Occupy movement calls for climate justice at COP 17, Durban-Updates

http://action.davidsuzuki.org/kyoto

I can't sign this because I don't live in Canada. However, for anyone who does and sees this, please take a look.

And I give the same message to the U.S. "delegation" such as you are. If you aren't going to do anything of substance, then get out and go home and let the people who really care about this work something out. I am so very sick of the political games and brinkmanship in playing with people's lives. And people like myself and so many others do nothing but convey solutions, ideas and passion into this only to be ignored while those with the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ are always heard.

Perhaps when climate change worsens even more to the point where those who think they are immune from this have to live like those in places becoming acutely affected by it they will understand. Personally, I'm ashamed of this government and president and their total lack of leadership on this just because they don't want to piss off some Republican idiot in Congress. But hey, I'll remember to tell my grandhchildren that was the reason why our planet is so F&&&&&&& up when they ask me.

http://current.com/green/93519667_traditional-indigenous-culture-helps-with-clim...

Indigenous culture and knowledge helps with climate change adaptation. But this is not front and center of course because it is not lucrative for the big corporations that take up the seats in the buildings. So we need a global satyagraha-farmers ( who in developing nations are predominantly women) globally standing up against the undemocratic destructive corporate industrial model being shoved down all our throats that is destroying our soil, water and yields. Agrobusiness companies that deal in war chemicals such as Monsanto and DOW lie to us about yields. Matter of fact agroecology increases yields while also giving back essential soil nutrients.

GMOS, which are now being touted falsely as a way to feed people in Africa by using climate change as their red herring does nothing to increase soil nutrients and over time yields decrease, resistance to the pesticides fade and farmers are left in poverty from having to purchase seeds yearly being tied to their new drug dealers. There is no food sovereignty being tied to such a life as biodiversity which is essential to preserving climate as well is greatly affected through monoculture.

We've had the solutions all of this time only we have allowed the 1% to dictate their own that do not work because they are the most lucrative for them instead of actually feeding people while exacerbating global warming/climate change. But now with the effects of climate change on agriculture becoming more pronounced we can no longer afford to continue down this road. I hope that at Durban the very least that will happen is that the voices of the farmers who are living with this are heard. They are the ones who know what is best for their land, the air and the water.

http://current.com/green/93530838_fertiliser-trees-increasing-crop-yields-in-sou...

Science, not politics nor collusion with industrial agriculture will solve this crisis for Africa.

http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2011/policy-politics/china-turns-profit-fr...

Could be another reason why China backed out. Even with all of their talk of planting trees and working on their own to bring down emissions, they are playing both sides and are now bringing back their coal to liquid fuels program because they made money from it. They have huge coal reserves but just can't leave it in the ground because the money is more important and of course as well, because people who are addicted to consumption can't stop consuming. Just like the Alberta tarsands. Does the whole world need an intervention? A ten step program perhaps?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-zeller-jr/climate-conference-2011-u_b_1121328....
U.S. A bad faith negotiator.

And while I too am wary of anything tied to the World Bank, IMF, or Gates Foundation regarding this as well, I think the U.S. is clearly once again playing politics with this because of the 2012 election.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204753404577064213425399928.html

Subsistence farmers in Africa, victims of changing weather patterns, are caught in a stormy global debate over a special climate fund for which few want to pay.

Throughout the continent, farming groups are trying to adapt to seasons that are more unpredictable than ever. Frequent droughts or rainy seasons that last too long have decimated crops. Scientists forecast even worse weather in Africa over the next 50 years.

These are some of the problems the United Nations' Green Climate Fund was supposed to address. On Monday, representatives of the 192 countries plus the European Union, parties to the U.N.'s climate body, gathered in Durban, South Africa, at a U.N.-sponsored climate talk to try—among other things—to elicit $100 billion in pledges. Officials say the bulk of this amount will go to the Green Climate Fund. Negotiations are just beginning, but already there are signs of tension between the industrialized nations such as the U.S. and the emerging countries.

More contentious is who will foot the bill. China and developing countries want the industrialized nations to pay for the fund, which would help poorer countries pay for programs, policies and other actions that would help them adapt to climate change and mitigate greenhouse-gas emissions. The U.S. and debt-racked Europe are balking. The U.N. is hoping host South Africa can coax voluntary contributions from participants.

China, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, said developed-world nations should pay the bulk of the fund because today's climate-change problems resulted from their industrialization. The U.S. wants to share the financial burden more broadly.

"We think over time developing countries will want to contribute," said Todd Stern, the U.S. special envoy for climate change.

The so-called COP17 climate talks, which end Dec. 9, are yet another sign of floundering efforts to bring countries together on issues related to global warming, and to help those in the poorest nations hit hardest by changes in weather patterns. The Kyoto Protocol, which is aimed at getting signatory countries to reduce carbon emissions, expires next year, and no political breakthroughs are expected at the meetings in South Africa.

Already, Russia, Canada and Japan have said they don't plan to sign on to a second round of emissions-reduction requirements under the Kyoto Protocol leaving the EU and its 11% portion of global emissions to be the main vocal opponent for a second round. The U.S. reiterated on Monday that it wants the same demands to reduce carbon emissions placed on itself and other developed economies as that of the major emerging nations, such as China, a point that could hinder major advances in Durban.

Farmers in Africa are likely to pay a steep price for the diplomatic discord. The COP17 meetings will be taking place on a continent battling one of its worst droughts and famines in decades. Tens of thousands of people have died in Somalia due to food shortages amid one of the worst droughts in a half-century.

Some observers say new foreign investment coming into land for food cultivation—and a number of countries adopting subsidies and other pro-farmer policies—has improved the outlook for Africa's domestic food production. Agricultural output in Africa rose 3.5% in 2008, beating the 2% population growth, according to the latest figures from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Still, serious challenges lie ahead.

Africa produces only about a quarter of the grain it needs and yet has the world's fastest-growing population. The number of people on the continent is expected to hit two billion by 2050, surpassing both China and India, according to U.N. figures. The population growth, coupled with climate change, raises the prospect of more food shortages and conflict stemming from them.

A 2008 report by the FAO showed Uganda had five droughts from 1991 to 2000, compared with just eight in the previous 80 years.

The report also warns about more severe flooding. The FAO predicts temperatures across Africa will rise between 2% and 3% in the next 100 years.

Meanwhile, the World Meteorological Organization said the five hottest years on record for the continent all occurred since 2003.

Given high-price imports, pockets of Africa are struggling with food-related unrest. In April, rising food prices stoked violent riots in Uganda. In September 2010, riots erupted in Mozambique after the government tried to raise food and fuel prices, which left more than a dozen people dead.

Atiang Okwi, who grows cassava, a staple root vegetable, in eastern Uganda, said she is noticing a change in traditional seasons. This year, her crop rotted in soil that was hit by too much rain, and she worries next year will be too dry.
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Food and water. Not to be taken for granted in a world of climate change. You have to wonder however, just what some of these countries are really thinking. Let it get bad enough and people will pay anything for GMO crap and the water that is privatized. Look at those countries already salivating over drilling the Arctic as it melts. I fear there is a darker agenda here that will certainly not be revealed at these talks...they would rather see hundreds of thousands displaced and dying in order to preserve their own status quo.