Participants sit in bleachers at the packed World People’s Summit on
Climate Change and Mother Earth’s Rights.
The World People’s
Conference on
Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth that took place in
April of 2010 in Cochabamba, Bolivia, was the first and only
climate conference that
was led by Indigenous Peoples (approx. 35,000 people attended),
was presented by a state with a
very strong position on climate change (still to this date, the
state that holds the strongest position in the world), and
produced the first democratically written document by its members
as an answer to climate change—later to be
submitted
and recognized by the United Nations (due to the State of
Bolivia representatives, no thanks to climate justice groups.)
The People’s
Agreement declaration that resulted from this conference, would
come to represent the only climate declaration ever written that could
serve as an ideological and scientific foundation to build upon;
that could have possibly (and realistically) averted, or at least
mitigated, advancing climate crisis and ecological collapse—if
only it had been acted upon at that time.
It was during this conference that American 350.org co-founder,
Kelly Blynn, had a tantrum. The People’s Agreement was
calling for a maximum of 300 parts per million of carbon dioxide.
When pressed (by the former Green Party Canada leader and
activist, Joan
Russow, and myself) to consider the necessity of changing the
350.org logo (by crossing it out with an x and placing the new
number/logo “300” beside it), an irritated Blynn
stated that she and her co-founders would never agree to do so as
350.org was “the most powerful brand in the world.”
For the moment, let’s ignore the fact that “the most
powerful brand in the world” aside, 350 ppm is a death
sentence for coral reefs, small island developing states, and
billions of people living along low lying coastlines. A fact
disclosed in an
Alliance
of Small Island States Briefing prior to
COP15.[1]
Whiteness & Aversive Racism
In the ultimate display of arrogance, it was clearly demonstrated
that 350.org’s sole purpose for attending the conference in
Bolivia was to
literally
undermine the host
country’s official policy position on climate change (300
ppm, 1°C limit, etc.). After exhausting all resources to
have the “brand” (numeral 350) adopted as the
official target cited in the evolving text of the draft document
(350 ppm rather than 300 ppm), their efforts were finally
defeated after both Russow and I challenged the 350.org colonial
superiority at that evening’s plenary, which was packed
with Bolivian citizens. Ultimately, the pre-industrial
measurement of 280 ppm was rightfully added to the
document.[2]
Ironically, the Bolivian-hosted conference was created in direct
response to the December 2009 United Nations Climate Change
Conference (COP 15 or “Hopenhagen”) in Copenhagen,
Denmark, where Avaaz and 350.org, under the umbrella of
TckTckTck (a campaign created by
Havas advertising agency), undermined the necessary targets and
radical emission reductions courageously put forward by the some
of the Earth’s most vulnerable states. The Copenhagen
conference’s proposed climate goal was a full one degree
Celsius higher than the one put forth by the State of Bolivia,
thereby knowingly sentencing these populations to certain death
in order to maintain white Euro-American
privilege.[3]
While the State of Bolivia demanded that a 1°C temperature
increase not be exceeded, and the G77 called for severe,
radical and
necessary emission cuts, the non-profit industrial complex
(NPIC), including most “climate justice” groups
called for double this: the target of a full 2°C temperature
increase. A few of the more legitimate groups barely mustered the
valour to “demand” the world not exceed 1.5°C. One
may wish to note that over 20 years ago, both
Greenpeace
and Friends of the Earth fully recognized the
global average temperature increase must not exceed 1°C
(as clearly
evidenced in documents). Yet at
COP15, two decades later with climate change advancing rapidly,
both groups under the TckTckTck
umbrella participated in the
2°C
lie[4] and the
manipulation
of civil society.[5]
Part II |
“Capitalism as Pathology: The Illusory "Green Economy"
vs People Solutions,” youtube, 25 Nov 2012
Raw Footage, Lumumba Di-Aping, December 11, 2009 [Running time: 12:30]
“I would rather die with my dignity than sign a deal that
will channel my people into a furnace.” —Lumumba
Di-Aping
One of the most inspiring leaders present at the COP15 was the
ever so eloquent Lumumba Di-Aping, chief negotiator of the G77.
(The G77 bloc is the major group of developing countries, many of
which are among the most threatened by effects of climate change,
as well as the largest developing country bloc represented at the
COP15.) Although Di-Aping was Sudanese by birth, his parents (who
called themselves “Lumumbist”) named Di-Aping after
the famous Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. (Lumumba, the
anti-colonialist democratically-elected prime minister of the
Congo, was assassinated in 1960 having been deemed a severe
threat by the U.S. due to his uncompromising ideas of freedom and
African unity. He played a leading role in the struggle for the
liberation of Africa and all of Africa’s resources.)
At the historic press conference which took place on November 11,
2009 in Copenhagen, Di-Aping addressed the international NGO
community. The conference room was packed with representatives of
the non-profit industrial complex and corporate media complex,
which includes the so-called progressive media. In a most direct
approach, Di-Aping asked NGOs to support the demand that
developed countries cut emissions 52% by 2017; 65% by 2020; and
80% by 2030 (based on a 1990 baseline). Further, Di-Aping asked
the NGOs to demand GHG emission cuts well above 100% by 2050,
which would (perhaps) keep the global temperature from exceeding
a rise of no more than 1.5°C. These targets, if met, would
perhaps allow Africa to merely stay alive.
A 2°C rise in global temperature, which the non-profit
industrial complex campaigned upon, would mean a 3.5ºC rise for
Africa. This temperature is certain death for the African peoples
–certain death for billions. In addition, a 2ºC global
temperature rise guarantees a minimum 4ºC+ global temperature for
future generations. In the film footage provided below, one bears
witness to Di-Aping speaking directly to the Climate Action
Network (International) representatives.
One must note the disturbing irony. After the press conference
was finished, a standing ovation erupted. The room shook with an
audience both inspired and enraptured. Depending on one’s
depth of understanding of foundations, corporate power structures
and the non-profit industrial complex, one may or may not be
surprised at what happened afterwards, which was, quite simply,
nothing. The white ivory towers, ever so acquiescent to their
hegemonic rulers, wrote off the African people by continuing
their “demand” for “a fair, ambitious, binding
agreement.” In other words: “Sorry about your bad
luck, Africa. Enjoy your future of hell on Earth ... and screw
you.”
The non-profit industrial complex, with CAN and TckTckTck at the
forefront, stuck to their 2°C and other suicidal (non)targets.
The climate justice groups dared on occasion to demand that
temperatures not exceed 1.5ºC, while any discussion demanding
that 1°C be supported and campaigned upon sent this faction,
too, running scared like frightened field mice. Climate justice
amounted to nothing more than a branded trademark. Silence and
compliance reigned as the champagne circuit discussed career
options over cocktails.
Below are excerpts from the only transcript that exists.
“The second issue is the issue of reductions of emissions.
There must be radical reductions of emissions starting from now.
In our view, by 2017 we should cut, developed countries must cut
by 52%, 65% by 2020, 80% by 2030, well above 100 [percent] by
2050. And this is very important because the more you defer
action the more you condemn millions of people to immeasurable
suffering. So the idea that you start from 4% today and you
achieve 80 or 50 in 2050 simply means that you do not care about
the lives of those who will be devastated in this period, until
you pick up the pace.
“... and I will say this to our colleagues from Western
civil society – you have definitely sided with a small
group of industrialists and their representatives and your
representative branches. Nothing more than that. You have become
an instrument of your governments. Whatever you say, whether you
think it’s because it’s tactically shrewd or not,
it’s an error that you should not continue to make.
“So ask yourself, are your executive branches climate
skeptics, notwithstanding their addresses like the prime minister
of the UK that the cost of inaction on climate change is
irreparable. His actions say he’s worse than the worst of
climate skeptics. If he had asked bankers to pocket 300 billion
dollars because of ‘incentivizing’ profit-seeking
activities and he says 500 million is the maximum that the United
Kingdom government can afford to pay to support climate change,
what are we saying? What are you saying? I wonder what the
distinguished colleagues from CAN are saying about that.
“Many of you equally, and I will say this, and I would have
never thought that one day I will accuse a civil society of such
a thing. Dividing the G77, or helping divide the G77, is simply
something that should be left to the CIAs, the KGBs and the rest
[not the NGOs].
“It’s mind boggling, and I say this having been the
beneficiary of absolute support from civil society. Many of you
may not know this, I come from southern Sudan. We’ve been
through wars for almost 90% of our lives since independence, so
I’m not sure what happened exactly to the civil society
that I do know or at least knew.
“If you have received help that enabled you to rebuild your
economies and to become prosperous, how come suddenly you have
turned mean? Because that 2.5 billion dollars is definitely what
some of the big western industrialists lose without a sleep over
a trade [lose over a trade without losing any sleep].”
“Developed countries shall take the lead and strive
towards returning greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere
to well below 300 ppm CO2eq with a view to returning
concentrations to levels as close as possible to pre-industrial
levels in the longer-term, and to limit the average global
temperatures to a maximum level of 1°C with a view to returning
temperatures to levels as close as possible to pre-industrial
levels in the longer-term, with deep and adequate economy wide
emissions reductions in the medium and long terms and taking
effective measures to fulfill their commitments relating to the
provision of substantial financial resources, capacity building
and to provide technology development and transfer of
environmentally sound technologies and know how to developing
country Parties. These enabling means are critical and an
important measure to enhance the contribution and voluntary
efforts of developing country Parties to the efforts of
stabilizing of greenhouse gas concentrations in the
atmosphere.” Paragraph 2, Section “A. Shared vision
for long-term cooperative action,” in
“Submission
by the Plurinational State of Bolivia to the Ad-Hoc Working
Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action”
See the explication of this in
“Exposé | The 2° Death Dance - The 1° Cover-Up,”
Part I (10 Dec 2010)
and
Part II (24 Dec 2010),
by Cory Morningstar, The Art of Annihilation
