is going to do to PAM. But at least the SIDS are keen on LULUCF.

If you thought the science behind global warming was dauntingly complex and believed “low albedo” was something to do with sex drive (it means poor reflection of sunlight) then the UN climate talks in Poznan are not for you.

Running until December 12, the negotiations for concluding a new worldwide climate pact gather more than 10,000 policymakers, industrialists and campaigners.

And they are awash in alphabet soup.
Continue reading ‘Excuse me, do you speak climate?’

SmartMeme is an organization dedicated toward helping people fighting for a better world tell better stories with their activism and organizing. Story telling is the oldest form of human communication, and the most effective, too. In their new resource guide, SmartMeme helps activists shift ideas, culture, and the world around us. I can’t recommend it enough.

You can download it here.

Today was the start of the Conference of Parties (COP14) talks on Climate Change in Poznan Poland. The activist and NGO community is buzzing with ideas about how to make the most of these sessions to come out with a strong path toward the increasingly looming deadlines next year in Copenhagen. One of our concerns is that the delegates are trying to lower expectations for this process, telling the press (and each other) that it’s okay not to expect too much from the Poland talks. But across the world, we all know that we can’t wait anymore.

Check out this action that happened this morning in Denmark at the summit site for the climate negotiations next year. The group KlimaX dropped banners outside the Bella Centret illustrating the urgent need for just solutions. Sini Østergaard from KlimaX said “We cannot stand by and watch while the rich countries buy CO2 quotas from the poor countries. We have take action now.”

Continue reading ‘Countdown to Copenhagen: Actions Spark Up in Copenhagen as Poznan Talks Open’

Remember the blockade of the proposed Dominion power plant in Wise County a couple months ago? Well, we were able to break through the near blackout of no-coal action coverage in major national media. Check out this sympathetic article in this issue of Time Magazine! This signals yet more evolution in the popular narrative of Civil Disobedience in our country and reclaiming it as a beautiful American tradition upon which so much social progress is rooted.

Taking On King Coal

By Bryan Walsh Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2008

Nothing could sway the Dominion 11 from their mission–not the cops and certainly not the prospect of free food. Early on the morning of Sept. 15, activists from a range of environmental groups formed a human barrier to block access to a coal plant being built by Dominion in rural Wise County, Virginia. As acts of civil disobedience go, this wasn’t exactly Bloody Sunday. The police took a hands-off approach and even offered to buy the protesters breakfast if they unchained themselves. (They declined.) But the consequences were far from trivial. The activists who had formed the barrier to the construction site were arrested and charged with trespassing, and they eventually paid $400 each in fines. That’s nothing, of course, compared with the punishment the Dominion plant will inflict on the environment. If completed, the plant will emit 5.3 million tons of CO2 a year into the atmosphere, roughly the equivalent of putting a million more cars on the road.

The future of coal will dictate the future of the climate. Plants in the U.S. that burn this low-cost, high-carbon fuel account for about 40% of the country’s greenhouse-gas emissions, not to mention other air pollutants. Right now there are about 600 coal power plants in the U.S., and an additional 110 are in various stages of development. Without ways to capture the carbon burned in coal and sequester it underground, new plants all but guarantee billions of tons of future carbon emissions and essentially negate efforts to reduce global warming. “Business as usual can’t continue as long as coal is destroying the climate,” says Hannah Morgan, 20, one of the Dominion 11. “We are not going to back down.”
Continue reading ‘TIME MAGAZINE: Taking On King Coal’

Melting I.C.E.

Yesterday was a Halloween to remember. I had the honor of participating in an inspiring action organized and led by Bay Area Latino & Latina youth. Over 400 high school students walked out of school on Halloween to protest the vicious I.C.E. raids that have terrorized their communities, violently ripped apart their families, traumatized children, racially profiled neighborhoods, and demonized hard working people in the Bay Area and across our country.

When speaking at a convention the National Council of La Raza, Barack Obama has said: “The system isn’t working, when 12 million people live in hiding…when communities are terrorized by ICE immigration raids; when nursing mothers are torn from their babies; when children come home from school to find their parents missing; when people are detained without access to legal counsel.” And yet we see no action being taken on a national electoral level. So yesterday young folks have decided that they must act directly, challenging the concept that a human being can be “illegal”.

But before describing the day, one may ask, what does this have to do with the climate?
(aside from bad puns about melting the ICE...)

Yesterday I felt the power of youth, and the moral legitimacy of young people speaking truth to power - of being bold and not letting injustices stand; of offering leadership; of youth organizing for a better world. A Youth Climate Movement holds this same power, and as young climate activists strive to integrate a deep understanding of power, race, class, and gender into our movement, we would do well to explore the links between our work and the struggles of immigrant youth and their families across the country.

We in the U.S., as principal carbon emitters, have a responsibility when it comes to this issue. The young people in our immigrant rights demonstration held signs that said “our immigration is forced migration” - articulately making visible the effects of policies like NAFTA, and the havoc they have wreaked on Latin American countries, creating the economic hardship that forces families to move in order to survive.

We know that as Climate Crisis intensifies, millions will be displaced from their homes - especially along the equator (and disproportionately in countries that are not responsible for the crisis).

Where will they go?

Once again the effects of U.S. behavior will create a tidal shifts in human migration. Will we step up to the responsibility for helping our world to adapt to a shifting climate? Will our country be the beacon of hope it has aspired to, a refuge for tired, huddled masses, yearning to breathe free? Unless we sharply move toward a sane and humane immigration policy, we will see an acceleration of barbaric dehumanization of people searching for a better life, as more and more people are displaced, forced to adapt to a world with increased drought, famine, floods, new pathways for disease, super storms, intensifying wildfires, shortages of water, and rising sea levels.

The political challenge of transforming our immigration policy to one that is compassionate and human will only grow more difficult as more people search for a new place to call home. Let’s work for immigrant justice now.

Yesterday morning was kicked off when hundreds of East Bay youth were prevented from riding BART to cross into San Francisco for the event. Some were detained. Ironic, huh? Several BART stations in poor neighborhoods were temporarily closed down. The students rallied outside the BART stations, and started making news headlines for the disruption.

Meanwhile in SF (and eventually joined by some of the East Bay youth who made it across), hundreds of young folks and allies, mostly Latino/a, gathered and rallied in downtown SF. We honored the dead and disappeared by painting our faces as skulls and dressing in black. Some wore masks on their faces to feel more comfortable being in public, as undocumented folks who try to find political voice are often targeted. Traditional Cherokee and Aztec blessings, prayers, and drums were offered, grounding participants in the large Native presence and solidarity there, and casting the hypocrisy of the U.S. immigration debate itself into sharp perspective. Signs crying out “I am indigenous to this land!”, “We didn’t cross the borders, the borders crossed us!” were held alongside “Immigrant rights are human rights.”

We began to march to the I.C.E. building, circled it while chanting and asserting that no human being is illegal, while out front of the building people spoke out, including social movement veteran and Latino/a rights activist Betita Martinez. After, Danza Azteca as well as others offered traditional dances and prayers.

As we circled the building again, students aged 18-21 non-violently locked themselves to barrels and lock-boxes, forming two blockades on each side of the I.C.E. alleyway that deploys their vans for raids and to transport prisoners. It was a beautifully and gracefully executed non-violent direct action. Until the facility closed at 6 pm, two groups of demonstrators supported the blockaders, sharing stories of their fathers being taken away in the middle of the night, poetry, music, and chants of justified and palpable pain and anger. At the close of the building, blockaders declared victory and peacefully left the area, no arrests were made.

Their words were far more powerful than anything I could write here. The young folks who blockaded wrote a letter to San Francisco. I’ve shared it below, along with more pictures. Please read it.

All Hollow’s Eve, 2008.

Our Dear San Francisco,

It has begun. Last week we saw government officials blow open people’s doors in the middle of the night to kidnap so called “gang members.” They came for us. Each night we wait in panic, waiting to see who next of our friends and family will be disappeared. But today is something else.

Today, a day when we celebrate the dead and disappeared - a day when we don masks to make the real monsters tremble in their empty coffers - it begins.

CLICK BELOW FOR THE REST OF THE LETTER AND PHOTOS FROM THE DAY
Continue reading ‘What do immigrant rights have to do with the youth climate movement?’

Crossposted from Praxis Makes Perfect

Weird.
I almost don’t know what to say about this video. Its an advertisement from HSBC bank, pulling heart strings by depicting environmental activists doing tree-sits and forest defense, being attacked by police to let loggers into an endangered forest. A young woman activist gets out of jail, and hops on a motorcycle with her (I assume) partner, a logger. The lesson is that the bank values a diversity of perspectives and worldviews, just as this couple apparently honors the complexity of our world. All set to a Joanna Newsom song.

Its a great message, even if it still reinforces the false frame of “jobs versus the environment” and sensationalizes & romanticizes confrontation, but as an activist who has been in dangerous and confrontational situations like this before, it feels both triggering and intensely emotional to see a bank characterizing itself in this way, especially given the role of Finance in fueling climate destroying projects. At the same time, this is more of an indication of confrontational tactics moving from margin to the center of our political scene as the urgency of the Climate Crisis intensifies.

Juxtapose the above ad alongside this footage of a similar action in Tasmania, where company thugs from Gunns Logging have recently physically attacked activists, their camp and cars firebombed. This footage is of them attacking a car non-violently blockading a road.

I’m not sure how to react to this. What do yall think?