What I'm gathering for the past couple of days from Tod's posts to the Post Carbon Institute, the mainstream media and the alternate press, "climate justice" is the big issue surfacing at the United Nations Convention on Climate Change. It doesn't appear that it was very high, or even on, the official agenda.According to Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! in her post to Truthdig, "Copenhagen Climate Summit: The Empire's New Clothes," "Both inside and outside the summit there is a diverse cross section of nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, from indigenous-peoples delegations to environmental and youth groups. Their separate but connected efforts have been coalescing into a new movement, a movement for climate justice."
This is how Tod described it on his wall at Facebook: "Real protests. Real anger. Real frustration....The real heart of the movement is truly peaceful but getting incredibly frustrated with the UN's effort to keep poor nations from making their points."
According to Tod, a powerful voice for climate justice is Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who made the opening remarks at Oxfam's "First International Climate Hearing." Read Tod's report here.
It appears from Tod's current post, that "Most of us aren't allowed back into the Bella Centre [where the convention is taking place]...." What's up? I thought Tod and the 6 other delegates from Sonoma County were official delegates. Are they all being shut out?
Leave it to Tod to make a difference, whether he's on the the inside or outside. He took the photo below yesterday. It's of indigenous South American farmers displaying handicrafts to a small but interested audience. What did a CNBC reporter standing 15 feet away see and broadcast to millions? "And behind me we have what is called a sit-in protest...." That was too much for Tod, who got into a "wee bit of a tussle [with the CNBC cameraman] over my live on-air correction of his criminally misleading description."
Tod was so upset that he left the convention and on his way back to the flat where he was staying, he saw the Coca cola poster in the photo above. His reaction? "I was intrigued to learn that the global mega-corp is not only saving the planet, but they've somehow managed to bottle Obama."Back here in Sonoma County, some people are upset that the county spent $23,000 to send 7 delegates to the Climate Change Convention. If none of them are being allowed in on the official meetings, I'm upset, too. Rollie Atkinson's editorial, "Carbon Neutral," in last week's Healdsburg Tribune, raised the issue. At an event for 4th district supervisor candidate Mike McGuire last Tuesday evening, Mike expressed his dismay that the county sent the incumbent 4th District Supervisor Paul Kelley and 6 others to Copenhagen while people here are suffering from loss of jobs.
So the "climate justice" in a different form is also a local issue. Does our county invest it its commitment to climate protection by sending delegates to Copenhagen at the expense of our jobless?
I admit I'm somewhat ambivalent about this. However, Healdsburg residents seem woefully unaware of the consequences of climate change on our local agriculture. In 2006, the Press Democrat published an article by Tim Tesconi, "Could Global Warming Dry Up Wine Industry? New report warns North Coast may get too hot in coming century."
This seemed like a big deal to me, so last October 24th, I,* with a lot of help from Ann Carranza and Robert and Elizabeth Seton, organized a local climate change event in conjunction with 350.org. About ten of us walked through Healdsburg with grape vines and signs on them, "Destination: Canada," and fliers explaining what will happen to our grapes if climate change continues unabated. I was amazed at the lack of awareness of this problem which will adversely affect our $5 billion regional economy.
Will Tod be able to bring home the urgent message that we need to address climate change now? That it's a local issue? That it's not just about climate change but about climate justice? I certainly hope so.Update: Today I talked with a woman who has spent her adult life working with the disadvantaged: the mentally ill, the unemployed, the underpaid. When I told her about the county paying for 7 people from Sonoma County to attend the climate summit and that some thought this was a waste of money, she said "A pittance! These people will come back all fired up and will undoubtedly make a difference, including the number of green jobs."
*Photo of my twin grandchildren and me at the October 24th "Grapevine March."
Photos from climate convention taken by Tod.
Great job, Gail!
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