Note:
Eric Mann is at the United Nations Framework Climate Change Conference
in Paris where he is organizing on the ground and reporting for
Pacifica Radio and BlackCommentator.com.
Posts from Paris December 8 2015
I
am at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change n
Paris. Every day I ask the same three questions and demand answers.
What Are We Going to Do About the United States? What are We Going to
Do About the Democratic Party? And what are we going to do about U.S.
President Barack Hussein Obama. But from now on I am adding a Fourth,
"Will you help those of us who are fighting U.S. Genocidal Climate
Crimes - in Paris and during the 2016 Presidential Campaign and beyond?"
Today
at the United Nations, the United States is pulling out every stop to
threaten, intimidate, and bribe every nation state suffering from its
climate crimes. They are telling them they must drop any language in
the final U.N. Document that refers to the dreaded "loss and
damages"--reparations to the nations we are suffering the GHG emissions
of the U.S. and its insane imperialist system of production,
consumption, and military domination of the world. This document,
called the Advanced Durban Platform, or ADP, must to be completed this
Friday.
Now,
presently, Third World Nations, in a U.N. caucus called The G-77 and
China, are calling on the U.S. and E.U. for at least $100 billion a
year into a Green Climate Fund. My organization, the Labor/Community
Strategy Center has come to Paris to call on the U.S. to contribute at
least $10 billion to that fund. But given the U.S. military budget of
$600 Billion a year we need to demand even more - but $10 billion is a
good start.
The terms "finance," "loss and damages" " "adaptation" all involve
efforts by the countries suffering the worst impact of climate change
to develop new technologies rebuild to their nations. They need money
for what is called adaptation. Do you know what that means? The United
Nations describes adaptation as" "Practical steps to protect countries
and communities from the likely disruption and damage that will result
from effects of climate change. For example, flood walls should be
built and in numerous cases it is probably advisable to move human
settlements out of flood plains and other low-lying areas…”
The nations of Africa and small island states, nations like Bangladesh,
Congo, Marshall Islands are fighting to feed their people and are
asking the U.S. for help. The U.S. answer is clear:
"We
may have caused the problem but we will not tolerate any language in
the final text that puts the blame on us. Yes, we have caused the
problem but we reject any responsibility to mitigate let alone improve
those conditions for the nations and peoples who have damaged. And we
do not really plan to radically reduce our own emissions. As such, any
language in the final document that puts the blame on the U.S. and
Europe to pay for losses and damages will be redlined from the document
- which means there is no way in hell we will allow it in."
Since I have been in Paris, and even with the privilege of being able
to make evening commentaries for Pacifica, and have my articles
published in Counterpunch, Huffington Post, and BlackCommentator.com. I
feel that I am outraged over the specifics of U.S. genocidal climate
crimes but cannot get others to feel or act the same way.
We are presently facing what scientists are now calling the Holocene
extinction, sometimes called the Sixth Extinction. This is a name
proposed to describe the ongoing extinction event of species during the
present Holocene epoch (since around 10,000 BCE) mainly due to human
activity. Do you understand what that means? That you and I, as humans,
are responsible for ending most human habitation on earth - not just
imperialism, not just capitalism, or the Democrats and Obama - but you
and me.
You and me, by our consumption and fossil fuel use but more importantly by your inaction or lack of focused action.
Do you know exactly what loss and damagers are? Do you know what
reparations or the Green Climate Fund are? Do you know what President
Obama is or isn't doing in Paris? Do you really care? If you do, contact me and tell me you want to make demands on President Obama in Paris and all next year and beyond.
Please go on RootsAction (www.rootsaction.org) and sign the on-line petition demanding that President Obama join the rest of the world, not dominate it.
To reduce U.S. Emissions by 50 percent of 1990 levels by 2025--starting now.
To contribute $10 billion a year to the U.N. Green Climate Fund starting now.
And to send me and email saying that you want to stop President Obama
from threatening 3rd world countries who are demanding loss, damages,
and compensation and that you want us to reach out to your organization
when we get back to Paris for our What Are We Going to Do About the
United States campaign.
My posts from Paris are not intended as entertainment or even subjects
of idle or even fascinating conversation. They are calls to people to
join the world climate revolution Even if only one person responds to
this call--what if that person was you.
I am here in the U.N. with people from Africa facing starvation,
drought floods, and famine - now. I have returned from New Orleans to
see the Lower Ninth Ward - ten years later--barren and almost
uninhabited because of the U.S. response to Hurricane Katrina that I'll
tell you more about in my new book Katrina's Legacy.
This makes me want to fight, makes me want to organize. Do you? Will
you? What are you doing with your life? What changes are you willing to
make. We have a real campaign that needs real people. What if one of
those people is you? I would love to hear from you.
|
