‘Paris and Peace’ by Vendana Shiva, from asianage.com
“Land, water and agriculture-related conflicts are deliberately mutated into religious conflicts to protect the militarised agriculture model which has unleashed a global war against people”
There is a deep and intimate connection between the events of November 13 [Paris attacks] and the ecological devastation unleashed by the fossil fuel era of human history. The same processes that contribute to climate change also contribute towards growing violence amongst people. Both are results of a war against the Earth.
Industrial agriculture is a fossil fuel-based system which contributes more than 40 per cent of the greenhouse gases leading to climate change. Along with the globalised food system, industrial agriculture is to be blamed for at least 50 per cent of the global warming.
Synthetic nitrogen fertilisers are based on fossil fuels and use the same chemical processes used to make explosives and ammunition. Manufacturing one kilogram of nitrogen fertiliser requires the energy equivalent to two litres of diesel. Energy used during fertiliser manufacture was equivalent to 191 billion litres of diesel in 2000 and is projected to rise to 277 billion in 2030. Synthetic fertiliser, used for industrial agriculture, is a major contributor to climate change — it starts destroying the planet long before it reaches a field. Yet the dominant narrative is that synthetic fertilisers feed us and without them people will starve. The fertiliser industry says that “they produce bread from air”. This is incorrect.
Nature and humans have evolved many non-violent, effective and sustainable ways to provide nitrogen to soil and plants. For example, pulses and beans are nitrogen-fixing crops. Bacteria named rhizobia, which exists in the nodules of their roots, converts atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia and then into organic compounds to be used by the plant for growth.”
Then she gives a detailed explanation of sustainable organic farming methods, soil and nitrogen building as a zero cost climate solution.
“Ecologically non-sustainable models of agriculture, dependent on fossil fuels, have been imposed through “aid” and “development” projects in the name of Green Revolution. As soil and water are destroyed, ecosystems that produced food and supported livelihoods can no longer sustain societies. As a result, there’s anger, discontent, frustration, protests and conflicts. However, land, water and agriculture-related conflicts are repeatedly and deliberately mutated into religious conflicts to protect the militarised agriculture model, which has unleashed a global war against the earth and people.”
She of course segues to examples of war underpinned by drought, water scarcity, and crop failures, partially brought on the violence of Peace Prize recipient Norman Borlaug’s chemical-based Green Revolution. Then this poignant ending:
“For me, COP21 is a pilgrimage of peace — to remember all the innocent victims of the wars against the land and people; to develop the capacity to reimagine that we are one and refuse to be divided by race and religion; to see the connections between ecological destruction, growing violence and wars that are engulfing our societies. We must remember that there will be no peace between people if we do not make peace with the Earth.”
Borlaug’s Wiki ‘critics page’ is here.
How many individuals and civil society groups made similar pilgrimages to Paris to make their voices and manifestos heard, including those speaking for peace? Was the combined global military carbon footprint even mentioned? Likely not, as while gathered together, any ‘military’ talk would likely been about #stoppingISIS™, and lans for dealing with the insurgencies as climate change refugees and desperation hit further. But a to ‘who was heard’ in Paris, from December 8, 2015 ‘Paris Agreement De-Legitimate Even Before It Is Concluded’ by Curtis FJ Doebbler, visiting professor of international law at the University of Makeni, Webster University (Geneva) and the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations
Doebbler writes of the promises made in preparatory meetings in October and November claiming maximum transparency and openness, but:
“Nevertheless, when COP21 started, the first week as a resumed ADP session, the meetings were officially closed to observers. As no State objected and the 134 member G77+ China had prominently urged the ADP Chairs and later the French COP21 President to allow observers into the room, a handful of observers attended late night negotiating session informally and were never asked to leave the room. On Saturday, 5 December, at the end of the first week, this bad situation changed even for the worse. Guards, in some cases, armed guards, were posted on the doors of meeting rooms were formal negotiating sessions were taking place with orders to prevent observers from observing. Meetings were now closed-door meetings by threat of use of force.
Ironically, on rare occasions where overflow rooms were setup, State Party delegates were banned in what appeared to be an effort to ensure complete segregation. Observers could not observe the negotiations, now they could no longer even interact with State delegates if they wanted to watch the main sessions (not the detailed negotiations). Oddly, instead of webcasting the meetings, it was agreed that they should be broadcast only on screens within the huge airport complex. Where any given meeting was being broadcast was always a guessing game. [snip]
Some of the most important substantive issues are now being decided behind closed doors. These include issues such as whether or not adequate action will be taken to prevent the death of an estimated 155,000,000 people by 2100 from the adverse effects of climate change, whether developed States will be held responsible for failing to live up to the principles and commitments they already agreed to in the UNFCCC in 1992, whether developed States will be able to excluded their responsibility for almost two hundred years of over exploitation of the planet’s atmosphere, or whether a commitment will be made to provide at least the US$ 100 billion developed States agreed to provide for climate finance by 2020. [snip]
The effort to exclude observers have come under criticism from human rights quarters. United Nations’ independent expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order, Mr. Alfred de Zayas, stated that, “The meaningful participation of civil society in the international climate negotiations is essential to achieving a just and sustainable international order.” He also issued a press release Monday expressing “his concern at reports coming to him from several civil society actors … that indicate that they are being blocked from attending crucial negotiating sessions” at COP21. The UN expert goes on to point out that articles 19, providing for freedom of expression, and 25, providing for participation rights, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, were being interfered with.
He says that the European Union nations and even the bloody USian United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and environment supported the exclusions.
From a Dec. 5 press release: ‘Indigenous Rights on Chopping Block of UN COP21 Paris Climate Accord’, at Indigenousrising.org, key snippets:
“The inclusion of the rights of Indigenous Peoples text, in addition to Human Rights text is crucial. A Western, non-Indigenous evaluation of Human Rights does not necessarily adequately protect our rights as Indigenous Peoples,” states Princess Daazhraii Johnson, REDOIL Alaska spokesperson.
“Many of our Indigenous peoples still live off the land, living a subsistence-based lifestyle. And given that many of the world’s fossil fuel reserves are on or adjacent to Indigenous lands, we must protect our collective rights to self-determine our relationship to Mother Earth by rejecting false solutions to addressing climate change,” concluded Ms. Johnson.
In addition, many countries do not recognize the collective rights of Indigenous Peoples as Human Rights. The Western international human rights system is oriented towards individual rights, and so a general reference to human rights does not adequately protect the collective rights of Indigenous Peoples.
“At the moment the rights of Indigenous Peoples all over the globe are being violated by ‘green climate projects’ – such as hydropower dams – in the name of ‘climate mitigation’. If such violations are happening now, imagine what will come with a legally binding document, where the rights of Indigenous Peoples are not guaranteed,” stated Eriel Deranger, member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. [snip]
With the draft Paris agreement heavily focused on voluntary market-based technological solutions – such as forest and conservation offsets – Indigenous Peoples are gravely concerned that without concrete Indigenous Rights language (and safeguards from privatisation) codified in the operative text, they will be further displaced from their lands. Green economy schemes (like the World bank REDD+) provide financial mechanisms for industrialised nations to justify expansion of fossil fuel regimes – such as Canada’s controversial Tar Sands giga-project in Northern Alberta, or offshore drilling in Alaska’s outer continental shelf. This disproportionately impacts Indigenous Peoples of the North, all the while simultaneously privatising Indigenous Peoples lands in the South for the purposes of laundering Western carbon pollution, via the above mentioned forest and conservation offsets.”
But they are demonstrating for their demands to heard. By the way, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau is advocating for them, and good on him. He also says that he will open diligent investigations into the missing 1200+ aboriginal women over the course of two decades. Take that, Stephen Harper! At about 11:00 a.m. MST:
three hours earlier:
Given what we know the Pentagon, IMF, World Bank, and other Rulers of the Universe know about food scarcity and water insecurity as creating insurrections, vast numbers of climate refugees, it’s easy to hope that COP21 is addressing those issues as ‘critical’, yes?
From the Guardian: ‘Food at COP21: three new initiatives spotlight food insecurity, soils, waste Food was high on the agenda at the Paris climate talks this week—here are some of the highlights’
Well, yes, apparently the interest was so high that agriculture had its own dedicated focus-day, held on Tuesday by the Lima-Paris Action Agenda.
“On Tuesday at COP21 the World Food Program and the U.K.’s Met Office Hadley Centre launched a new, interactive mapping tool that predicts, in unprecedented detail, how future climate scenarios could influence food security, especially in the world’s developing nations.” [snip]
“The map also shows what can be achieved if reduced emissions are paired with increased adaptive measures—like climate-smart agriculture—to make food systems more secure. “What’s most important, especially in the context of Paris, is that mitigation or adaption alone is not enough,” Choularton says. “We need a very serious combination of both.”
But bless Teresa Anderson’s heart; from the Guardian: ‘Why ‘climate-smart agriculture’ isn’t all it’s cracked up to be; It’s a buzzword beloved by corporations but there is nothing to ensure “climate-smart” means good for the environment’
“There’s a new phrase in town. A growing number of governments, corporations and NGOs are using the term “climate-smart agriculture” to describe their activities. With climate change affecting farming worldwide, you might assume we should be celebrating this as a step in the right direction.
But many organisations in the food movement are wary of – or even opposed to – this concept. They share growing concerns that the term is being used to green-wash practices that are, in fact, damaging for the climate and for farming. Many are worried that the promotion of “climate-smart agriculture” could end up doing more harm than good.
At the United Nations secretary general’s climate summit in New York last month, heads of state such as President Barack Obama referred to the need for “climate-smart” crops to weather the challenges ahead. The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, announced the launch of the new Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture, involving governments, corporations, research institutes and NGOs. [snip]
Proponents of “climate-smart agriculture” claim that their approaches aim to achieve a “triple win” of increasing food security, adaptation and mitigation. So far so good, right? Actually, no.” [snip]
“A letter signed by more than 100 civil society organisations rejecting the newly-announced Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture, points out that industrial agriculture approaches that increase greenhouse gas emissions are all welcome to use the climate-smart label to promote their practices as solutions to climate change.
“Yara (the world’s largest fertiliser manufacturer), Syngenta (GM seeds), McDonald’s, and Walmart are all at the climate-smart table,” the letter warns. “Climate-smart agriculture will serve as a new promotional space for the planet’s worst social and environmental offenders in agriculture.”
The world’s largest peasant farmers’ movement, La Via Campesina, has rejected the concept as an effort to push an agribusiness agenda under a green mask.
There is no doubt that food systems urgently need to adapt to changing weather patterns, and that certain parts of the food sector are major contributors to climate change. We need real solutions that replace harmful practices instead of promoting them.
Above all, we need systemic change. But it is hard to envision that the corporations leading the climate-smart charge are really aiming for localised, low-input, agroecological food systems that they would no longer control.”
Water concerns were high on the list of subjects at COP21? Only article I’d found was this: ‘Global drought: why is no one discussing fresh water at Cop21? In December, the UN’s conference on climate change gathers in Paris but the issue of fresh water is absent from the agenda. How can policymakers be brought onside?’
Well, water was kinda/sorta discussed, but this section seemed to be the way it was destined to go:
“Water projects that help communities adapt to climate change
The panellists suggested that the most effective way for water to be incorporated into climate policy would be through an action agenda where those working in the sector could show governments the types of water projects that could help communities mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.
Benedito Braga, president, World Water Council
“It’s important to demonstrate initiatives and good examples to drive the process – don’t depend on the decisions being made in Paris,” said Karin Lexén, director of World Water Week, International Process and Prizes. Benedito Braga, president of the World Water Council, agreed: “We need to have interesting proposals of projects on the ground, which means involving not only national governments, but also the private sector and the academic community.”
So I went googledy/binging for answers, and found that these folks at Alliance for Water were hoping against hope that COP 21 might seriously discuss wetlands as one answer.
“Wetlands have some of the highest carbon sequestration rates because wetland plants, like mangrove trees, are fast growing and productive. For example, coastal marshes and mangroves capture an average between 6 and 8 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per hectare per year, which is about two to four times greater than global rates observed in mature tropical forests.
Wetlands also have the ability to store greater quantities of carbon because they store dead wood and plant matter in the soil and the water logged conditions prevents the material from decomposing and releasing CO2. Peatlands, for example, cover 3% of the global land area, but contain approximately 30% of all the carbon on land, equivalent to 75% of all atmospheric carbon and twice the carbon stock in the global forest biomass.”, etc. Think the Gulf Coast’s destroyed wetlands and increased hurricane strength and damage, for instance.
File under Small Wonder: Via the Guardian, ‘Paris talks: indigenous people and small farmers say rich are setting the agenda; Poor communities on the climate change frontline say their voices are not being heard in Paris, and that more powerful groups are setting back their cause’
Is #AnyoneWhoMatters making speeches for buying less crap, using less energy, fewer city bright lights for advertising, increasing public transportation…or ‘living simply that others might simply live’? No, the market will take care of it. And some bogus false solutions that will aid the Lords of Capitalism while ruining the planet further. Loss and damage funds to those already ‘feeling the effects’?
It’s hard to know what to say except it was expected that the COP21 PTB would keep fiddling as the planet burns and the seas rise. Because: capitalism requirements, imo.
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
Lots of info there, thanks. Peculiar isn’t it, that we humans have this what many term an existential crisis on our hands and yet our so called leaders cannot collectively alter the course we’ve taken. Even though the ruling class’ have children and grand children, they still can’t halt their gravy trains for the sake of them and their futures. Almost like they believe their money and power will protect them even from a climate Armageddon. Or maybe they themselves don’t believe the very science they’re promoting.
tough question: why if they know as much as any of the rest of can know. power is blinding? refuse to acknowledge the effects of radiation poisoning b/c the immediately destructive effect of a nuclear weapon is so desirable? I mean, the Pentagon is not into climate change to work to prevent climate change. Their concern is how to mitigate its worst effects. Hell, they would/will weaponize it, if possible.
I’m also prepared to believe they sacrifice kittens and worse to their Lord Satan at the crossroads under the full moon. would’t surprise me. who really knows what goes on at Skull & Bones? ok, maybe it’s not Satanism, maybe it’s just an Ivy League education? it’s probably not just one thing, but it’s noteworthy that our finest schools churn out Obama’s & Rumsfelds & Henry K’s and LBJ’s at an alarming rate. and the War on the Earth is a Team Effort.
and we are still not done w/the Indigenous, are we? The Return of the Repressed.
not mine to answer, jason, but lust for money and lust for power are sides of the same coin. one question i’ve often asked if sociopathy can develop inside insular bubbles or during infancy that led to attachment disorders. not really answerable, i expect, but a friend in geneva holds the opinion that economics classes breed it, and as you say, ivy league law schools may as well. but you made me think if this quote and i dug it up:
‘I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.’
~ Michel de Montaigne
which would cover the failure of Our Rulers to grasp that murdering the earth’s biosphere, and poisoning her ‘gifts’ would eventually affect them and theirs….
I’m sorry for the loss of a guide in your life. I had never heard of him.
why do people do what we do? why do i go to an office and do something that is at best meaningless and usually something worse? all day long? lots of busy bees around here busy sitting in traffic. every day. Probably simply acting like other people is a big part of it, we are all in this traffic jam together, right? but the threat of having no food, etc., unless one makes positive contributions, aka a job, to global destruction is real. We convince ourselves we are doing what is right, good, etc., partly b/c we are just acting like everyone around us. obviously education as conformity factory is a big deal, too. deviance is pathologized in the family, school, etc. USaeans, US policy and the prospect of WW3 ginned up by US policy in Ukraine, Syria, Iran, Venezuela, etc…..well, that ain’t exactly fit water cooler talk at work, is it?
it’s 7 pm here. whoever can stand PBS’s gang on The News Hour, they are on. they are just so awful. Gwyn Ifill, Judy Woodruff, & co. ugh. They are doing a segment on how great Zuckerberg is. it’s just too much to handle. they are on about bergdahl. would that all god’s children were deserters.
dinner time! tuning out! TGIF!
thanks, jason. i did take trudell’s passing hard, and not only for the loss of more of his fine truth-telling poetry-to-music. he was instrumental in both the occupations of alcatraz around 1970, then wounded knee later on. first president of AIM, or whatever title it was. an avid defender of the earth, as well.
but if you have a change, listen to some of the songs mr. wd and i embedded in my rather shabby tribute to him; i think you might be moved.
ack, hard to hear that you aren’t doing work you love, or even like. i’d asked you that on some thread or other… mr. wd and i created our own self-employed work by the mid-70’s, and while that presented some problems, at least we loved what we had chosen most of the time.
it was kinda fun reading articles on how zuckerberg’s ‘magnificent billions donation to charity’ is actually a fine tax dodge, and he gets to make all the decisions where da money goes. prolly end up just like his NJ schools largesse: in technocrats’ pockets.
no, not likely water-cooler talk, more’s the pity, eh?
oof, yes, it turned out to be another ‘war and peace’ of climate change posts. i really did leave out a lot, i swear! ;-) lot on the ‘public/private partnerships’, heh, including reforesting africa. all that stuff can sound good until you did into what happened with earlier similar programs.
as to the incredible seeming disconnect given ‘they’ have chirren and grandchirren, i expect we could guess all day and be right in certain cases. but yep, carbon trades, REDD, with all the talk of innovation: that’s the one that’s of the most concern to me in some ways. more GMO drought-resistance crops, weird soil construction, etc., and dammit, i lost the link that showed all of that.
guess the final text was released, so i reckon the final two days will be champagne and caviar and a hella lot of back-slapping and jocularity.
but the intimate relationship between climate change disaster and ever-lasting war can’t be over-stated. tragically, for some, that may be just what the doctor (strangelove) ordered.
Your curation choices are excellent. Yes to the Vendana Shiva article, which ties together why the US DoD has tagged climate change as a national security issue. And once again remember that the US DoD is the largest consumer of fossil fuels in the world. (Thank Rickover for the nuclear navy, eh. ;-)
What the transparency and access of the COP21 sessions tells me is that the PTB are very frightened. They are beginning to realized that from 1980 onward they have effed up in a huge way and they don’t know how to walk it back or talk it down. And now they have the realization that Europe itself is devolving back to 1920s and 1930s era politics and the dissolution of the Eurozone and the European Union. The icing on the cake: Angela Merkel as Time’s person of the year. It seems that the Time person of the year usually signals the relevance kiss-of-death.
Well T. S. Eliot comes to mind as the poetry to fit COP21. Likely a whimper. Although the bang lobby is working hard.
thank you, and shiva is excellent as ever. she may know more than anyone alive about the disasters wrought by gates>>>monsanto in africa, factory farming, patenting of even wild and sacred plants in india (how does that work?), and the mass suicides of farmers coerced into planting bt cotton, for instance.
i am so grateful to curtis doebbler’s exposé on the total opacity in paris, and yes, i reckon you’re correct that fear is at the core of it. there’s quite a page of youtubes of her being interviewed in the vicinity of the conference. in this one the interviewers from Valhalla try to make the case that since it’s all bullshit there, it’s the power of ordinary people who will drive the solutions. wish i were as sanguine, given the emergency nature.
on edit: yes, to the U military carbon footprint, and TS elliot was by way of a time-traveler, yes? got a particular poem in mind?
T. S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men”
http://allpoetry.com/The-Hollow-Men
If you are not sanguine, you are in the same view as John Michael Greer and Dmitry Orlov. John Michael Greer is looking at non-apocalyptic forms of collapse of current capitalism (although he retains market mechanism in some of his scenarios).
All of those are post-collapse scenarios of recovery.
None constitute actual forecasts of what will happen; they are explorations of different decision paths.
Interesting about Adbusters D19. In late 2011, they put out a similar call and 1500 people occupied Zucotti Park. My guess is that the PTB are tracking responses to this more closely this time. 1 billion people is one-seventh of humanity. If Adbusters is even on their rader, some governments might respond. I guess this is the moment to see how many in the environmental movement are open to larger coalitions to actually get things done. If there are indeed 10 million villages, 100 people in each would make that billion. Is there sufficient smartphone and internet penetration into all 10 million villages to report if it actually happens?
Look next for an anonymous call for action somewhere.
BTW, the Resign Rahm protect drew a sizeable crowd today (12.10).
Don’t feel obligated to answer every comment. Conversation can occur across multiple comment gaps.
oh, my; i’d never known that ‘a whimper, not a bang’ was eliot. time-traveler, indeed. i loved that the page also noted the derivations of some of his dynamic imagery. whoosh; such a poem.
yep, adbusters will be monitored, as will those who sign up. i’d have to bet on the largest crowds being in europe. remember, the PTB can shut down cell towers when they please, as well. anon is busy taking down ISIS communications, as if… oh well.
adbusters is calling it a call to revolution, and tackling injustices and evils on many fronts, including ‘wwIII’. they hint at ditching capitalism, but also mention…wall street transaction taxes, so…i guess they’re thinking the people will decide. i do hope it won’t be astro-turfed like the avaaz marches, though.
and thank you for knowing how difficult it is to keep up with comments at times, amigo. yes, the calls for rahm and anita to go are getting louder and louder. one state rep even created a recall bill; we’ll see. their demands are getting quite specific as well, and good on them.
p.s. on edit: when the misery reaches epic proportions, look for more demagogues willing and able to exploit the fear. at least le pen is getting strong pushback, but i was thinking more of the US.
The interesting thing about the timings of uprisings is that they do not occur at the point where misery reaches epic proportions but where traditional ways of dealing with that misery that created hope abruptly fail. You insight seems to be that misery spawns demagogic reactions. Testing that empirically, it seems you are correct. After the 2008 immiseration in the Great Recession, the business-as-usual reaction of the Obama administration, the Democrats in Congress and the Republicans in Congress — and overseas with the austerity budgets in Europe — the reaction here was the Tea Party “revolt” that put people like Scott Walker in office in 2010. The first rebellion against his austerity was the Madison rebellion against Walkerstan that shared the timeframe with Tahrir Square and defined the archetype of tactics for a new generation. Occupy Wall Street was spawned out of that new zeitgeist and the failure of the Obama administration to hold Wall Street accountable for the seven layers of fraud that produced and collapse the mortgage derivative credit default swap bubble of 2006-2007.
So here we are in the seventh year of a Presidential term and prosperity still has not returned. So the demagogs go at it again. The war on terra is not produced unconditional surrender on the carrier Ronald Reagan. So the demagogs go at it again. War and mass surveillance have not made us safe. So the demagogs go at it again. And in the midst of this demagogery and mass shootings, #blacklivesmatter erupts as a spontaneous movement and just as with Occupy Wall Street, the PTB and compradors try to put it into a box. Legitimacy fails when folks in the chain of authority stop following orders. Or when sovereignty begins to fail when legitimacy failures are geographically concentrated, such as in Old Dixie. The lowering of the Confederate flag on the SC State House grounds shows that the USA is still sovereign over the former Confederacy. The crisis comes when the establishment decides it will accept or it won’t accept devolution. When Neo-Confederates seek stronger states rights. When Catalunya, Valencia, Galicia, and the Basque country seek autonomy. When Normandy and the Loire Valley tell Le Pen to bug off. When German states seek greater devolution from Berlin. When Scotland and Wales seek independence from Cameron’s England.
Adbusters is asking people to come out and decide for themselves what they want, thinking that in itself is revolution. Hoping that the awake 1/7 of humanity show up — or enough symbolically to change the conversation once again as happened with Occupy Wall Street between October 15, 2011 and Thanksgiving 2011. Enough to put different memes in the global media–just as 1%-99% became a common if not exact reference, or general assemblies, or tents as a form of protest, or the images projected on the sides of buildings as an art form, or citizen jourrnalism, jail support, and taking the streets with tens of thousands of people while the authorities looked for “leaders”.
Second product rollouts are always chancey. The competition has some frame of knowing what to expect. And the announcement by Adbusters does not shake that. I guess the key meme is “swarms” at this point instead of “occupation”. And I fully expect that there are creative people who will provide us with concrete actions that fill out what that buzzword means by the time the movement subsides.
Eight days, eh. Should be interesting to see how visible it really is, how threatening peaceful demonstrations are to the authorities, and how one counts to one billion.
it will be fascinating to watch what transpire in europe for certain, including in the courts.
the march page is extensive, and full of suggestions as to actions, and ‘suggestions for revolutionaries’ from some…past revolutionary leaders. i grabbed this list since you’d mentioned ‘memes’:
…we jump over the dead body of the old left . . .
…hack into the guts of the capitalist algorithm . . .
…win a guerrilla meme war against the cruddy forces of the status quo…
outlaw secrecy
change the way money flows
redefine progress
make prices tell the ecological truth
halt the arms trade
…take the straight line in a curvy new direction…
…trigger a jump cut in the human imagination.
it’s quite a long page, and one has to keep scrolling down. meanwhile, i’ve been reading and watch arundahati roy and some of her ‘we’ documentary, and some excerpts from her ‘capitalism, a ghost story’. might try to finagle them into a post. but now i’ll move to big al’s post (wonder where he is, by the by?) at least i think that’s where these links should go; damn, i get confused….
i need to apologize for not answering comments. my crap eyes are even more carp tonight after weeping over john trudell’s death…crossing over…transitioning…going beyond, whichever suits your beliefs. dunno why it hit me so hard, but i didn’t know he was so ill, and have hitched my wagon to his poetry and understanding of the world…for so very long.
i’ll answer comments and emails tomorrow after some sleep. hug those you love, and make community with those you can; he would recommend that.
“Coyote to the end, John had someone make one final post to his Facebook page yesterday afternoon after he passed. It read, simply:
“My ride showed up”
“Celebrate Love. Celebrate Life”
wd
beats hella outta me, as they say, but adbusters (UK, apparently the authors of Occupy) are calling for a #billionPeopleMarch (#d19) dec. 19 (for revolution, climate change, etc.). (the text) dunno what to think. wait and watch, i reckon.
this looks pretty sucky: ‘Celebrity “Activists” Change Everything: UN Forum to Adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ from thewrongkindfgreen.org
“The United Nations Private Sector Forum 2015 was held in New York on September 26. The forum was presented by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon and 350 leaders from the public and private sectors: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Naomi Klein, Angel Gurría (OECD), Jeffrey Sachs (Natural Capital/privatization of nature), George Soros, Al Gore, Mark Zuckerberg, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bono (U2), the CEO of Unilever, Paul Polman, Greenpeace International, WWF and many others. This exclusive event is by invitation only.
Held one day after the UN member nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, on September 25, this global forum focused on the role of the private sector in implementing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) included in the agreement.
The Private Sector Forum—which the UN secretary general convenes every year with the goal of bringing the voice of the private sector to intergovernmental debates—is of special importance in 2015, because it is taking place during the historic UN Sustainable Development Summit to adopt the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, which includes the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a global commitment that seeks to eradicate extreme poverty, fight inequality, and combat climate change throughout the world.” and so on and so on and….not many everyday people. ;-)
well, phooey. i dunno where this goes. here, i reckon, as a default. ;-)
‘Nuclear Winter – Alan Robock on Reality Asserts Itself’ (referencing jonathan schell’s book that THD had mentioned)
and holy crap: for real? of course for real; it’s been comin’. ‘Brussels plans to strip Schengen nations of authority over borders; European commission set to propose new border guards force that could be deployed without a country’s approval’
wonder how that will go.
‘Paris climate deal marks ‘opportunity to change the world‘’
almost too many quotable quotes to choose from, as if the title weren’t illuminating enough on its own.
terms and phrases like ‘powerful momentum’, ‘ambitious periodic reviews’, ‘reviews of funds for climate change mitigation funding assistance’ (which fund has been a bad joke since copenhagen, maybe kyoto), ‘diplomatic and balanced trade-offs’. but the reforestation funds for africa means plenty of profiteering along the way, and locals: stay the fuck out of it, as i read it.
okay: some snippets:
“Critics will argue that, as it stands, the deal condemns the planet to catastrophic climate changes that will wipe out entire island nations. But supporters say the talks have made major progress in formalising significant carbon cuts which can be built on in future negotiations and send a signal to global investors about the momentum behind clean energy and carbon-reducing projects.”
in the ‘key elements of the potential deal’ this reflects one of the purported reasons for not keeping language about indigenous human rights in the text: “A recognition that many countries will suffer losses and damage from the effects of climate change, but which specifically excludes any liability or compensation claims as a result of the agreement.”
it seems that the acceptance vote in the coming plenary session has to be unanimous. will there be carrot and sticks closed door sessions with those most affected in the developing world?
Carrot: “It could have been worse.”
Stick: “Some countries might not accept you as refugees when you get flooded out.’
Too bad that investors are lost in fantasy land again. Check out David Dayen’s latest on nakedcapitalism.
D12 Paris Ave. de Grande Armee. And D19 is Adbusters call. I’m thinking that the EU will likely have the most attendance — and Chicago, and possibly NYC and West Coast cities. Interesting if Hong Kong pops up again or if anything appears in India or Brazil. Or Venezuela and Argentina. How would you put together 1 in 7 people on earth to give the Adbusters call credibility?
good carrot and stick; i might add: ‘we really, really, really, will fund the climate change adaptation’ fund ‘liberally’. i’d read a piece that maybe 10 cents on the dollar made it to the present fund’s coffers. and stick: ah, never mind; evil thoughts and all.
looks like #D12 is 350.org, though well-attended.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/D12%20Paris?src=hash
the static tweet says ‘it ain’t over yet’. but the final text had already been released, and it’s down to the voting. guardian is live-blogging it. one tweet says ‘it’s not quite official’ and ‘green groups hail the text’. yeee-haw!
good guesses on locations, i might add australia, perhaps NZ. dunno, VZ; yikes: how about japan? some of those calls can show you which cities have made plans, but on that page it looked as though it might take making a commitment to see whassup where.
i’ll try to look at DD’s piece; glad to see he’s still there, and not just at the intercept.
but if you look at the long list of attendees at the UN private sector forum, it’s clear that the oligarchs will be as self-serving in their purported noblesse oblige as always.
and what a great idjit i am: the trnn interview link should have gone on big al’s, after all. i have a few questions on it, too.
edit: waaay at the bottom of the #billionPeeps, on the ‘act now’ or close, i did finally find a map. not too many cities, and clicking on the black blots (reminiscent of black bloc?) there was some confusion doubling up. but i did find:
December 19, 5:12 PM
Prichard Park, Asheville, NC
part of the theory seems to be that even if one plasters black dots galore, that will be counted. argentina, some euro, UK, norway…well, we’ll see.
kewl, eh?
“A(n) historic, legally binding(???) climate deal that aims to hold global temperatures to a maximum rise of 1.5C, staving off the worst effects of catastrophic global warming, has been secured.
The culmination of more than 20 years of fraught UN climate talks has seen all countries agree to reduce emissions, promise to raise $100bn a year by 2020 to help poor countries adapt their economies, and accept a new goal of net zero emissions by later this century.
Formally adopted in Paris by 195 countries, the first universal climate deal will see an accelerated phase-out of fossil fuels, the growth of renewable energy streams and powerful new carbon markets to enable countries to trade emissions and protect forests.”
“Obama praises Paris climate deal as ‘tribute to American leadership; President hails agreement reached by nearly 200 countries as key step to protect planet’s future and signal that clean energy is economically viable’
since comrade x isn’t here, may i offer his signature HA HA HA?