<div dir="ltr">dear Elizabeth, we could publish this on the p2p blog as well if you want,<div><br></div><div>Michel</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 4:19 PM, Elizabeth Peredo <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:elyperedo@gmail.com" target="_blank">elyperedo@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Dear Silke and friends. I want to share an article on climate change and reflections forme the cominos perspective. Please spread it out.<div>
Warm regards,</div><div>Elizabeth</div><div><br></div><div>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">Climate
change: a challenge that goes beyond politics</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">Elizabeth
Peredo Beltran*</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">It has rained incessantly in the Bolivian Amazon and in the Valleys. The
waters that have flooded our territory since January, are thought to be the
result of the worst rains in 40 years. More
than 60,000 families have been affected – meaning that at least 350,000 people
have had to leave their homes. They have
lost almost everything they own: their animals, their crops, their daily lives.
UNICEF has reported that 60,000 Bolivian children have been affected. 900 schools have had to suspend activities for
almost a month due to high risk. Over
fifty people have died and some of their bodies have still not been recovered.
And we cannot yet tell what the magnitude of the impact on health, food and the
ability of communities to rebuild their lives will be as the floodwaters recede
and the extent of the destruction is slowly revealed. One small example of how
poverty triggers the vulnerability of communities comes from the situation of
the indigenous people in the TIPNIS communities-. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">Though reports speak of huge losses of corn, rice, potatoes, soybeans,
vegetables and livestock – with estimates of over 250,000 head of cattle
missing –it remains to be seen in the next few months what the economic impact
of floods will be for these peoples themselves, and what the impact will be at
both regional and national levels.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">In the face of the dramatic situation presented by this disaster both authorities
and civilians across the whole country have mobilized to collect food,
medicines and everything necessary to bring help to the affected communities. Above and beyond these good intentions to come
together to provide aid for those affected by the floods in the Amazon region
and in the Bolivian valleys, we were however far from being capable of
confronting the dimension of such a disaster. Rainfalls are also far from being
recognized as not an occasional event but rather as climate events that will
repeat more frequently in the future. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">Not far from this region, droughts are hitting hard: in both the
Chiquitanía region and the Chaco regions of Santa Cruz and Tarija there have
been losses of thousands of hectares of crops, which is resulting in a silent
forced migration to the cities. Just some months back the Bolivian Defence
Ministry reported 247,000 hectares of land affected by the lack of rain, by
snow or by fire. Meanwhile the loss of our glaciers is a sorrow to which we are
becoming accustomed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">Climate change is not just a scientific issue, nor is it just something
which is of exclusive interest to UN negotiations, nor it is a warning for the
future: it is already present in our times, in our territories, and it comes with
violence. Climate change affects people’s lives and it is already claiming many
victims. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">We share this grief with millions of people across the planet who are
suffering the sameconsequences. 6,200
dead, with more than 11 million people affected by super typhoon Haiyan in the
Philippines just a few months back. A million people without electricity after
snowstorms caused by the late winter polar vortex in the U.S.A. Thousands of
people affected in the UK in what was considered the worst flooding in 200
years. Thousands of hectares of forest burned annually in Australia by the
alarming drought and heat. Thousands affected in Central America, Argentina,
Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, Paraguay and other countries. 25 million souls
driven into uncertainty by water shortages, the result of droughts and heat
waves in California. A deadly landslide with more than one hundred people
missing in Washington State (USA), the result of heavy rains. Millions of
humans and ecosystems at risk in various parts of the world... News that nobody
wants to hear, but which we will inevitably be forced to confront in our own lifetimes,
even though the news appears first as cold statistics in the press. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">We need to connect the dots to realise that climate change is a
phenomenon that challenges us to overcome short-term visions and the empty
rhetoric of "Mother Earth", devoid of concrete actions. Climate
change is a consequence of the violent exploitation of nature, of endless
economic growth systems based on fossil fuel consumption, understood as an irreplaceable
condition for human "welfare". This obsolete idea has been inculcated
into our lives on a social, a psychological and on a cultural level.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">What can we do to finally to take on board that the emissions from
burning fossil fuels, of large scale cattle exploitation and of deforestation
emissions -both in the North and in the South- are destroying our atmosphere?
Where are the effective means of caring for the Common Goods kidnapped by
corporations and the global addiction to unlimited growth? How long do we have
to wait till the polluters begin to stop poisoning us and prevent worse
consequences? When and how will there be compensation for the damage? (almost
71.5% of global emissions are from developed countries where only 17.3% of the
world population reside). What can we do to avoid the likelihood that the
so-called "development" of the global South will repeat that same
destructive patterns (disguised by the promises of progress and of happiness)?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">Unfortunately, and not only in Bolivia, this theme has become distorted.
It became an issue of political and economic interest, rather than simply being
recognised as a matter of life or death, a challenge for survival. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">The <b>Fifth IPCC</b> <b>(AR5)</b> report has established in an
unequivocal way that climate change is caused by human activity and that it is
causing climate chaos everywhere. This report has warned that climate change
presents enormous risks related to the access to water, food and livelihood.
Some scientists and activists have been highly critical of this report for
being - when all is said and done - conservative in nature, especially when it
comes to expressing the urgency of the matter. They note that climate change is
occurring faster than the IPCC scenarios had indicated, and that the Arctic
ice-melt –and its consequent methane release (one of the greatest global
threats) - has been underestimated due to pressure mounted by the rich nations
and by the oil lobby. Other voices are questioning the possibility that the
IPCC report has opened up opportunities for false solutions like “geo engineering”
and unproven technologies, instead of insisting in a stronger way on the
restriction of the use of fossil fuels.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">Denialism around the world</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">In the context of this global emergency, surprisingly, a
political/ideological current called "denialism" has emerged. Denialists claim that these phenomena do not
correspond to the saturation of the atmosphere as a direct result of human
action, rather they claim that it is simply due to the planet’s "natural
cycles". Denialists, as if we have need of such a service, have devoted
their activism to denial of scientific reports. They have become a strong global
current that accompanies the rhythms of economical development and investment,
blaming environmentalists for creating unnecessary uncertainty. Their position
is in essence linked with the corporate oil lobby, large corporations and
private capital dedicated to the continued exploration for -and exploitation
of- fossil fuels. Their political/industry alliances are indestructible.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">Bill McKibben, activist founder of <a href="http://350.org" target="_blank">350.org</a> has claimed that if oil
reserves recognised by the world stock markets were exploited, this would
consume five times the remaining atmospheric carbon budget. A calamity!
Meanwhile, denialism among U.S. republican representatives commands an
impressive lobby so that the US doesn’t even contribute to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) nor the UN platform on
Economic and Social issues (ECOSOC), even more: they promote the
"persecution" of their country’s scientists who assert that
anthropogenic climate change is a reality. James Hansen, one of the NASA
scientists, is one of their favourite targets.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">Denialism does have definite concrete political realities as describe
above, but the term also describes an attitude in society, a broad social space
of indifference to both global and climate change. This attitude holds
significant way in civil society because people find it very difficult to
change their lives in order to prevent global disaster. They prefer to close
their eyes to the future. In the field of social psychology this is called
"cognitive dissonance". Clive Hamilton, Professor at the Australian
Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, has concluded that denialism
is an expression of the failure of humanity to confront this crisis of global
dimensions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">Another form of "denialism", - although they don’t much like
it mentioned – is that which comes from governments and from other circles of
power and decision-making who disregard the urgent need for action despite the
information is available to them. Through their decisions they deny the urgent
need to change the current model of development, the energy grid, and the
management of the response to the crisis of global climate change. The alarming
information provided by science is available to governments first hand.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">Just remember the Philippine climate change negotiator to the UNFCCC who
moved a global audience during the climate talks in Poland 2013, demanding <b>"an end to this madness"</b>,
after super-typhoon Haiyan devastated part of his country. Though negotiators responded
to his words with minutes of silence and expressions of solidarity,
negotiations continued as if nothing had happened. Business continued "as
usual", and the production and consumption of fossil fuels throughout the
world continued "as usual". Convention agreements fall paradoxically by
the wayside; the dictates of the capitalist system are at once stronger and
more binding than the multilateral agreements. Negotiators seem to speak in
unison: <i>“We can vouch for what we have
accomplished in the negotiations, but not for the policies in our own countries</i>”.
The big decisions - those linked to the economic system, to the energy
matrices, and to capitalist production, that permanent engine of depredation -
are kept in place by regional governments at the territorial and local levels.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">Bolivia and the challenge
of climate change</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">The recent floods in Bolivia have brought us one step closer to these
big questions. To a greater or lesser
extent, our understanding is framed by the controversies that are taking place
across the globe. We observe the impacts of the climate crisis: polarisation,
crisis, demands, the taking up of positions and proposals that go beyond the
scope of the climate negotiations.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">In Bolivia this has also brought about controversy. This is mediated by
national and regional political tensions. Thus the people from the Amazon
villages wonder: <i>“What do we do now? What
will sustain our families? Are we less important than cattle?”</i> The tensions
unleashed by the floods demonstrate how far we are from responses on the scale
that is required. Distancing oneself from that which the government says, from
local government demands, from Brazilian silence (motivated by the possible
causal effects of recently constructed mega-dams), from the political
declarations… what really matters is the construction of a society which is
resilient to these global changes, and, therefore, a society able to build a
new world based on solidarity and empathy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">There are some lessons that I venture to pinpoint from the dramas that
we have lived through in the recent floods in our country:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">- We do not need heroes,
nor do we need the usual political battles. Rather, we require a long-term view
that takes into account climate change and other global changes, seeing the
incorporation of cross-cutting measures as critical at every level of public
administration and of public life. Nurturing Nature and the Human Rights of the
population, especially the poorest people, should be high priorities.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">- While negotiations on the
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) are now the only multilateral
scenario for global commitments (though they are near to collapse due to their
own inefficiency), today local priorities are more important than ever. This is
where we can see whether or not we are making progress in stopping this
catastrophe and changing the world to care for and regenerate life fabrics that
are still alive.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">- Resilience must be
considered in a multi-dimensional way, from what it means to meet the challenge
of sustainable energy and to restore harmony, to the development of technical
skills in agriculture, water management, human settlements, etc. Resilience
also means ensuring a healthy social tissue, strengthening solidarity, respect
and mutual recognition. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">- Resilience means also developing
a more complex viewpoint that redefines “development" for these times of
global changes. To face properly climate change, states must take seriously the
fossil fuels use menace. They have to think how to stop and change “fossilized”
economies and societies.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">- The care and restoration
of Nature should become an obsession for all –particularly for governments –
learning from the capability of the people (amply expressed in those days of
rain) to give solidarity. Learning from Mother Earth itself and from its
diversity, from the local knowledge of each people and town from the positive
progress of mankind. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">We need to neutralize "denialism" as a collective attitude; it
is not an unalterable condition. It is simply because people are unable to
change their depredatory habits, because the channels for proactive and
restorative activity are blocked by the systems of political power, by energy
systems and by the markets that surround us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">There is a growing global consciousness which is looking for ways to
activate itself; It is trying to pave the ways to do so and to enable people to
build resilient communities not just using technologies and systems, but also
in more intimate fabrics - solidarity, love, compassion –which strengthen the
possibilities for healthy interactions, and feed the desire to heal Nature,
nourishing empathy and sentiments for others.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">Climate change is challenging humanity. It demands a huge effort from
all of us to restore and heal the planet. This requires discipline,
rebelliousness and creativity in order to confront a truly global emergency
with substantial implications for life and civilization. It is an emergency
that by whatever political calculation – from wherever it comes - is simply...
unacceptable.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">La Paz, Bolivia</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">April, 2014</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:18pt"><b><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10pt">Elizabeth Peredo Beltrán</span></i></b><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10pt"> is a Bolivian Social Psychologist, researcher and
author. She is one of the promoters of the Blue October Campaign for water as a
Common in her country, Elizabeth belongs the APMM (Mountain People’s
Association). She is a member of Food and Water Watch’ board of directors in
Washington DC and is the Executive Director of the cultural Solon Foundation in
Bolivia.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:18pt"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10pt"> </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:18pt"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10pt">Translation
and edition in English: Thanks to Tony Phillips and Monica Stopplemann</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
</div></div>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div><b>Please note an intrusion wiped out my inbox on February 8; I have no record of previous communication, proposals, etc ..</b></div><div><br>
</div>P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a> - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br><br><a href="http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank"></a>Updates: <a href="http://twitter.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens</a><br>
<br>#82 on the (En)Rich list: <a href="http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/" target="_blank">http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/</a> <br></div>
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