Tuesday, October 27, 2009

When the Climate Change Center Cannot Hold | MR Zine

"Kyoto's promised 5% emissions cuts (by 2012, from 1990 levels) are impossible now. Obama's people hope the world will accept 2005 as a new starting date; a 20% reduction by 2020 then only brings the target back to around 5% below 1990 levels. Such pathetically low ambitions, surely Obama knows, guarantee a runaway climate catastrophe -- he should shoot for 45%, say the small island nations.

Regardless, core principles of the progressive movement are non-negotiable. In advance of Copenhagen Bella Center protests, here are demands articulated by Climate Justice Action:

* leaving fossil fuels in the ground;
* reasserting peoples' and community control over production;
* relocalizing food production;
* massively reducing overconsumption, particularly in the North;
* respecting indigenous and forest peoples' rights; and
* recognizing the ecological and climate debt owed to the peoples of the South and making reparations.

If the center is not holding, that's fine: the wave of courageous direct-action protests against climate criminals in recent weeks -- and the prospect of seattling Copenhagen at the big protest on December 16 -- offer an inspiring reflection of left pressure that will soon counteract that from the right. It's our only hope, isn't it?"

2 comments:

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  2. Dec. 16? Do you mean Climate Camp? They're talking about the People's Summit for Climate Justice and Reclaim Power march. Looking forward to it.

    http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/actions/copenhagen-2009

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