It’s Getting Hot In Here

 Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to witness a massive street protest against corrupt government policies in the city of Iquitos, Peru.  Hundreds of people moved in a wave that held up traffic as they marched down the streets.  It appeared to be a general protest against corrupt government practices in Peru, and the policies of President Alan Garcia in particular.  There were marchers focused on workers´ rights, education reform, and the pillaging of the Amazon.  A large contingent of indigenous activists called out the Peruvian government on last month´s massacre of indigenous people in the city of Bagua.  Toward the back of the parade, another group waved flags supporting Ollanta Humala – one of the major left-wing candidates for president running in Peru´s 2011 elections. 

All-in-all, the event was an inspiring glimpse of a wave of progressive activism which appears to be sweeping across Peru.  Unfortunately, I won´t be able to post any of the photos or video footage I took until I return to the US at the end of this month – but look for them on this blog around August 1st!

I was naturally drawn to the contingent of indigenous protesters as I followed the parade.  These activists held signs denouncing the government´s behavior in Bagua and the seizure of indigenous lands for industrial exploitation, and calling on the Peruvian government to respect the rights of indigenous peoples.  I also could not help but notice the large block of students and faculty from the nearby university – our activist peers in this country.  Though the parade was flanked by police on all sides, the atmosphere was less than tense.  Some of the police were smiling, and they didn´t seem concerned at the sight of a couple of US college students running after the parade taking pictures.  However atrociously the Peruvian police behaved in Bagua, in Iquitos there seemed to be little issue with the police, for the moment at least.  A few parents were pushing baby carriages in the parade, and people of all ages joined in.  On the sidewalks, people came out of the shops to watch. 

I´ve written more about the fight against fossil fuels in Peru, and how it connects to policy in the US, here.  I am not an expert on current politics in Peru, and I don´t know enough about any specific candidate for the 2011 elections to know whether he or she would represent a major improvement over Alan Garcia.  However, dissatisfaction with the current pro-industry president is at an all-time high in Peru, and a wave of progressive activism seems to be gaining strength in this country.  The horror of the Bagua Massacre appears simply to have strengthened peoples´ resolve to end government corruption, and fueled the anger of activists.  It´s just possible that Peru could be the next country where we see a power shift in favor of a socially just environmentally sustainable future for all.

I´m currently sitting in a hot and humid Internet cafe in the city of Iquitos, located in the middle of the Peruvian Amazon.  I´m here partly to investigate the many fossil fuel-related environmental and human rights issues in this part of the world.  But what´s struck me again and again, while here, is how closely the future of the Peru´s Amazon is tied to another battle raging in my own home: the Pacific Northwest, USA.  In this post, I want to try to convey some of the urgency of confronting fossil fuel development in Oregon and Washington for the people and ecosystems of Peru.

Over the last few months, Peru has become a front line in the fight against the globally expanding fossil fuel empire.  Peru is also a shining example of how corporate globalization and ¨free trade¨ contributes inevitably to the strengthening of that empire.  As regular readers of this blog will already know, last month saw the massacre of an unknown number of indigenous activists protesting oil, gas, and timber development, and the seizure of indigenous lands in the Amazon.  Most of the killing occurred in the Bagua area of Peru, and the Peruvian government has attempted to cover up the actual number of activists killed (the highest number I heard in the US was about 80 deaths, but the actual number seems to have been much higher).  The protests were brought on in response to several decrees passed by the Peruvian government to facilitate a ¨free trade¨ agreement with the US.  From the beginning, it´s been clear: the environmental and human rights abuses which triggered the protests and the massacre in Bagua came about as a direct result of this trade agreement, and pressure from the US for Peru to open up its oil and gas reserves for exploration.

But the international implications of the massacre go even deeper, and center on several communities in Oregon and Washington currently working to keep infrastructure for a new and dirty fossil fuel out of the Northwest.  Here, energy companies are attempting to build at least three import terminals for natural gas extracted in distant parts of the world, and shipped to the US after a supercooling process to convert the gas to a more easily transported liquid: thus the name Liquefied Natural Gas, or LNG.  The Northwest is a focal point for an industry attempt to make LNG a much more important fuel in the United States.  And where would this imported gas come from?  Well, it could be the Middle East, or it could be Russia.  Or it could be the heart of the Peruvian Amazon.

If the energy giants get their way, importation terminals in my home region will grant LNG an open door to the US market.  Suddenly, the Peruvian government will have an even greater incentive than it does now to explore for gas in the Amazon.  I recently spoke with a local concerned citizen in Iquitos, whose name I will protect, who explained to me what increased oil and gas development will mean for the people of the Amazon.  My Spanish is not the greatest, but in a conversation consisting of mixed English, Spanish, and hand gestures, my friend conveyed this central message: the Peruvian government and President Alan Garcia are not particularly concerned with the well being of Peru´s indigenous people, and will not hesitate to use force to obtain land for fossil fuel exploration.  The Bagua massacre could be only the beginning, and importing LNG in the Northwest will only exacerbate the pressure on indigenous communities. 

In Iquitos – a town that grew up around rubber extraction and where the extractive industries continue to be important – graffiti art criticizing Garcia and the exploitation of the Amazon is a common sight.  This is the opposite of the old, misguided stereotype that rainforests are being destroyed because the local people don´t know how to take care of their own resources.  In Peru, there can be no doubt as to the real force behind deforestation.  Over half of Peru´s forest is already under concession to oil and gas developers, and the disillusioned local people I have spoken with are well aware of the health and environmental effects of fossil fuel development.  To save Peru´s carbon-sequestering Amazon and the people who live there, we must reverse or substantially alter the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement.  We must get US corporations out of the Amazon.  And we must stop LNG from becoming an important source of fuel in the US.

Peru´s Bagua massacre may be the worst case of violence in Latin America that can be traced directly to a trade agreement with the US.  The horror of the police crackdown and subsequent cover-up here is not something I can even attempt to convey.  But there are some signs of hope on the horizon.  The two most controversial government decrees have been, at least for the moment, suspended in response to the Bagua crisis.  In Oregon, the legislative session just ended with the defeat of a bill that would have smoothed the way for LNG companies attempting to begin work on projects there.  This fight that extends from the heart of the Amazon to rural areas in Oregon and Washington will be a long one, but it´s one I believe we can win.

My friend from Iquitos and I agreed that both our country´s governments have ignored the effects of fossil fuel extraction for far too long.  I tried to convey that we are making some progress in the US, though my optimism was far from unqualified.  ¨Your president,¨ said my friend, ¨he has an honest face.¨ I replied cautiously that I believe Obama truly wants to make change, but there are many other individuals in our government who will make it difficult for him.  My eyes lingered on the No LNG button pinned to the backpack of my travelling companion from the US.  She, like me, has gone to protests against LNG back home, and worked to raise awareness of the issue at our school.

I have never felt the international implications of the struggle against LNG more tangibly than now.  It´s time to shut the door to new fossil fuels in the Northwest once and for all, and score a victory for a battle that extends to indigenous communities in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon.

He listened! Obama listened!

We chanted during PowerShift’s march on the Capital Coal Plant and even later that night outside of the While House calling for “Food, Not Bombs! Plant a Garden on the White House Lawn!” It sounded good, and I remember seeing the lights go on in an upstairs window as we sang late at night, but maybe that was just a twinkle in the White House’s eye.

Either way, I just learned that Obama did plant a nice big vegetable garden on the White House lawn in March, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt’s Victory Gardens, and things are coming up golden. They’ve 90 pounds of food,  enough produce for the White House kitchens and local soup kitchens as well.  Good and always with honor have released a detailed map of the White House Garden – let’s hope more people follow suit, eating as locally as physically possible, their own backyards!

Posted by Adrian from Rainforest Action Network.

Today, RAN took the fight against dirty Tar Sands oil to Washington.

At the Capitol Hilton in Washington, DC today, the Canadian-American Business Council held a high-profile forum on energy and environment. Speakers included Canadian Prime Minister Harper’s senior energy advisor, the Premier of Manitoba, and several U.S. members of Congress – as well as senior officials from Shell, Iogen, and TransAlta. (The entire event was sponsored by ExxonMobil.) Overall, it was a big chance for some big-time greenwashing of the Tar Sands – the world’s dirtiest source of oil, and a huge threat to Indigenous rights and climate change.

And also in attendance were about thirty protestors, organized by ForestEthics and RAN, who stood outside the Hilton and protested the Canadian government’s ongoing support for dirty Tar Sands – as well as two super-sneaky RAN and ForestEthics activists, who went inside the meeting to disrupt it.

Continue reading ‘Activists Disrupt Canadian Business Conference in DC, Says “No Tar Sands”’

'The struggle of the Amazonians is for all Peruvians'

On June 5, 2009 I was vacationing in Cuzco, Peru awaiting the start of my 5 day hike to Machu Picchu, when I stumbled upon a protest in a small square.  It was an impromptu gathering of people allied with indigenous people in the Amazon region who are resisting the privatization of the rainforest for oil and gas development.  The effects of rainforest destruction and the use of oil on our climate are well documented.  Instead, I’d like to look at why the rainforest is being sold to private companies and its effect on the indigenous people who have lived there for generations.

Why is the rainforest being sold off by the Peruvian government?  It all comes back to the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement, which requires the government to allow oil and gas development by multi-national corporations.  The protesters I met were demanding that the law granting oil and gas concessions on the indigenous people’s communally held be land permanently repealed.

The small protest is Cuzco wasn’t the only thing going in on Peru.  In Lima thousands of people took to the streets demanding the law be repealed.  Indigenous people have been blockading the roads that the oil company uses for the past two and half months.  As a result, the Amazon region has experienced a shortage of cooking gas and food prices are on the rise.  On June 5^th the Peruvian President Garcia decided he had enough and moved to clear roads.  The communities were armed with sticks and lances; the police with guns, helicopters, shields, and gases. Police attacked the blockaders, killing hundreds of indigenous protesters (according to witnesses, the government reports put it at only 30) and in the process about a dozen police were captured or killed.

In the following days a curfew was imposed and witnesses reported seeing the police dump bodies into the river in the middle of the night.  I’m sure when you read this you’ll think, like I did, that these are the kind of things that happened in the 70s and 80s, but not today.  It crazy, but it’s true, even in 2009 there are governments that, in the name of defending free trade, are throwing protesters’ bodies into the river.  Violence is continuously perpetrated in the name of Free Trade, here in Peru against the indigenous in the Amazon, in Guatemala against banana workers, or in Colombia against union members. Continue reading ‘Free Trade, Violence & the Destruction of the Amazon’

Last year my grandfather told me that you get a revolution when people are pushed to the extreme.

Photo credit: Benka Morvan

This means that climate change one of the hardest issues to act upon, because although climate change is one of the biggest threats to humanity, by the time we are pushed to an extreme it will be too late. Especially in the countries that need to take the largest steps.

Does that mean we can’t create a revolution?

No it doesn’t.

I believe that humans are not only motivated by fear and despair; but are also motivated by love. And it is love for their children, love for animals and love humanity that is driving the change today. Continue reading ‘A Revolution of Love’

Ha empezado una nueva campaña que busca llevar la voz Latina al centro del dialogo internacional sobre el cambio climatico. 350Dominicana, inspirada por y aliada a 350.org, tiene como objetivo la organizacion de una cumbre regional en America Latina y el Caribe con fines de dialogar sobre el limite de 350 partes por millon de dioxido carbono que tiene la humanidad para prevenir daños catastroficos del cambio climatico en los siguientes 20 años. Para Republica Dominicana, estos daños incluirian:

1) La perdida de gran parte del sector turistico y las zonas urbanas por la subida del nivel del mar;

2) La perdida de recursos hidricos y agricolas por las sequias, la evaporacion, y tormentas tropicales mas intensas; y

3) El incremento de las enfermedades infecciosas.

La campaña 350Dominicana busca que el Presidente Leonel Fernandez proponga a la region una Cumbre Regional Sobre el Cambio Climatico que discuta las consecuencias de no actuar suficientemente contra el cambio climatico a nivel mundial. La Cumbre buscaria formar un consenso regional con principios y estrategias politicas que presionaran al resto del mundo a comprometerse a acciones justas y que puedan prevenir efectos catastroficos del cambio climatico.

Vea el video de introduccion: http://350dominicana.org/2009/06/07/350-dominicana-%C2%A1unete-ya/

Firme la peticion: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/compromiso-regional-definido-para-cumbre-sobre-cambio-climtico-en-copenhague-suena-la-alarma-firma

Suscribete al Boletin: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=cmFxTUwwWUVMSS1DRjJIZEhIelZYSGc6MA..

Continue reading ‘350Dominicana: Creando Una Voz Latina Contra El Cambio Climatico’

This Monday, people throghout the world came together at Peru’s consulates and embassies demanding an end to the systematic genocide of Peru’s indigenous populations.  This tragedy was brought about by the disastrous “Peru Trade Promotion Agreement” which stripped land rights from indigenous communities and opened them up for foreign investment resulting in widespread oil and gas drilling and logging.

Iternational trade treaties should be targets of groups working on international climate mitigation. As we have seen when Mexico signed on to NAFTA, free trade agreements export our unsustainable lifestyle, drive (mostly indigenous) coummunities into poverty, and deepen the destruction of previously protected ecosystems. All of these problems contribute to the rise in greenhouse gas emissions and destroy precious cultural know-how that has the potential to guide us to implement more sustainable versions of development.

Many groups and journalists showed up at the Washington D.C. protest (organized by Amazon Watch) including the Energy Action Coalition, Campus Progress, Friends of the Earth and the Quixote Center.

Check out this video about the protest in Washington D.C. and make sure to leave comments with links to media from protests you attended!

Tommaso Boggia is the Climate Advocacy Associate at Campus Progress. Check out his other blog posts about the American Clean Energy And Security Act on FundingourFuture.campusprogress.org

About a month or so after the Capitol Climate action I wrote a movement strategy piece to reflect on its lessons. It is the cover story for the May issue of Z Magazine and pasted below. This magazine came out on the day we heard from the Administration that they have begun to implement their promise to phase coal out of the Capitol Power Plant.

Climate Justice and Coal’s Funeral Procession
Learning from the Capitol Climate Action

The snow was 4.5 inches deep and it was 23 degrees out when our action started at 1pm. We could already hear the Fox News commentators making the usual absurd statements: “A global warming protest in the snow?! Maybe this climate change stuff isn’t real after all, ha ha ha.” But by the end of the day, even Fox News gave positive coverage to the largest protest in history demanding solutions to the climate crisis.

On March 2nd, around 4,000 people came to the Capitol Power Plant in Washington DC, over 2,000 of whom risked arrest through civil disobedience. The vast majority had never been to a demonstration of any kind before, let alone engaged in non-violent direct action. People from communities most directly impacted by coal’s lifecycle — from Navajo reservations in the Southwest to Appalachian towns in the Southeast — led the march. With vibrant multicolored flags depicting windmills, people planting gardens, waves crashing, and captions like “community,” “security,” “change” and “power,” we sat-in to blockade five entrances to the power plant that literally fuels Congress. We called the whole thing the “Capitol Climate Action” (CCA).

The belching smoke stacks just two blocks from the Capitol building made a fitting target for a national flashpoint. They symbolize the stranglehold that the dirty fossil fuel industry – and coal industry in particular – has on our government, economy, and future. Burning coal is the single biggest contributor to global warming. We will not be able to solve the climate crisis or build a clean energy economy without breaking its hold.

Continue reading ‘Climate Justice and Coal’s Funeral Procession’

Five actions in one day in downtown Toronto? No foolin!

Today Rainforest Action Network activists kicked Fossil Fools Day off with a bang, dropping banners off of a highway, greeting over 4,000 cars (we counted) stuck in deadlock traffic over a period of two hours. From bridges, we broadcast messages about Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)’s financing of the Canadian Tar Sands from our makeshift Pirate Radio station. Our banners read “Pirate Radio 89.9 FM Tune in now” and “Royal Bank creates climate chaos. Renewables not tar sands.” The pouring rain didn’t block our view of car after car reaching for the radio dial as they drove under us. Listen to the audio broadcast we played here!

We moved on to RBC’s headquarters downtown, and throughout the day were joined by over 30 activists filtering in and out for the festivities.

We began by dressing up and impersonated bank employees. About 16 of us rode elevators for up to two more hours, chatting up other RBC personnel – “Hey, on my way to work today I heard about how RBC is financing the destruction of Native territories in Alberta, causing people cancer and polluting the water! Tar Sands are the world’s dirtiest oil. Did you know that? I had no idea! I’m telling my manager right away!”

Meanwhile, outside the HQ, several more of us leafleted and held banners reading “RBC Creates poisoned water in our community,” “Renewables not tar sands” and “RBC: financing cancer and toxic sludge.”

Back inside, a lone Torontan walked inside the main office with a beautiful bouquet of balloons. I don’t know where he got the idea to release them in the atrium, or how a banner reading “ROYAL BANK CREATES CLIMATE CHAOS” got attached….I also don’t know how they’re gonna get it down. We have undercover footage of the prank here:

Later that evening, dozens of activists reconvened outside RBC headquarters alongside “Tarbie,” an oil-soaked version of RBC’s prized mascot “Arbie” who explained to passersby that he and RBC are helping finance one of the fastest growing sources of water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions on the planet, and how they conflict with the financial giant’s PR promises to promote clean water.

Continue reading ‘Toronto activists award RBC “fossil fool of the year” for Tar Sands financing’