December 18, 2009 in Opinion

Amy Goodman: Climate justice isn’t charity

Amy Goodman The Spokesman-Review

COPENHAGEN – Denmark is the home of renowned children’s author Hans Christian Andersen. Copenhagen is dotted with historical spots where Andersen lived and wrote. “The Little Mermaid” was one of his most famous tales, published in 1837, along with “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”

As the U.N. climate summit, called “COP 15,” enters its final week, with more than 100 world leaders arriving amid growing protests, the notion that a binding agreement will come from this gathering looks more and more like a fairy tale.

The reality is harsher. Negotiations have repeatedly broken down, with divisions between the global North, or industrialized countries, and the global South. Leading the North is the United States, the world’s greatest polluter, historically, and a leader in per capita carbon emissions. Among the Southern nations are several groupings, including the least-developed countries, or LDCs; African nations; and nations from AOSIS, the Alliance of Small Island States. These are places where millions of people live on the edge, directly impacted by climate change, from cyclones and droughts to erosion and floods. Tuvalu, near Fiji, and other island nations, for example, are concerned that rising sea levels will wipe their countries off the map.

New conceptions of the crisis are emerging at COP 15. People are speaking of climate justice, climate debt and climate refugees. Indian scientist and activist Vandana Shiva was among those who addressed a climate justice rally of 100,000 Saturday in Copenhagen. Afterward, I asked her to respond to U.S. climate negotiator Jonathan Pershing, who said the Obama administration is willing to pay its fair share, but added that donors “don’t have unlimited largesse to disburse.” Shiva responded, “I think it’s time for the U.S. to stop seeing itself as a donor and recognize itself as a polluter, a polluter who must pay. … This is not about charity. This is about justice.”

Shiva went on: “A climate refugee is someone who has been uprooted from their home, from their livelihoods, because of climate instability. It could be people who’ve had to leave their agriculture because of extended drought. It could be communities in the Himalayas who are having to leave their villages, either because flash floods are washing out their villages or because streams are disappearing.”

Both inside and outside the summit there is a diverse cross section of nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, from indigenous-peoples delegations to environmental and youth groups. Their separate but connected efforts have been coalescing into a new movement, a movement for climate justice. Broad consensus exists among the NGOs and the global South that any agreement coming out of the U.N. process must be fair, ambitious and binding, or as they put it, “FAB.”

The Bella Center itself, where the summit is being held, is said by the U.N. to be at capacity. Thousands of people line up daily in the cold, vainly hoping to get in to the Bella of the Beast. Thousands more, from the NGOs, are having their access stripped, ostensibly to make room for visiting heads of state, their entourages and security.

Outside, Copenhagen is seeing an unprecedented police crackdown, with the largest and most expensive security operation in Denmark’s history. More than 1,200 people were detained over the weekend, and as this column goes to press, targeted arrests of protest organizers and police raids of public protest convergence spaces are being reported. Heavy-handed police tactics give another meaning to “COP 15.”

After South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu spoke at a candlelight vigil for children, I asked if he thought President Barack Obama was following through on climate change. He responded: “We hope he will, yes. He has given the world a great deal of hope. I have said he’s now a Nobel laureate – become what you are.”

Last week, as a polar bear ice statue melted downtown, revealing the dinosaur skeleton hidden within, a small ice replica of Copenhagen’s famous Little Mermaid statue sat outside the Bella Center, melting. She is now gone. Obama is making his second attempt to win a prize in Copenhagen, after the Chicago Olympics embarrassment. Unless he uses the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new determination that carbon dioxide is a public health hazard and nails down a fair, ambitious and binding agreement, we may see Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes” played out on the global stage.

Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour. Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.

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Comments 05

Five comments on this story so far. Add yours!

Rob Leach on December 18 at 6:56 a.m.
“Climate Change” is probably the largest hoax perpetrated on the American people ever! It was designed to penalize us for our successes, freedoms and power in the world. It is also being used by Federal, State and local governments to control and tax the masses. One volcano erupting produces more CO2 than Man has ever produced since the beginning of time. The fact that some people actually believe that Man is powerful enough to actually damage the Earth is simply naive and extremely arrogant. I wonder why every “solution” is to limit the common man while enriching large companies and a few crooks like Algore? Like I have said several times, “Follow the money.” The truth will literally set you free!

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Megan_B on December 18 at 9:56 a.m.
“The fact that some people actually believe that Man is powerful enough to actually damage the Earth is simply naive and extremely arrogant.”

You may not believe in climate change, or global warming, or whatever title you think that the crisis deserves. But EVERYONE can agree that pollution is REAL, and that filling the air with toxins from our car exhaust, industrial factories, etc, is not good for our environment OR our health.

“I wonder why every “solution” is to limit the common man while enriching large companies and a few crooks like Algore?”

Because big oil won't continue to make lots of $$$ if we don't try to utilize alternative energies? And his name is Al Gore.

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Coffee on December 18 at 12:29 p.m.
What are you willing to give up to combat global warming. Here are some of the things you will have to give up. Private ownership of cars, hot water, heat above 55 degrees in the winter, air conditioning, streetlights, fresh fruit out of season, dish washers, cloths washers and dryers. The above listed things only scratch the surface of things you will need to give up. Keep in mind that these are the things you and I will be giving up not the politically connected or uber rich.

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Megan_B on December 18 at 3:57 p.m.
Not if we could power “cars, hot water, heat above 55 degrees in the winter, air conditioning, streetlights, fresh fruit out of season, dish washers, cloths washers and dryers” with alternative energies! Whoever invents the cheapest way to produce an alternative energy first will be making the most $$$ (and producing the most jobs). It's either us, Japan, or China. Let the race begin!

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JBlim on December 19 at 8:49 a.m.
Anyone who thinks climate change is a hoax, which is now the Republican “politically correct” dogma should go to http://scholar.google.com/ and search for 'climate.' There are over 1,600,000 scholarly articles and studies on the subject. Can you find any that support your point of view? I doubt it. Oh right, it's the vast conspiracy of scientists. Give me a break! You deniers don't like the solution so you deny the problem exists.

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