ENVIRONMENT:
SHAKING UP THE FINANCIAL DISTRICT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT:


Happening next Tuesday, a 'noise demo' in Toronto sending a message to the corporate elite who are responsible for environmental degradation. Here's the promo...
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Shaking Up the Financial District
Time Tuesday, December 7 · 4:00pm - 7:00pm

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Location Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, ON

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More Info
Shaking Up the Financial District:
Celebrating Community Sovereignty and Environmental Justice in Toronto

Think climate change is a problem?
Think tar sands are unacceptable?
...Tired of false solutions and undemocratic policy from government and industry?

JOIN US: Dec. 7th at NATHAN PHILLIPS SQUARE, 4pm
***Please bring pots and pans for making noise and please dress up creatively to help rock the party!***

In opposition to the False Solutions promoted through the Copenhagen Accord, La Via Campesina, a global movement of peasant farmers, has called for 1000 Cancuns, an international day of solidarity actions on December 7th in support of the social movements in the global south who are converging on Cancun to fight for climate and environmental justice.

This summer we took to the streets of Toronto as part of ongoing struggle for economic and migrant justice, gender justice, environmental justice, indigenous sovereignty, and justice for our communities. By coming together as one diverse but united group, we showed how strong we can be. As the puppets of global capital were cowering behind security fences and hired thugs, the real power was in the streets... it was ours.

Now the same brokers of the global financial system are gathering in Cancun to continue negotiations for the next international climate treaty. Instead of working through the consensus process of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the large industrial countries have created their own side-agreement called the Copenhagen Accord and are now bullying everyone they can to submit to a deal which will be the doom of us all.

Canada sabotaged climate negotiations in Copenhagen while building the most destructive project on earth, the tar sands gigaproject. This year, the government of Canada undemocratically killed Bill C-311, the Climate Accountability Act, voted down Bill C-300 - an act to hold Canadian mining companies to account for human and environmental rights violations and signed an empty UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by excluding the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent. Government and industry are digging up our country and the planet while ignoring the global climate crisis.

Fighting for climate and environmental justice means standing together to say we will not allow indigenous people to be forced off their land through carbon market forest deals, we will not allow the lives and health of poor people to be endangered while social programs are slashed, we will not let farmers have their crops threatened by unpredictable weather patterns and corporate control, will not allow forced migration of the inhabitants of small island and low-lying nations as their homelands drown under rising seas, we will not let our most valuable resources, be it clean water or sacred homelands go up for sale,and we will not let those in power to silence our fight for the justice for people and the planet, we call upon our allies to join us as we march on the financial district to MAKE SOME NOISE and remind them just who owns the streets in Toronto.

In Sol,
Environmental Justice Toronto

LOCAL EVENTS WINNIPEG:

CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE PROVINCES FORUM:

Here's an upcoming public forum to be held here in Winnipeg on August 4. I have to say that this sort of thing makes me somewhat "itchy" and not just because its sponsors such as the 'Council of Canadians' are in most other circumstances advocates of centralization in the Canadian federation. It's also because their presumed "strategy" of reducing carbon emissions via delegation of responsibility to the provinces would only get 'self-interested support' in an unequivocal manner in two Canadian provinces - Québec and Manitoba. Their invocation of Ontario is, in my mind doubtful even with Ontario's commitment to nuclear power thrown in for good measure, and as for the other provinces..forget it. I could go on and on about the "political illusion" here, but I'll leave that to the readers' imagination. I also think that arguments about provincial/federal responsibilities in terms of power generation are very much beside the point as the real argument is local/municipal versus all other levels of government. The old anarchist argument about localism versus statism. All that aside here's the promo for the meeting.

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Public forum on Trade threats to provincial leadership on climate change

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Location Buchwald room, Millenium Library .
251 Donald St.
Winnipeg, MB

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Wednesday, August 4

7:00 – 9:00 pm

Buchwald Room, Millennium Library ( 251 Donald Street )
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Faced with federal impotence on the climate file, Canada 's provinces are taking independent steps to reduce their carbon consumption. At the same time, new international trade agreements, such as the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), that the provinces are actively negotiating alongside the Harper government threaten to undermine these new provincial efforts to mitigate climate change.



The Ontario Green Energy Act, which prioritizes locally produced renewable energy, is one example of the kind of forward-looking policy the provinces should be adopting. But European trade negotiators are putting enormous pressure on federal and provincial governments to get rid of local content or sustainable sourcing requirements that are necessary to help Canadian communities and companies transition away from dirty energy, and create good, green jobs. Efforts to phase-out tar sands production are also compromised by these trade agreements.



On the eve of the 2010 meeting of the Council of the Federation in Winnipeg, come learn more about this provincial contradiction -- between a need to move further and faster than the Harper government on climate change and a willingness to compromise environmental policy in trade deals -- and why the provincial governments need to reject any trade deals with Europe or other countries that threaten their shift toward sustainability.


Featuring:
Steve Guilbeault, Co - Founder and Deputy Director, Equiterre
Brendan Reimer, Prairies & Northern Territories Coordinator, CCEDNet
Stuart Trew, National Trade Campaigner, Council of Canadians


Presented by the Council of Candians Winnipeg Chapter and Climate Action Network Canada - Reseau action climat Canada

AMERICAN POLITICS:

OBAMA MISSES THE GREEN:

It's been almost one year on, and the sheen is starting to fade from the 'Obama Golden Boy' belief. the man receives an embarrassing 'Nobel Peace Prize' while overseeing not one but two wars. Nothing much happens domestically except a continuation of the massive bailouts to corporate America begun under the previous Administration. The only serious domestic reform-health care ie joining the civilized world- is gutted in the service of the usual special interests while the President sits Buddha-like as the dead is done.

If it was not apparent before it should be apparent now that America's political culture suffers from an illness that goes beyond the left/right divide. The illness is that image has become all, and that there is no substance in the pronouncements of pretty well any politician. Certainly other countries also suffer from this disease, but the USA has travelled furthest along the road. Obama is basically a triumph of image over substance. To be quite frank he said very little in terms of real policy while running for the post of Emperor, aside from the promise to close Guantanamo which has yet to be fulfilled. If it is it means merely transferring the whole atrocity, lock stock and barrel, to Illinois. People on the "progressive side" of the political divide were, more often than not (unless they had an 'ideological halter' such as anarchism), swept up in the romance of Obama's campaign, especially as the alternative was so unappealing.

Now the gloss has fallen off, and it will continue to fall in the years to come. Here is an article written by Naomi Klein for The Nation about another aspect of the Obama failure ie how his "green rhetoric" has not risen to the point of deeds.

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For Obama, No Opportunity Too Big To Blow:
posted by Naomi Klein

Contrary to countless reports, the debacle in Copenhagen was not everyone's fault. It did not happen because human beings are incapable of agreeing, or are inherently self-destructive. Nor was it all was China's fault, or the fault of the hapless UN.

There's plenty of blame to go around, but there was one country that possessed unique power to change the game. It didn't use it. If Barack Obama had come to Copenhagen with a transformative and inspiring commitment to getting the U.S. economy off fossil fuels, all the other major emitters would have stepped up. The EU, Japan, China and India had all indicated that they were willing to increase their levels of commitment, but only if the U.S. took the lead.

Instead of leading, Obama arrived with embarrassingly low targets and the heavy emitters of the world took their cue from him.

(The "deal" that was ultimately rammed through was nothing more than a grubby pact between the world's biggest emitters: I'll pretend that you are doing something about climate change if you pretend that I am too. Deal? Deal.)

I understand all the arguments about not promising what he can't deliver, about the dysfunction of the U.S. Senate, about the art of the possible. But spare me the lecture about how little power poor Obama has. No President since FDR has been handed as many opportunities to transform the U.S. into something that doesn't threaten the stability of life on this planet. He has refused to use each and every one of them. Let's look at the big three.

Blown Opportunity Number 1:

The Stimulus Package

When Obama came to office he had a free hand and a blank check to design a spending package to stimulate the economy. He could have used that power to fashion what many were calling a "Green New Deal" -- to build the best public transit systems and smart grids in the world. Instead, he experimented disastrously with reaching across the aisle to Republicans, low-balling the size of the stimulus and blowing much of it on tax cuts. Sure, he spent some money on weatherization, but public transit was inexplicably short changed while highways that perpetuate car culture won big.
Blown Opportunity Number 2:

The Auto Bailouts

Speaking of the car culture, when Obama took office he also found himself in charge of two of the big three automakers, and all of the emissions for which they are responsible. A visionary leader committed to the fight against climate chaos would obviously have used that power to dramatically reengineer the failing industry so that its factories could build the infrastructure of the green economy the world desperately needs. Instead Obama saw his role as uninspiring down-sizer in chief, leaving the fundamentals of the industry unchanged.
Blown Opportunity Number 3:

The Bank Bailouts

Obama, it's worth remembering, also came to office with the big banks on their knees -- it took real effort not to nationalize them. Once again, if Obama had dared to use the power that was handed to him by history, he could have mandated the banks to provide the loans for factories to be retrofitted and new green infrastructure to be built. Instead he declared that the government shouldn't tell the failed banks how to run their businesses. Green businesses report that it's harder than ever to get a loan.

Imagine if these three huge economic engines -- the banks, the auto companies, the stimulus bill -- had been harnessed to a common green vision. If that had happened, demand for a complementary energy bill would have been part of a coherent transformative agenda.

Whether the bill had passed or not, by the time Copenhagen had rolled around, the U.S. would already have been well on its way to dramatically cutting emissions, poised to inspire, rather than disappoint, the rest of the world.

There are very few U.S. Presidents who have squandered as many once-in-a-generation opportunities as Barack Obama. More than anyone else, the Copenhagen failure belongs to him.

Research support for Naomi Klein's reporting from Copenhagen was provided by the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute.

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MOLLY NOTE:

Klein is, of course, a 'left social democrat' with all the illusions that follow from that position. Like most people in her ideological camp she makes genuflections to "self-managed socialism" while, at the same time, harbouring illusions about both the power of and the realism of massive state action to "direct this grassroots democracy". All that being said, her criticisms of the Obama Administration have just as much force as if they were advanced from a more libertarian position. In other words, all that she has said is true. It's just that I, as an anarchist, am not surprised at the choices that Obama has made. A lot of "the left" feels betrayed. That is unrealistic. The Emperor is, after all, the Emperor, and it is not unexpected that he continues policies that benefit the ruling strata of the Empire. It would be surprising if the converse was the case.

INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-POLAND:

CLIMATE CHANGE AND ANARCHISM:

Last December 6 Polish anarchists joined the "climate change parade" in the Polish city of Poznan. To say the least they had different viewpoints and different solutions to the problem than others who took part. Here's an article from the Polish Centrum Informacji Anarchistycznej via the A-Infos website that tells the story.

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Poland, Anarchists Take Part in Climate Change Parade in Poznan:
On Dec. 6, some NGOs and some political parties or "paraparties" held a parade in support of the climate change conference COP14 which is being held in Poznan, Poland. The parade started out rather modestly, with around 300 people but was joined by hundreds of conference participators, mostly internationals which doubled or even tripled its size as it reached the place of the conference.

Unfortunately, the parade, which was meant as a show of "support for the negotiations" was dominated by liberal wishy-washy politics. Prior to the parade there were problems with the organizers who were panicked about potential anarchist violence (in part provoked by exaggerated macho bravado of anarchists). There were different opinions as to whether to join the march or not, but the local anarchists decided to join. Besides local anarchists, a group from Warsaw came, including samba players. Some Warsaw anarchists planned only to do their own thing and boycott the liberals' march, but on seeing that others were determined to go on the demo, they went as well. Although it is hard to tell who was in this black bloc and who was just walking near it, it was at least 60-100 people, thus much bigger than the Green Party and some of the other groups officially organizing it.

However, the demo was still dominated by the Oxfam/ Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth types. A large number of these people were dressed as clowns. The liberal clowns were surely entertaining for passersby, but, for anybody actually interested in the politics of the issues, the different demonstrators were giving totally different messages. A small debate broke out between a number of American Greenpeace activists and anarchists because they were wearing Obama stickers and buttons and bullshitting about how Obama was going to bring about a green revolution. (Similar stuff was printed in the Green Party's newspaper which was given out widely to passerbys.) One member of Union of Syndicalists (ZSP) handed out leaflets in English as well to the international participants, most of whom were delegates to the conference, calling for direct action instead of lobbying and calling for an end to government and capitalism.

The anarchists had a banner which read "Climate Change Requires System Change" and chanted slogans against capitalism and calling the conference participants hypocrites. The former slogan was controversial amongst some of the liberals since many conference participants were on the march. The tactics amongst the anarchists therefore were also different since, although all were against the politicians, some were aggressive towards the NGO people and others were more interested in presenting a different view to them. In terms of political approach, the anarchists again presented different opinion, with some of them supporting the idea spread by the Polish government that CO2 caps will hurt Polish industry and lead to job loss and others challenging this idea. However they were united in their opposition to lobbying and government talks as a solution and in the idea that capitalism has got to go.

Some members of Anarchist Federation and Workers' Initiative, as well as non-aligned anarchists took part in the Black Bloc. Members of Union Syndicalists prepared lots of different booklets calling for direct action and organizing in Polish and English which they handed out to people on the street as well as to many of the liberal NGO types and leftists.

Photos are here:

http://foto.rozbrat.org/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=9395

INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-DENMARK:

A CALL FOR CLIMATE ACTION:

The following appeal is from the Klimax2009.org group. They are planning a mobilization that will take place along with the UN's climate change conference in November of next year. Their website is mostly in Danish, but there are some items in English.

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Denmark, Copenhagen climate action:

At the 13th and 14th of September, there had been a meeting of around 100 people from different regions of Europe in Copenhagen to plan grassroots and anarchist climate actions coordinated around the cop15 summit that takes place next year in Copenhagen. There was the wish to distribute this call especially to environmental grassroots / anarchist groups and collectives from eastern Europe, because they were not that strong present on this first meeting. So i forward you this call. If you are interested or need information, contact me or sign in the mailing list they just started.

---- From Hamburg, a3yo

---- A Call to Climate Action:

---- We stand at a crossroads. The facts are clear. Global climate change, caused by human activities, is happening, threatening the lives and livelihoods of billions of people and the existence of millions of species. Social movements, environmental groups, and scientists from allover the world are calling for urgent and radical action on climate change.

On the 30th of November, 2009 the governments of the world will come to Copenhagen for the fifteenth UN Climate Conference (COP-15). This will be the biggest summit on climate change ever to have taken place. Yet,previous meetings have produced nothing more than business as usual.

There are alternatives to the current course that is emphasizing false solutions such as market-based approaches and agrofuels. If we put humanity before profit and solidarity above competition we can live amazing lives without destroying our planet. We need to leave fossil fuels in the ground. Instead we must invest in community-controlled renewable energy. We must stop over-production for over-consumption. All should have equal access to the global commons through community control and sovereignty over energy, forests, land and water. And of course we must acknowledge the historical responsibility of the global elite and rich Global North for causing this crisis. Equity between North and South is essential.

Climate change is already impacting people, particularly women, indigenous and forest-dependent peoples, small farmers, marginalized communities and impoverished neighborhoods who are also calling for action on climate- and social justice. This call was taken up by activists and organizations from 21 countries that came together in Copenhagen over the weekend of 13-14 September, 2008 to begin discussions for a mobilization in Copenhagen during the UN’s 2009 climate conference.

The 30th of November, 2009 is also the tenth anniversary of the World Trade Organization (WTO) shutdown in Seattle, which shows the power of globally coordinated social movements. We call on all peoples around the planet to mobilize and take action against the root causes of climate change and the key agents responsible both in Copenhagen and around the world. This mobilization begins now,until the COP-15 summit, and beyond. The mobilizations in Copenhagen and around the world are still in the planning stages. We have time to collectively decide what these mobilizations will look like, and to begin to visualize what our future can be. Get involved!

We encourage everyone to start mobilizing today in your own neighborhoods and communities. It is time to take the power back. The power is in our hands. Hope is not just a feeling, it is also about taking action.

To get involved in this ongoing and open process, sign up to this email list: climateaction@klimax2009.org

THE CONSERVATIVES AND NUCLEAR POWER:

AN ANALYSIS AT THE HARPER INDEX:

The Harper Index, your microscope on the bacteriological world of the Harper government, has a recent article on the efforts of the Conservative government to resurrect the nuclear power option in Canada. If successful this will, of course, result in many billions of dollars in corporate welfare available at taxpayer expense to government subsidized industries that would be totally unprofitable if they actually had to finance the projects themselves. Perhaps it might even convince many corporations that their donations are better given to the Tories than the competive business party, the Grits. As the article points out the development of the nuclear option is also important for the continued (over)development of the Tar Sands, and also is a golden opportunity for the Conservatives to "appear" to be doing something about carbon emissions. The full article 'Energy endorsement may be linked to tar sands and climate change pressure' can be seen at http://www.harperindex.ca/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=0057

CLIMATE CHANGE RESOURCES:
While looking over the latest edition of Scientific American to arrive at her door Molly came across an article entitled 'Conservative Climate' (Scientific American, April 2007, pp16-19). The article is all about how the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting in Paris on February 2, 2007 perhaps understated the effects of future climate change. The IPCC has continued to issue reports about their deliberations, the latest being 'Confronting Climate Change' on Feb. 27th. This report goes further than the initial report in that it addresses policy recommendations while the original report addressed only the scientific issues.





What Molly found most interesting about the article was how the SciAm report contrasted with numerous articles in what I call the "trash-con" press soon after the original report was issued in February. The trash-con press is basically those propaganda organs that "pretend" to a conservative view while, in actuality, trying desperately to make as much money as possible by catering to the lowest intelligence level and most violent emotions amongst the "conservative audience". You know-hang me high!, the "lib-conspiracy", the Papal infallibility of America, the etc.,etc.,etc.. These people give conservativism a very bad name. Just like every family every political position has its "trash relatives" in the family skeleton closet. Anarchism has its primmies, post-leftists and insurrectionists. Leftism has its unrepentant Stalinists. The difference is that you can add up the audiences of the anarcho-nuts and the Jurassic commies, and their combined audience multiplied by 10,000 wouldn't equal the audience of the trash-con publications. As the old saying goes, like Coca-Cola, Christ on the cross and syphilis these buggers are everywhere.





What Molly remembers in particular is that publications like the National Post and the Winnipeg Sun devoted "insults"(no better term is available) to the idea that there was "disagreement" amongst the scientists represented in Paris. The SciAm article points out where this disagreement came from ie from the delegations from China (more coal !) and from Saudi Arabia (more guess what !). Neither country is exactly famous for freedom of scientific inquiry.
So...in addition to the two reports mentioned above which can be accesssed from their websites so that you can see the original rather than some distorted version in the press Molly has decided to present the following resources for her readers. In our Links section the websites of the sponsoring organizations have been included in some cases rather than the original text given here. In all cases the text or page is readily accessible from the website in our 'Scientific Links' section:

1. Global Warming Facts and Our Future from the Marian Koshland Science Museum
2. Woods Hole Research Center, a site devoted to research on global sustainability.
3. Global Climate Change Resources from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
4. Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, a report produced for the Treasury of Great Britain.

5. Global Warming by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the US government.

As the astute reader can see none of the above are frothing, drooling ideologues fantasizing about the end of civilization and how they will direct other people's lives in that Gotterdamerung. These are resources that point towards the best of the worldwide scientific consensus on this matter, and they may be helpful in judging just how far from reality trash-con publications on this matter are.

Molly