Climate Justice Reading

Deal or no Deal - Copenhagen 2009

Probably the best quick run down of where International negotiations on Climate Change are at, and what we should, and very importantly shouldn’t do about it. A big thanks to ‘The Very Co-operative’ for putting this together. Click on the post for the full COP15 demystefying booklet.

"This newspaper is about the 15th UN Conference Of Parties. What the climate talks will be like if the process continues the way it has, stagnated into tit-for-tat bargaining with power structures set in stone. And what not only the meeting, but the future of everything - the planet, and us - could be like instead."
 

HOODWINKED IN THE HOTHOUSE

False Solutions to Climate Change

The 20 page pamphlet — “Hoodwinked in the Hothouse” — covers topics as diverse as Clean Coal, Agrofuels, Geoengineering, Carbon Offsets and over a dozen other non-solutions to the climate crisis, all in concise, colorfully illustrated and information packed essays.

www.risingtide.org.uk

www.risingtide.org.au

www.risingtide.org.us

The report examines the record of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and asks what the effects are likely to be of expanding offsetting as proposed in the UN climate talks. The report finds that in practice offsetting is not leading to emissions reductions or benefits to developing countries. Instead, it is simply leading to more ingenious ways to avoid cutting emissions.

The report finds that offsetting is profoundly unjust, fundamentally flawed and cannot be reformed.

FOE Press Release: Government’s carbon offsetting plans exposed as con

Indigenous Peoples’ Guide to False solutions to Climate Change

Our planet is heating up at an alarming rate, threatening our very survival. What needs to be done is simple: Thepollution and destruction of Earth must be stopped immediately. But instead,there is a lot of greed, false solutions and lies about how to save our future.It seems that leaders of the world are more concerned about making money thansolving the climate crisis.

This is a quick guide to the truth about false solutions to climate change. These market-basedscams allow polluters to avoid reducing their pollution, continue to destroynature and make millions while they are at it. The United Nations, the WorldBank, industry, multinationals, governments and even some NGOs promote thisclimate fraud. Could it be that crimes against humanity and the planet arebeing committed and nobody knows?

Unfortunately, most of these falsesolutions are violating not only the law of nature but also Indigenous Peoples’rights. Many of these so-called “solutions” to Climate Change are grabbing Indigenous Peoples’ land and devastating our planet. Indigenous Peoples need to know what’s going on so that they fight back.

Carbon Trading - A Critical Conversation on Climate Change,Privatisation and Power -Larry Lohmann

According to the World Bank, the market in carbon dioxide will soon be worth billions.

If the words ‘carbon trading’ make your brain go numb, this is for you. Lohmann adopts, quite literally, the form of a conversation, a dialogue with the reader, interspersed with case studies and images. In so doing he vividly reveals the world of international politics, NGO co-option, carbon colonialism and inspired grassroots movements. Shocking stories from India to Guatemala show how pollution, land-grabbing and human rights abuses are being perpetrated in the name of ‘carbon trading to save the world’.

Yet through all the doom and gloom Lohmann’s book is bursting with strategies for tackling climate change from a social justice perspective. It might even leave you feeling quite upbeat. One word of warning though – do not try to read Carbon Trading in one sitting. Take it slowly; it’s invitingly dip-in-able.

-New Internationalist

Hoodwinked in the Hothouse - The G8, Climate Change and free-market environmentalism