Should patenting of barnyard pigs be legal? What were they thinking?
View this video clip to learn more about Monsanto's patenting of life.
Help for Haiti: Supporting grassroots organizations after a disaster is crucial
As we learned in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, not all aid is equal. Haiti’s January 12th earthquake has left thousands dead. Many more need urgent medical attention.
Breaking Through the Asphalt: Food Policy Councils
By Eric Holt-Gimenez
Originally published on the Huffington Post
Listen to Voices from Africa on Climate Justice
Pambazuka News just released a great audio piece with interviews from some of the most inspiring African climate justice advocates present in Copenhagen.
A Strong Climate Justice Movement Emerges from the Wreckage of Copenhagen
Climate Justice Now, a coalition of social movements and civil society groups from around the world recently released this statement on the global movement emerging from the official disaster in Copenhagen:
Call for “system change not climate change” unites global movement
Corrupt Copenhagen ‘accord’ exposes gulf between peoples demands and elite interests
Update from Copenhagen: The "Great Betrayal" Has Begun - Newest targets weak; ag offsets back on the table
In Copenhagen tonight, a leaked UN document on a new proposal from developed countries points to what civil society is calling "The Great Betrayal."
Back Door Deal Between Ethiopia and France Decried by African Oragnizations as "Death to Millions of Africans"
A back door deal to get African nations to accept a weaker overall emissions target and less mitigation financing was struck today between France and the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. The deal would endanger the food systems of millions. The release from Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance follow below.
"Africa Will Not Be Sold!"
Is Democracy Failing in Copenhagen? Protesters Demand Climate Justice, Are Met with Violence; NGOs Selectively Barred from Climate Negotiations
Dramatic Protests for Climate Justice Are Met with Violence
NGOs Selectively Barred from Climate Negotiations
Dramatic protests erupted inside and outside the climate summit in Copenhagen today. Non-profit organizations are being severely restricted from the talks, and several groups that have been most critical of the negotiating process were selectively denied access en masse.
Monsanto Wins Award for Worst Corporate Lobbyist in Copenhagen
The Angry Mermaid has been swimming around the streets of Copenhagen asking activists and civil society to vote on the ultimate object of her wrath. The winner: Monsanto.
The biotech giant won the award for its efforts to promote monocultures of Round-Up Ready GM crops as a solution to climate change. Shell oil came in second place, followed by the American Petroleum Institute.
Read more at http://www.angrymermaid.org/
As Climate Talks Come Down to the Wire, Social Movements Call for Direct Action
Social Movements Call for Direct Action, Call the COP Process a “Failure”
Today social movement organizations held a press conference calling for non-violent direct action to protest the climate negotiations. Representatives of social movements on every continent spoke, demanding that people’s voices and local knowledge be respected in the negotiation process.
100,000 March for Climate Justice: Updates from Copenhagen
-Annie Shattuck
Yesterday I joined an estimated 100,000 people in the streets of Copenhagen to demand climate justice. We marched from beautiful Parliament Square in central Copenhagen all the way to the Bella Center, a journey of nearly six hours, dancing to stay warm most of the way. La Via Campesina had a strong presence in the street, demanding real solutions, starting with food and energy sovereignty. The bloc I found myself in had peasant leaders from every continent, youth from the global South and organizers from the American inner city.
The G77: “A deal that cannot save god, humanity and nature is a deal that we should not entertain in the first place.”
By Annie Shattuck
I am coming out of a briefing at the climate summit in Copenhagen by the G77, the coalition of developing countries that includes India and China. The coalition is supporting a lower overall limit on temperature increases, demanding radical, rapid reductions in emissions, and technology and financial arrangements to support adaptation, saying “A deal that cannot save god, humanity and nature is a deal that we should not entertain in the first place.”
Notes from Copenhagen: Panel with Secretary Vilsack Emphasizes Agrofuels, GM
by Annie Shattuck
At an event today at the Climate Summit in Copenhagen US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, along with the Danish Minister of Agriculture, the head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, a representative from the Brazilian government and the president of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers, an industry group made up of mostly larger scale farmers, discussed food security in the context of climate change.
Notes from the Climate Summit in Copenhagen: “We are entitled to survive"
By Annie Shattuck
“We are entitled to survive”
- Delegation of Cape Verde
In the opening week of the climate negotiations in Copenhagen the stakes could not be higher. The Alliance of Small Island States, made up of the nations most vulnerable to climate change, have emerged as the clear moral voice inside the conference center, demanding a total temperature rise of no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, and significant transfer of funds from North to South to pay for the damage.
