Mobilize and Organize to Stop and Prevent Planet Fever!
[September 19 – 23, New York] (Français, Español, Italiano) When we, as human beings, get a fever, we immediately get worried and take action. After all, we know that if our body temperature rises to 1.5ºC, let alone 2ºC [3.6 ºF] above the normal average, there can be severe damage, while an increase of 4-6ºC [7.2-10.8 ºF] or more can cause a comatose situation and even death.
So it is when planet Earth gets a fever. For the past 11,000 years, the average temperature of the Earth has been around 14ºC [57.2ºF]. It is now about to reach an increase of 1ºC. And, if we do not take appropriate measures now to stop this fever from spreading, the forecast is that our planet will be well on its way to anywhere between 2ºC to 6ºC rise in temperature before the end of this century. Under such feverish conditions, life as we know it will dramatically change on planet Earth.
We have no other recourse but to take action now. Not just any action but the right action and at the right time. When, for example, a human person has a fever, we urge them to rest their body, give them a lot of liquids, prescribe the right medicine, and if the fever goes up we bring them to the hospital and try to find the underlying cause of the fever, which can range from a simple infection to life-threatening diseases like cancer.
Right Prescriptions
In the case of a planetary fever, the right prescription requires at least 10 actions to be undertaken and applied.
- Make immediate binding commitments — not voluntary pledges — to control planetary temperature rise to no more than 1.5ºC [2.7 ºF] this century by reducing global greenhouse gas emissions per year to 38 Gigatons by 2020.
- Let the Earth rest by making binding commitments to leave more than 80% of known fossil fuel reserves under the soil and beneath the ocean floor.
- Move away from resource extractivism by placing bans on all new exploration and exploitation of oil, bitumen sands, oil shale, coal, uranium, and natural gas including pipeline infrastructure like Keystone XL.
- Accelerate the development and transition to renewable energy alternatives such as wind, solar, geothermal and tidal power with more public and community ownership and control.
- Promote local production and consumption of durable goods to satisfy the fundamental needs of the people and avoid the transport of goods that can be produced locally.
- Stimulate the transition from industrialized, export-oriented agriculture for the global supermarket to community-based production to meet local food needs based on food sovereignty.
- Adopt and apply Zero Waste strategies for the recycling and disposal of trash and the retrofitting of buildings to conserve energy for heating and cooling.
- Improve and expand public transportation for moving people and freight within urban centres and between cities within urban regions through efficient trains.
- Develop new sectors of the economy designed to create new jobs that restore the balance and equilibrium of the Earth system such as climate jobs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and Earth restoration jobs.
- Dismantle the war industry and military infrastructure in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated by warfare, and divert war budgets to promote genuine peace.
Wrong Prescriptions
At the same time, we must also be aware that all actions are not appropriate actions and that some initiatives can worsen the situation. Perhaps our most pressing challenge is the fact that big corporations are capturing the climate agenda to make new businesses designed to take advantage of the crises. In response, we need to send a message, loud and clear, to corporations: ‘Stop Exploiting the Tragedy of Climate Change!’
More specifically, we need to resist the ‘greening of capital’ as the solution by rejecting the following policies, strategies and measures:
- The commodification, financialization and privatization of the functions of nature through the promotion of a false “green economy” agenda which places a price on nature and creates new derivative markets that will only increase inequality and expedite the destruction of nature.
- This means saying No to REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) … No to Climate Smart Agriculture, Blue Carbon and Biodiversity offsetting — all of which are designed to create new for-profit business for corporations.
- Techno-fix “solutions” like geo-engineering, genetically modified organisms, agrofuels, industrial bioenergy, synthetic biology, nanotechnology, hydraulic fracking, nuclear projects, waste-to-energy generation based on incineration, and others.
- Mega and unnecessary infrastructure projects that do not benefit the population and are net contributors to greenhouse gasses like, mega dams, excessively huge highways, stadiums for world cups, etc.
- Free trade and investment regimes that promote trade for profit and undercut domestic labor, destroy nature, and substantially reduce the capacity of nations to define their own economic, social and environmental priorities.
Preventative Cure
Finally, we also need to go beyond identifying right and wrong prescriptions to naming the disease that constantly causes and drives this planetary fever. If we don’t take this step, the fever will keep coming back again and again in a much more aggressive way. We need to take stock of the roots of the disease in order to weather the storm.
Scientists have clearly traced the problem of increasing greenhouse gas emissions back to the industrial revolution 250 years ago while tracking the spurt that has taken place during the past century. From this analysis, it is clear that the industrial model of increased extraction and productivism for the profit of a few is the prime cause of the problem. We need to replace capitalism with a new system that seeks harmony between humans and nature and not an endless growth model that the capitalist system promotes in order to make more and more profit. We need a system that links climate change and human rights and provides for the protection of most vulnerable communities like migrants, and recognizes the rights of Indigenous peoples.
Mother Earth and her natural resources cannot sustain the consumption and production needs of this globalized modern industrialized society. We require a new system that addresses the needs of the majority and not of the few. To move in this direction, we need a redistribution of the wealth that is now controlled by the 1%. In turn, this requires a new definition of wellbeing and prosperity for all life on the planet under the limits and in recognition of the rights of our Mother Earth and Nature.
We urgently need to organize and mobilize in September in New York and the world to push for a process of transformation that can address the structural causes that are driving the climate crisis.
INITIATORS
SENTRO – Philippines Thai Climate Justice Working Group (TCJ) Transnational Institute
ENDORSING ORGANIZATIONS
Acção Académica para o Desenvolvimento das Comunidades Rurais (ADECRU), Mozambique Action Jeunesse pour le Développement (AJED-Congo) ActionAid Adéquations, France ADENY, France AFRICANDO, Gran Canaria, España Aitec-IPAM, France Alianza politica sector de mujeres, Guatemala Alliance for Democracy, US Alofa, Tuvalu Alter Equo Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC), South Africa Alyansa Tigil Mina (Alliance Against Mining) – Philippines Amigos da Terra Brasil – FoE Brazil Amigos de la Tierra América Latina y el Caribe (ATALC) Amigos de la Tierra – FoE Spain Amigu di Tera – FoE Curaçao Amis de la Confédération Paysanne Alsace Amis de la Terre France Aniban ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (AMA) – Pilipinas Aprilia in Movimento Asamblea Nacional de Afectados Ambientales, México Asamblea Permanente del Comahue por el Agua (A.P.C.A.) de Neuquén, Argentina Assembly of the Poor, Thailand Asian Pacific Environmental Network Asia-Pacific Solidarity Coalition (APSOC) Asociación Argentina de Abogados Ambientalistas (AAdeAA) Asociación aurora vivar, Peru Asociación Catalana para el Agua y el Ambiente (ASCA), Catalunya, Spain Asociación Civil Árbol de Pie, Bariloche – Argentina Asociación de Pobladores del Departamento de La Paz (ASPODEPAZ) Asociación humanidad libre, Peru Asociación Indígena Ambiental – AIA Asociación Regional Centroamericana para el Agua y el Ambiente (ARCA), Costa Rica Association For Promotion Sustainable Development Hisar India Association pour la Protection de l’Environnement et le Développement Durable de Bizerte – APEDDUB Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters (HRDP) Association pour la défense des droits de l’eau et de l’assainissement, Sénégal Associazione Marco Mascagna Athens SAVEGREEKWATER, Greece ATTAC Argentina ATTAC Austria ATTAC/CADTM Maroc ATTAC Germany ATTAC Hellas ATTAC Ireland ATTAC Italia ATTAC Japan ATTAC Poland ATTAC Spain ATTAC Togo Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labour Federation (BAFLF) Beyond Copenhagen Collective, India Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha (India peoples science campaign), India Biofuelwatch, UK/US Biowatch South Africa Bizi! – Pays Basque Border Agricultural Workers Project Brigada Cimarrona Sebastian Lemba, Republica Dominicana Campaign for a Life of Dignity for All (KAMP) Campaign for Peace and Democracy Campaña de Afectados por Repsol- Repsolmata, Catalunya CEEweb for Biodiversity CENSAT agua viva – FoE Colombia Centro de Estudios para la Gobernabilidad y Democracia – CEGODEM Centre for alternative technology, UK Centre for Civil Society, Durban, South Africa Center for Earth Energy & Democracy, US Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence, Austria Centre for National-Democracy Studies, Indonesia Centre for 21st Century Issues (C21st), Nigeria Cercle Modesto Cugnolio, Italia CESTA – FoE El Salvador CETRI – Centre tricontinental Climate and Capitalism, Canada Climate Justice Alliance (US) Coal-free central luzon movement, Philippines Coalition nationale Malgache pour l’Education Pour Tous – CONAMEPT Coalition pour la Protection du Patrimoine Génétique Africain (COPAGEN) COECOCEIBA – FoE Costa Rica Col·lectiu RETS, Catalunya, Spain Colectivo VientoSur, Chile Collectif 07 Stop aux Gaz et Huiles de Schiste, France Collectif citoyen les Engraineurs, France Collectif pour le triangle de Gonesse, France Collectif Stop aux Hydrocarbures extrêmes (38), France Comitato Abruzzese per la Difesa dei Beni Comuni, Italie Comité de Derechos Humanos de Base de Chiapas Digna Ochoa, Chiapas, México Comité pour les droits humains en Amérique latine, Canada Common Frontiers Confédération paysanne, France Conseil pour la Terre des Ancêtres, Democratic Republic of the Congo Consejo de Defensa de la Patagonia, Chile Cooperativa de Producción, Trabajo y Servicios Múltiples La Union Integral (COOPUNINTE), República Dominicana Coordination Climat et Justice Sociale de Genève, Suisse Critical Information Collective Culture and Ecology (ICE)-Kenya Democracy Center, Bolivia DIÁLOGO 2000 – JUBILEO SUR ARGENTINA Dichiariamo Illegale la Povertà’ (DIP), Italy Dimensioni Diverse – Milano Diverse Voices and Action for Equality, Fiji Earth Law Center, US East Africa Climate Change Network ECA Watch – Austria Echoes of Silence, United Kingdom Ecohermanas EcoNexus Ecos del Silencio Nicaragua Ecomujer Germany, Germany Ecuador decide Ecumenical Advocacy Network, Philippines Effet de serre toi-même, France Emmaüs International End Ecocide on Earth Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island, US Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria Earth in Brackets Farmworker Association of Florida, US Fédération Artisans du Monde, France Federación de Estudiantes del Perú Federación nacional de Trabajadores del Agua Potable y Alcantarillado del Perú – FENTAP Finance & Trade Watch FÍS NUA, Ireland Foro Ciudadano de Participación – FOCO, Argentina Fondation Sciences Citoyennes, France Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy Foreste per Sempre, Italia Fórum Mudanças Climáticas e Justiça Social, Brasil Forum per i bieni comuni e l’economia solidale del Friuli Venezia Giulia – Italy Forum Solidarida Peru France Libertés – la Fondation Danielle Mitterrand, France Franciscans International Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular de Honduras Frente nacional por la vida y soberanía (FRENVIDAS), Peru Freshwater Action Network (FAN) Freshwater Action Network America del Sur (FANAS) Freshwater Action Network – Central America (FANCA) Freshwater Action Network – Mexico (FANMex) Freshwater Action Network South Asia (FANSA) Fresh Eyes – People to People Travel, UK Friche En Ville, France Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland Friends of the Earth Malta Friends of the Earth Sierra Leone Friends of the Earth Sweden Fundación Mundubat, España Garjan.org, Nepal Générations Futur, France Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature Global Exchange Globalization Watch Hiroshima, Japan Global Justice Ecology Project, US Global Social Justice – Belgium GRAIN Green Cross France et Territoires GroundWork, Friends of the Earth, South Africa Grupo Carta de Belém – Brasil Gruppo d’Acquisto Solidale Il Melograno Associazione di Siena (GAS) Grupo de Estudios Ambientales (GEA), Mexique Grupo de Solidaridad-Arenal (GRUDESA) – NICARAGUA Grupo de Trabajo de Cambio Climático y Justicia (GTCCJ) de Bolivia Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com, UK Humanitarian Group for Social Development (HGSD), Lebanon ICCA Consortium IDEASforus Togo ILLA centro de educación y comunicación, Peru Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) Institut Européen de Recherche sur la Politique de l’Eau (IERPE) Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Institute for Policy Studies, Climate Policy Program, US Instituto de Estudios sobre Desarrollo y Cooperación Internacional del País Vasco Insurrectas Autónomas, Honduras International Institute of Climate Action and Theory International Network on Migration and Development IRPAD/Afrique, Bamako (MALI) Jóvenes Ante la Emergencia Nacional, México Jubileo Sur/Américas Jubilee South Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (JSAPMDD) Justiça Ambiental – FoE Mozambique Justicia Climatica, Republica Dominicana Kalpavriksh – Environment Action Group, India Keep Ireland Fracking Free, Ireland KFEM (Korea Federation for Environmental Movement) – FoE Korea Kilusang Maralita sa Kanayunan (KILOS KA), Philippines KRuHA (people’s coalition for the right to water), Indonesia La Belle Cause La Nature en Ville, France Landless Peoples Movement South Africa Ligue Internationale des Femmes pour la Paix et la Liberté LILAK – Purple Action for Indigenous Women’s Rights, Philippines Maison de la Nature et de l’Environnement “la Porcherie” (MNE.P), Democratic Republic of the Congo Marcha mundial de las mujeres, Peru Marcha mundial de las mujeres macro region norte Maudesco – FoE Mauritius Medical Mission Sisters, US Medio Ambiente y Sociedad, Mexico MELCA, Ethiopia Mindanao Peoples’ Peace Movement (MPPM), Philippines Mindanao Peaceweavers (MPW), Philippines Migrant Rights Council of Nepal Mother Earth Action Co-operative Ltd, Canada Mouvement de la Paix, France Mouvement pour une Alternative Non-violente Mouvement Utopia, France Movement Generation, US Movement no coke high lazio Movimiento de Liberación Nacional, México Movimiento Madre Tierra – Amigos de la Tierra Honduras Movimiento Migrante Mesoameriano Movimiento por il lavoro i diritti l’ambiente MST-Italia Mujeres de negro contra la guerra, Spain Mujeres para el dialogo, Mexico Natural Bonder, South Africa Nepalese youth for Climate Action (NYCA) NOAH – Friends of the Earth Denmark Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition, US Noviciado franciscano de la provincia de San Pabl Apostol, Colombia No Vox International Nuclear-free bataan movement, Philippines Observatorio de Multinacionales en América Latina – Asociación Paz con Dignidad Oceanium Togo Oltre La Crescita, Italy Oregina di Genova, Italy Osmonde XXI, France Otros Mundos Chiapas – Amigos de la Tierra México Pachamama Alliance, US Pakistan rural workers social welfare organization (PRWSWO) Pambasang Koalisyon ng Kababaihan sa Kanayunan – National Rural Women Coalition – Philippines PAPDA – Haiti Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ) Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) Plataforma Boliviana Frente al Cambio Climatico Plataforma Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrollo (PIDHDD) Plataforma Rural, Spain Policy Alert, Nigeria Programa de Extensión “Por una nueva economía, humana y sustentable” de la carrera de Comunicación Social de la UNER, Argentina Programa FEES del CLAI Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK) Philippines Quaker Earthcare Witness, US Rebrip, Brasil Red de Cooperacion Amazonica – REDCAM Red de Coordinación en Biodiversidad, Costa Rica Red educacion popular entre mujeres (REPEM) Red Latinoamericana de Mujeres Transformando la Economía (REMTE) Redes – Amigos de la Tierra Uruguay Red nacional genero y economia, Mexico Réseau international CADTM Réseau Femmes Rurales Réseau Féministe « Ruptures » Réseau International Enda Tiers Monde Rete Clima Rettet den Regenwald, Germany RIM Youth Climate Movement Robin des Toits, France Rural Coalition, US Sanctuary Asia, India Serve – Net (Service Education Research Volunteers and pro-Environment Network) SERR – Servicios Ecumenicos para Reconcilacion y Reconstruccion Share The World’s Resources, UK Siembra, Mexico Sobrevivencia/Friends of the Earth-Paraguay Social Movements for an Alternative Asia (SMAA) Sociedad Civil Amigos del Viento Meteorología Ambiente Desarrollo, Uruguay Sociedade Sinhá Laurinha – Slau, Brazil SOLdePaz.Pachakuti, Asturias, Spain Solidaires – France South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, Durban, South Africa Stop Fessenheim, France Stop nucléaire Besançon, France Stop gaz de schiste Anduze (30), France SUMPAY Mindanao, Philippines Support for Women in Agriculture and Environment (SWAGEN), Uganda Syndicat Autonome des Travailleurs de la Sénégalaise des Eaux (SAT-SDE) Swarna Hansa Foundation, Sri Lanka System Change not Climate Change, Canada & US Taca Agir pour le climat Terra Nuova Thai Poor Act, Thailand The Corner House The International Grail Movement The Woodlandleague, Ireland Third World Health Aid, Belgium Timberwatch Coalition Touche pas à mon schiste, France TripleA Marbella, Spain Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development Umphilo waManzi, South Africa Union des associations pour la création d’un PARC NATUREL RÉGIONAL La BRIE et les deux MORIN Université Nomade, France Urgenci Community Supported Agriculture network Europe Virage-énergie Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France VOICE, Bangladesh Vrouwenraad, Belgium WARBE, Bangladesh WomanHealth Philippines World March of Women World March of Women – Philippines World Rural Forum Youth Action, Nepal Young Environment Leaders League (YELL), Philippines Young Leaders Initiative – CAR, Philippines Young People We Care – YPWC, Ghana Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom – WILPF US World Rainforest Movement ADHERING POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONSMouvement des objecteurs de croissance MOC EELV Les Jalles 33160 Saint Médard en Jalles Europe Ecologie les Verts des Landes l’Altra Europa con Tsipras – Comitato di Padova Comitato saronnese “L’Altra Europa con Tsipras” Jeunes Verts Togo The Brooklyn Greens/Green Party of NY Labor Party-Philippines
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