GVConsulting

During the COP17 spectacle (17th Conference of Parties, the UN summit on Climate Change) in Durban, South Africa, in December 2011, La Via Campesina, the International Peasants Movement, issued a statement declaring certain actions be taken and conditions be met in order to prevent, forestall, or otherwise derail climate catastrophe. Because several of the actions do not appear to be copacetic with scientific reality, we endeavored to contact the organization, and sent the following email on December 7:

Dear Boa Monjane:

I write to you today with grave concerns about your recently publicized statement at
COP17, and hope this will bring a fruitful dialogue.

Your statement exclaims a set of solutions seeking to limit “further” temperature
rise to 1 degree. Given that the planet is currently up .8 by all relevant
calculations, your statement leads a reader to believe you are seeking a ceiling at
1.8. If so, this is an incredibly dangerous number to stand behind, given the
mathematical reality that we are, at a minimum, locked into 1.8 due to inertia,
hydrates, and other feedback mechanisms. If not, and your statement purports an
argument that we can and should stay below 1.0 total, it is an unachievable dream
and must be clarified as such.

Returning to 1.8 and the best case reality of that number, it is only achievable
with immediate and irreversible 100% reductions, yet your statement calls for a
minimum of 50% to achieve your solution set. I believe it is irresponsible to
promote 50% as a solution to climate crisis when anything less than 100% locks us
into the scientific reality of inertia and systems betrayal through feedback
mechanisms. It also comes nowhere close to making 1.8 – where we are already
committed assuming 100% emissions reduction today – achievable, even with an
unlikely assumption that methane hydrates are completely negated by nature.

I would very much like to understand why you claim 50% is part of the solution.

Another point of contention is your stated reliance on capitalism in the developed
world for various funding mechanisms. It should be well understood that reliance
upon any functional component of industrial capitalism for mitigation, adaptation,
and reparation for any length of time lends credence to the mechanism, perpetuates
it, and demands the growth of it, ironically, as the world condition grows more
dire. Making statements where the world utilizes the very economic machinery
responsible for the planet being on the brink of collapse in order to prevent the
collapse is more than troubling. It is criminal.

Do you really believe the patriarchal industrial north has the means, the motive,
and the benefit of planetary reality to stem the tide through finance?

Many of us in developed countries know what it means to call for, and succeed in
getting, 100% reductions. It means the end of nearly all we know, save maybe the
planet. Those of us who understand the demands of Mother Earth in that context also
recognize more people must rise up and fight for 100% all over the globe. Will La
Via Campesina do so?

I very much look forward to your responses and the ensuing dialogue. I have cced my
dear colleague and friend based in Canada, Cory Morningstar.

We received no response. On January 5, Cory Morningstar again sought feedback from the Via Campesina representative. No response. And now we are at the eve of Rio+20, where most of the same players will convene and further deteriorate any reasonable chance we have, as civil society, to stem the tide of climate change. As expected, the usual troop of NGOs will attend, claiming to speak for all of us while clamoring for cozy seats and sharp cocktails amongst the global elite. La Via Campesina will be there, too.

Climate justice allies would like to continue to convince us that an inside-outside strategy is to our advantage. That it is tenable. Yet the historical results state otherwise. This culture of compromise where lesser-evilism prevails and excuses for maintaining the status quo flow eloquently from the lips as well as the pen must end. From the Tongass in the north, to Durban in the south, the mechanisms we have employed collectively and individually have done nothing but render a trail of tears and destruction for all peoples, and all ecologies. The time for strategic charades and whimsical hopes is over.

It starts with one entity willing to say no, loudly, to the nefarious players (NGOs, governments, and corporations) creating the Green Climate Fund (GCF). We understand the fraudulent nature of the participatory process, the criminal dependence upon industrialized capitalism, and the woefully inadequate reality of yet another false solution. We say no.

It continues with another entity joining in the refusal, and rejecting the corporate tradeshow that is Rio+20. Canadians for Action on Climate Change so declares.

And the movement grows with you. Individuals and organizations are needed to rise above the fray, side by side, against the struggle of recidivist pursuits. Will you join?

Dear Whomever,

We, the undersigned, reject in full your process, and are not, in any form, represented by any entity or organization claiming to represent civil society at Rio or any other fraudulent gathering related to the global condition. In fact, we boycott Rio and hereby issue a call of no confidence in the process and the participants.

Love,
Us

The following commentary was written by colleague David Samuels and first appeared in the March 8 – 15 edition of Hartford News. David is founder of the Community Party in Connecticut.

Facebook was on fire last week as liberals danced on the grave of conservative race baiting wingnut Andrew Breitbart, who died suddenly on March 1st of still unknown natural causes. I responded by posting a status on my page asking liberals how they were so different from Breitbart when I see that like him, many of them have never discussed issues such as police violence against people of color or racial economic disparity on their pages. I periodically check out their pages and most of these folks never posted about police brutality until Occupy movement protestors started getting a mild version of the brutal police violence that has been inflicted on Blacks / Latinos every day for years. Occupy Hartford is 99% white in a city where white people comprise 28% of the population, which gives new meaning to their slogan, “We are the 99%”. OH does a great job of paying lip service to addressing racial justice issues. I recently checked out the posts on their page over the past month and there was not one word about the East Haven police scandal which has become a national story or the Penn Act racial profiling bill which is currently being debated at the State Capitol, but they did find room to post the photo of someone who had worked with OH that they alleged was a mole for the Hartford Police. Apparently OH only has a problem with profiling when their movement is impacted. I saw another post about a journalist who was arrested in Miami for taking photos of the eviction of Occupy Miami protestors from their campsite, so clearly this isn’t a case of OH not addressing the Penn Act debate because it isn’t an economic justice matter – they’re ignoring the racial profiling issue in CT because it doesn’t affect their overwhelmingly white movement.

Economic justice issues regarding people of color apparently aren’t on the OH menu, either. There were no posts about Black / Latino unemployment, despite the fact that the unemployment rate among young Black males in some areas of Hartford is as high as 50% and the Latino jobless rate has reached Depression-era levels. The tone deaf attitude of OH was obvious in an exchange that they had on their page with a white person who rightfully blasted them for their hyperbolic characterization of OH’s support of a rally for Black / Latino workers at the CT Juvenile Training School as a “universal blow against racism”, equating the single act of showing up at this protest with being a continuation of the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960′s. That’s a slap in the face to Blacks who endured lynchings, bombings, shootings, and police brutality during their daily struggle to strike down segregation in the South.

Hey OH, supporting one rally isn’t a “continuation of the same struggle” of Blacks in Selma, as you stated in your Facebook post. A true continuation of that struggle is the day to day organizing around issues such as the Penn Act which does not take place in full view of the public. I’m talking about community outreach, conference calls, dealing with legislators, working on a laptop for hours, long distance car rides and other stuff that no one ever sees. The Community Party has been working on the Penn Act every day for two years – we know what “continuation of the same struggle” really means. The fact that you can sit there with a straight face and tell a person that attending one rally against racism is in any way a “continuation” of the tireless, courageous work of those who participated in the Civil Rights movement underscores your arrogance and hypocrisy.

A Judiciary Committee public hearing on the Penn Act has been scheduled for Monday, March 12th 11:00 a.m. at the Legislative Office Building Room 2C, 300 Capitol Avenue in Hartford.  Check out our Penn Act Facebook page, the CP Twitter account and the Connecticut General Assembly website for updates on the hearing. If you or someone you know has been a victim of racial profiling or some other type of police abuse and are interested in testifying at the hearing, contact me at (860) 206-8879 or samuelssloflo@aol.com. Hartford Public Access Televison channel 5 has  scheduled replays of CP member Benjamin Reyes’ February 28th appearance on the Thinking Green public affairs show with host Ronna Stuller, who has been involved with our organizing efforts in the New London / Norwich area along with Tahira Matthews. Benjamin discussed our racial profiling bill and his cannabis based economic justice initiatives. The HPA TV airdates for March are Mondays (10:00 p.m.) Tuesdays (11:00 p.m.) and Saturdays (2:00 p.m.). All dates are subject to change – the updated list is available in the Notes section of our Penn Act page.

North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy (NCCC) launches its new website after extensive work with Area203 and a focused re-brand. Not only is this organization at the top of its game relative to aesthetics, it does incredible work on the ground, and is shaping an agenda that will provide models for work in every watershed on the planet, not just at its own ground zero. Check it out. Contribute.

Comprehensive data maps can often speak for themselves. GVC friend and collaborator A Carroll GIS provided additional location-specific (Southeast Tennessee) markings to the following map demonstrating what has become known as “food deserts”, and their relationship with and impact upon poverty-stricken communities. Feel free to search throughout the United States via this link.

An inaccessible bounty?