Arundhati Roy's words concerning the power of the common people and the fact that a better life is possible:

"Remember this. We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing."

Africa is being thrown under the Copenhagen bus.

Incredible report today: "Pressure is clearly building on poor countries to back down from strong climate targets here in Copenhagen. At a powerful press conference this morning, the Prime Minister of Tuvalu accused Australia of setting up a private meeting with a number of small island states and trying to bribe them into accepting the 2 degrees C target that would mean extinction for their islands."

Gwynne Dyer:

"When British foreign secretary David Miliband revealed the latest numbers from the Met Office’s Hadley Centre (the U.K.’s national weather service) last October, predicting that a world in which emissions go unchecked may see a 4-degree-Celsius rise in average global temperature by 2060, he simply said: “We cannot cope with a 4-degree world.”

Actually, Britain probably could cope. As an island, cooled by the surrounding ocean, it would be only 3 degrees warmer, which means that it would probably still be able to grow enough food to feed itself. That is vital in a 4-degrees-warmer world, because almost nobody will be exporting food anymore.

Oceans cover two-thirds of the planet’s surface and are cooler than the land, so the average temperature over most land areas is higher than the “average global temperature”. The Hadley Centre predicts that a global average of plus-4 degrees means average temperatures 5 to 6 degrees higher in China, India, Southeast Asia, and most of Africa, and up to 8 degrees higher in the Amazon (which would burn, of course).

The result would be a 40-percent fall in world wheat and corn production and a 30-percent fall in rice by 2060—in a world that would, by then, have to feed 2 billion more people. So there would be mass starvation, and waves of desperate refugees trying to move to some country where they can still feed their kids."

Cap and Trade

Here's a very helpful primer on the inadequacy of the market-based cap and trade system. It's disheartening that this is being touted as the primary approach to emissions reductions.

Message to the Grass Roots

The global south needs to organize itself and form a push-back against those who intend, and continue to, exploit it - in light, especially, of what's going on in Copenhagen. The speech, Message to the Grass Roots, delivered by Malcolm X, comes to my mind.

His words on the importance of real action from the grass roots: "I'm telling you, you don't know what a revolution is. 'Cause when you find out what it is, you'll get back in the alley; you'll get out of the way. The Russian Revolution -- what was it based on? Land. The land-less against the landlord. How did they bring it about? Bloodshed. You haven't got a revolution that doesn't involve bloodshed. And you're afraid to bleed."

At the Bella Centre in Copenhagen, Naomi Klein made a similar point while discussing the call for reparations. She was talking about the reparations First Nations peoples deserved from the occupiers of their land and moved on to the topic of "climate debt" - what developed nations owe the developing world for all the environmental damage it's caused. Her words, again, on the importance of real action from the grass roots:

"And when we make these arguments, frankly, no one even bothers arguing with us, because it’s so obvious. The science is there. The legal treaties are there. But really what they’re saying is, “You and what army? How are you going to get this money out of us? You are not powerful enough to get the money out of us.” And this is where social movements come in, because, you know, we can talk as much as we want about debt, and we can talk as much as we want about reparations, but they’re going to laugh at us, until there is some movement muscle behind those concerns, behind those demands. And that’s our task."

"We stand with Africa - Kyoto targets now"

Representing states of the global south, as well as China, the G77-China negotiating bloc at the Copenhagen summit has just withdrawn its support of the conference. The chief negotiator, Lumumba D-Aping on why:

"It has become clear that the Danish presidency - in the most undemocratic fashion - is advancing the interests of the developed countries at the expense of the balance of obligations between developed and developing countries," he said.

They're looking for stricter commitments to emissions reductions and a continued commitment to the Kyoto Protocol.

I'm not religious, but I've always reserved a great deal of respect for politically and socially engaged religious leaders. I get the impression their understanding of spiritual matters are more robust, more substantial, and more empathetic for being informed by an understanding of how the world works. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, as well as Desmond Tutu and others, are great examples.

Pachamama

The Nation Magazine interviews the Bolivian Climate Change ambassador, Pablo Erick Solón Romero Oroza. Here's the last part of the exchange:

"President Morales has called for a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth. Why do you think there's a need for such a document?

Why, because this problem is about balance – balance between mankind and nature. What we are seeing with climate change is that this balance has been broken. Why, because humans act as if they are the only ones who have rights and treat our Mother Earth like, in the past century, slaves were treated – as persons that don't have rights, as objects, instruments for exploitation. So if you want to have a balanced relation, humans must recognize that we are not the only one's that have rights, but also our Mother Earth. We and nature are part of one system and what happens in one part of the system effects the other part.

This way of thinking has been strengthened because of the capitalist system. For the capitalist system everything, nature – even other humans – is considered an object that you can use to obtain a profit. With this system everything can be made into merchandise. So what we are seeing is the consequence of this vision that you can change everything into merchandise, even nature, even your mother – Mother Earth."

Evo Morales was re-elected for another term as Bolivia's president. I admire Morales a great deal and I hope this world produces more leaders like him.

Great article on the upside to having genes that normally dispose one to such negative traits as depression, anxiety, and aggression.

Chomsky

In an interview with the magazine Guernica, Noam Chomsky offers his thoughts on a wide range of topics. I especially appreciated his words on the hypocrisy of the global north (ie. the developed world) telling the south (the developing) they should not practice some degree of economic protectionism.

"Adam Smith had advice for the American colonies in the seventeen seventies. He advised the colonies to follow classical economic principles—they’re not very different from neoliberalism. In fact, it’s pretty much what economists today recommend to the third world. He said, Keep to your comparative advantages—the term “comparative advantage” hadn’t been invented yet—produce what you’re good at, which is catching fish, hunting fur, and growing food, and export it to us in England. And import superior British manufactures. But the U.S. gained its independence, so it didn’t have to follow that advice, and didn’t. It immediately set up under Alexander Hamilton high protective barriers to try to bar superior British textiles, in later years British steel. And it built up its own manufacturing base under protective barriers and by an enormous amount of state intervention. Take, say, cotton, the fuel of American industrialization. Well, how did America produce cotton? First of all, by exterminating the indigenous population. Secondly, by slavery. Those are pretty severe market interventions."