Re: [climate justice now!] (Fwd) NYC climate protest, 19-23 September (URL links)

[Kjell Kühne]

Thanks for asking, Patrick!

I am impressed by the ask for an end to fossil fuels by 2030! That's very ambitious, but I am sure we could do it. Transitioning the world economy in 15 years out of the fossil age will be a great task that will require the cooperation of all of us.

I would like to complement the discussion with this link: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/join_to_change_everything_rb/ and more importantly the email forwarded below: Avaaz is inviting 50.000 local organizers to create local petitions for 100% renewable energy, and wants to gather several millions of signatures for 100% renewable energy globally!

My personal view is that the climate movement still has a long way to go. The Climate Circus is just not the place where the battle will be won right now. And while it is laudable that Ban-ki Moon has called in the "leaders" to come together and raise mitigation ambition, I would be surprised if we would get anywhere near where we need to get.

What really counts right now, is local/regional/national progress on the energy transition front, and in extraction resistence. (I am just looking on the mitigation side here.)

So, in that regard, I believe that the Avaaz call to ask your local leader for 100% renewable energy could be a great way to get the conversation going everywhere on how to implement this energy transition in every little town, but also on a regional and national level. You remember how we tried to kick-start this discussion for Durban and South Africa after COP17? The issue won't be going away. It will come back to us until we face it. The road to decarbonization stays the same. A global deal can help make it a bit more downhill, rather than uphill. But it is still the same road that we need to walk. And I hope that this September 21st can be a catalyzer for people getting together everywhere to start charting out that road.

Of course, I would love to see this complemented with a commitment by everyone to resist fossil fuel extraction (or its precursors, exploration, like you are doing right now in Durban), but I guess that that will be the next step, after the necessity of a full energy transition is firmly established in the climate movement and groups are already working towards that goal all around the world.

My two cents.

cheers,

Kjell

---------- Mensaje reenviado ----------
De: Ricken Patel - Avaaz <av...@avaaz.org>
Fecha: 25 de julio de 2014, 14:23
Asunto: Marcha contra el Cambio Climático: se acerca el gran día
Para: "deltac...@gmail.com" <deltac...@gmail.com>

Queridos organizadores y participantes en la Marcha Ciudadana contra el Cambio Climático,

¡Más de 350.000 personas ya estamos firmes para tomar las calles el 21 de septiembre! Si solo nosotros -la gente que está recibiendo este correo- salieramos a la calle ese día, sería la mayor movilización contra el cambio climático de la historia. Si cada uno de nosotros lleva a unos cuantos amigos y familiares, llegaríamos a ser más de un millón de personas en las calles por todo el mundo.  

Muchísimas gracias por sumarte. Respeto profundamente tu interés y voluntad de involucrarte y actuar por más de unos minutos: durante varias horas. 

Y lo que es aún más impresionante, ¡somos 50.000 los que nos hemos apuntado como organizadores voluntarios! Somos como un audaz ejército ciudadano, listo para hacer de esto algo multitudinario. Todavía queda mucho tiempo para unirse. Si aún no te has registrado como voluntario/a y te gustaría, hazlo ya.  



Tenemos dos meses para conseguirlo. Éste es el plan:

1) Nuestros eventos están enfocados en entregarle una petición a nuestros gobiernos. No importa si estás en la capital, en una ciudad pequeña o en un pueblo; le estaremos pidiendo a los gobernadores locales que se comprometan a usar energías 100% limpias y renovables para nuestras comunidades. Cambiar a energías 100% limpias es posible y es quizás la mejor y única manera de frenar el cambio climático. 

2) Avaaz va a organizar una petición global gigante, orientada a alcanzar varios millones de firmas, para exigir el uso de energías limpias al 100%. Es probable que haya cientos de miles de firmas de tu comunidad que podrías entregar a nivel local. También puedes hacer tu propia petición, por Internet o en persona, para que muchos más se sumen.  

3) Los organizadores locales (¡esperemos que tú!) coordinarán cada evento, dándole su toque personal a cómo reunirse y entregar la petición. Diseñarán el look del evento y lo crearán por Internet, invitando a la gente por correo electrónico y Facebook, y luego será clave invitar a los medios de comunicación. Deja salir tu liderazgo y anímate a organizar un evento tú mismo. Tendremos herramientas online, guías organizativas y todo tipo de apoyo para ayudarte. 

4) Vamos a identificar todos nuestros eventos visualmente con un corazón verde (como en la foto de arriba). Es una imagen estupenda y sencilla que demuestra que estamos actuando desde el amor que sentimos por nuestro planeta y entre nosotros para proteger todo lo que amamos de la catástrofe del cambio climático. Así, tu evento puede incluir el uso de grandes letreros que digan "Río de Janeiro energías limpias 100%" o  "París la Tierra". Tú te encargas de entregar la petición, después tomas unas fotos con los corazones verdes y las subes a Internet: estas imágenes se mostrarán en pantalla gigante a los líderes del mundo en la cumbre climática de la ONU en Nueva York para demostrar la diversidad, el tamaño y la fuerza de nuestro movimiento ciudadano en cada lugar. 

¡Ése es el plan! Si tienes comentarios o ideas para mejorarlo o cambiarlo, hay tiempo para modificarlo. Contesta nuestraencuesta para decirnos lo que piensas y darnos sugerencias. Y, si te parece bien, puedes empezar a pensar cómo te gustaría organizar esto en tu comunidad. Sigue tu creatividad y tu ingenio. Y no pienses que estás solo o sola en esto. En la mayoría de las ciudades grandes hay muchos organizadores voluntarios, así que tendrás oportunidad de formar equipo con otros increíbles miembros de Avaaz si así lo prefieres. También prepararemos un chat en directo donde podrás hacer preguntas e intercambiar ideas con gente de todo el mundo que también esté organizando eventos. ¡Va a ser muy divertido! 

En unos días enviaremos un enlace donde podrás empezar a crear las páginas de registro y de Facebook para tu evento. Mientras tanto, ve soñando y pensando cómo podemos convertir este día en el origen de un movimiento social necesario para salvar nuestro planeta. 

Con esperanza y una enorme gratitud hacia todos y todas, 

Ricken con Meredith, Jooyea, Sayeeda, Marigona, Uilleam, Alex, Laura y todo el equipo de Avaaz 

PD: La última vez que intentamos algo parecido fue en 2009: nuestro llamamiento a los líderes del mundo, ¡con más de 2.500 eventos! Echa un vistazo a este inspirador video de los eventos más creativos que organizó la gente.

Apoya a la Comunidad de Avaaz
Estamos totalmente financiados por donaciones ciudadanas y no recibimos dinero ni de gobiernos ni de corporaciones. Nuestro dedicado equipo se encarga de que incluso las donaciones más pequeñas lleguen muy lejos.

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Avaaz es una red global de campañas de 37 millones de personas, que trabaja para conseguir que las opiniones y valores de la gente en todo el mundo modelen los procesos de toma de decisión. "Avaaz" significa "voz" o "canción" en muchos idiomas. Los miembros de Avaaz son de todas las naciones del mundo; nuestro equipo está ubicado en 18 países a lo largo de 6 continentes y opera en 17 idiomas. Para conocer más sobre las últimas campañas de Avaaz, haz clic aquí, o síguenos en Facebook o Twitter.

Estás recibiendo este mensaje porque firmaste la campaña "" en 2013-10-01 usando el correo electrónico deltac...@gmail.com.
Para asegurarte que los correos de Avaaz lleguen a tu buzón, por favor agrega av...@avaaz.org a tu libreta de direcciones y contactos. Para cambiar tu correo electrónico, idioma de preferencia, u otra información personal, contáctanos, o simplemente haz clic aquí para darte de baja.

Para contactar a Avaaz, por favor no respondas a este correo. En vez, escribe a www.avaaz.org/es/contact o llámanos al +1-888-922-8229 (EE.UU.).

On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 9:02 AM, Anne Petermann <an...@riseup.net> wrote:

Hi Patrick,

Here is a post I wrote about the Peoples' Climate March following a
presentation by one of the local EJ community organizers at the Venezuela
Social PreCOP a couple of weeks ago.

http://climate-connections.org/2014/07/17/on-bill-mckibbens-call-to-arms-for-the-new-york-climate-summit/

Anne

> (Anyone on these lists have an opinion?)
>
> http://convergeforclimate.org/
> https://www.facebook.com/ClimateConvergence
> http://systemchangenotclimatechange.org/event/ny-sept-19-ny-climate-convergence-2014-09-19-211500
> http://peoplesclimate.org/march/
> http://www.ourpowercampaign.org/peoplesclimatemarch/
> http://www.popularresistance.org/nyc-climate-convergence-people-planet-peace-over-profit/
> http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/a-call-to-arms-an-invitation-to-demand-action-on-climate-change-20140521

> *
> *
>
> *
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>

--

We are on a mission to end the fossil age. A clean and safe future for ourselves and for our children will be powered 100% by renewable energy and fossil fuels will be left in the ground. Find out more about LINGO: http://leave-it-in-the-ground.org/

skype: kjell79

mobile: +52-1-967-1053425

home: +52-967-6316349

[Kjell Kühne]

Dear friends,

maybe 100% "clean" energy would be better, in order to remind us that not all renewable energy is "good" energy, to use Dipti's term? But still, all of the good energy will be renewable! Or is anyone arguing that we should continue to burn fossil fuels for energy?

Getting to a full stop on fossil burning is quite a long journey. And today, most people haven't even swallowed the pill that we must completely phase out fossil fuels - even in the climate movement! For the long journey of decarbonization, we need some orientation, some goal post. In my experience "100% renewable/clean energy" is a much more attractive goal than "zero fossils".

Once the conversation about how to get to 100% clean energy starts on a local level, you can really start building the world we want, instead of just resisting. The fact that you need a lot of initial energy investment in order to build a renewable energy infrastructure just makes the task all the more urgent. We should definitely not be wasting any more of the highly concentrated fossil energy on non-essential things.

If you call for system change, you should say what kind of system you want. For the energy system I can answer you that question: a (good) renewable energy system. Fully renewable, a.k.a.100%. And I think that everyone of us wants that. So that's one thing to rally around! Now if you talk about the economic or political system, things get more complicated and probably not everyone will be with you. I think the issue raised by Anne was that there is no ask. IMO we are looking for an ask that can unite several hundred thousand people as a climate movement with a direction. Could this be it?

From my own experience, the kind of people who will rally around 100% renewable energy are the right people to have a conversation about the downsides of alternative energy forms as well. Somehow it tends to attract more conscious, critical people... I don't doubt that some bad guys will try to jump on this bandwagon, especially on a national or international level. But what's the alternative?

To Vito: You're completely right - the way to slow down the climate crisis is to reduce extraction of fossils. That's what we set out to focus on with the Leave it in the Ground Coalition (LINGO). But when you are resisting extraction, it helps a lot to have some solutions for people to feed themselves the next day after we shut down the mines/wells. When working out those solutions, sufficiency often imposes itself quite naturally as the most reasonable option.

To Dipti: If Eskom switched to wind farms, maybe the bills would stay the same, but it would make a huge difference for the climate! Beyond that, I would argue that many renewable energies are inherently easier to control locally than fossils (or worse: nuclear). So the energy transition to renewables, often achieves more local control almost by default.

Sorry to write so much. I hope it helps to move our discussion forward.

best wishes,

Kjell

On Wed, Jul 30, 2014 at 12:08 PM, Dipti Bhatnagar <di...@foei.org> wrote:

Hi folks,

Thanks for this really important discussion. 

Totally agree with Rachel and Orin that so-called 'low-carbon solutions' like biofuels are creating more landgrabs and challenging food sovereignty. I would definitely add mega-dams to that list, as my own background is fighting dams in India, that are being sold as low-carbon but are completely harmful. That's why the definition of dirty & harmful energy must include at the very least coal, oil, gas, mega-dams, nuclear, incineration & biofuels.

And the idea is also to challenge large-scale renewables that also cause land grabs and do not change the balance of power at all. Like if power utility Eskom in South Africa tomorrow changed from coal to large-scale renewables, people still would not be able to pay the high costs of energy because the balance of power didn't change.

we released a report last year November at Friends of the Earth International, talking about the urgent need for the transformation of the energy system, not the source. am taking the liberty of posting the link again here: http://www.goodenergybadenergy.org/

So what shall we do in terms of framing for the big BKM marches? I really liked Anne's article (and we were in some of those conversations together with New York justice activists). A march of 200,000 people really does need to have clear demands so the media don't end up reporting what they feel like. I think it would be good to support the justice communities and organisations in USA and see what framing works for them. But seems like, at a very least, the march needs to talk not just about 'fossil fuels' but about 'dirty & harmful energy'. what do people think?

thanks,

~ dipti

P.S. this is an aside but very similar concept- a great article by my friend Firoze on why we have so many despotic govts in Africa- because many independence movements sought to occupy the colonial state instead of transforming it. Certainly that's the case here in Mozambique, totally true. System change was needed then, and needed now...

--

dipti bhatnagar

Climate Justice & Energy co-coordinator

Friends of the Earth Int'l & Justiça Ambiental (FoE Mozambique)

Av Mao Tsé Tung, 549, 1º andar, 1D, Maputo, Moçambique

email: di...@foei.org, twitter: @diptimoz

2014-07-30 16:00 GMT+02:00 Vito De Lucia <vito.d...@ecopaxmundi.org>:

I also agree wholeheartedly with Rachel (and Orin), and felt important to stress it by replying (despite the unclear status of this list...). Indeed an unproblematized "substitution" of energy sources is like replacing a soda with a soda light: no matter the marginal improvement on some indicators due to the changed ingredients' list (and beware possible secondary negative effects due to new ingredients), the soda is still being produced, with all it entails in terms of global extraction and trade flows, power structures, and social oppression and ecological destruction. So the question is not really one of efficiency, but one of sufficiency, isn't it.

What does it take then today to be able to speak of climate justice? 

thanks

ciao

V

2014-07-30 14:15 GMT+02:00 Orin Langelle <or...@globaljusticeecology.org>:

I usually don't post to this list, but I agree with Rachel.

And add if this unjust international economic system is not changed, the power elite chased into hidey-holes - the planet is in deep, deep trouble.  Renewables are not going to bring in climate justice.  Along with the massive amount of energy it takes to make "renewables" there is also the problem of more pillage in developing countries and more abuse of workers, etc.

Oh yeah, and all of their carbon emissions...

Tremendous popular education to spread critical informative to the people is needed now more than ever.  People need that information to make decisions.  They need to be told the truth.  Let's not make it wishy-washy in our messaging.  It's life or death fold for most of the inhabitants on Earth.

As some of us said in Copenhagen:

Fck Fck fcFk the system.

Orin

2014-07-29 21:39 GMT-04:00 Rachel Smolker <rsmo...@gmail.com>:

I hate to be so negative and all, but i think “system change” is not just about substituting “renewable energy” for “fossil energy”.  

Having fought the battle on biofuels as “renewables for a long time”, making up a very large proportion of what is referred to as renewable…

And making windmills or solar panels or what have you all requires massive amounts of fossil fuels (think steel manufacturing, aluminum etc) as well as rare metals and many other. 

The “system” needs to change, not just the form of energy supplying it. The “transition” is something beyond what form of energy and it is in my opinion very dangerous to focus our “asks” on renewable energy

2 more cents