US Senator’s Statement At COP17 Disappointed US
We are writing as US citizens to express our grave disappointment about the views expressed by our government representatives at COP17. On December 7, US Senator James Inhofe delivered a video message to the Durban delegation which was ill-informed and mean-spirited.
We, like many others in the US, accept the consensual science on climate change: it is happening and people are suffering from water shortages, the acidification of the oceans, and extreme weather events.
The carbon load in the atmosphere, caused mainly by fossil fuel combustion, is too great and must be reduced. This reduction must begin before 2020.
While it is true that the US is a democracy, it is also true that Inhofe, who serves on a very powerful committee on environmental issues, continues to do the dirty work for industry.
Industry interests are the main impediment to any necessary movement on climate change which must happen on a global scale.
It is more accurate to say we have a democracy that uses free elections to put in place known obstructionists, and a media that disproportionally gives a forum to economically driven ideology over sound science.
JACK MIMS AND LARAY POLK
Dallas
Source: Mercury (South Africa)
Appendix 8
Anjali Appadurai’s Speech in Durban, December 9, 2011
On December 8, 2011, as US climate negotiator Todd Stern took the stage at the UN Climate Change Conference, Abigail Borah, a Middlebury College student, stood up from the audience and gave a short speech before being escorted out by security:“2020 is too late to wait. We need an urgent path to a fair, ambitious and legally binding treaty. You must take responsibility to act now, or you will threaten the lives of the youth and the world’s most vulnerable. You must set aside partisan politics and let science dictate decisions.” The day after Borah’s speech, another student, Anjali Appadurai, addressed the delegation from the podium. Both speeches were met with applause.
AMY GOODMAN: A number of protests are being held today at the climate change conference to protest the failure of world leaders to agree to immediately agree to a deal of binding emissions cuts. Earlier today, Anjali Appadurai, a student at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, addressed the conference on behalf of youth delegates.
CHAIRPERSON: I’d now like to give the floor to Miss Anjali Appadurai with College of the Atlantic, who will speak on behalf of youth non-governmental organizations. Miss Appadurai, you have the floor.
ANJALI APPADURAI: I speak for more than half the world’s population. We are the silent majority. You’ve given us a seat in this hall, but our interests are not on the table. What does it take to get a stake in this game? Lobbyists? Corporate influence? Money? You’ve been negotiating all my life. In that time, you’ve failed to meet pledges, you’ve missed targets, and you’ve broken promises. But you’ve heard this all before.
We’re in Africa, home to communities on the front line of climate change. The world’s poorest countries need funding for adaptation now. The Horn of Africa and those nearby in KwaMashu needed it yesterday. But as 2012 dawns, our Green Climate Fund remains empty. The International Energy Agency tells us we have five years until the window to avoid irreversible climate change closes. The science tells us that we have five years maximum. You’re saying, “Give us 10.”
The most stark betrayal of your generation’s responsibility to ours is that you call this “ambition.” Where is the courage in these rooms? Now is not the time for incremental action. In the long run, these will be seen as the defining moments of an era in which narrow self-interest prevailed over science, reason and common compassion.
There is real ambition in this room, but it’s been dismissed as radical, deemed not politically possible. Stand with Africa. Long-term thinking is not radical. What’s radical is to completely alter the planet’s climate, to betray the future of my generation, and to condemn millions to death by climate change. What’s radical is to write off the fact that change is within our reach. 2011 was the year in which the silent majority found their voice, the year when the bottom shook the top. 2011 was the year when the radical became reality.
Common, but differentiated, and historical responsibility are not up for debate. Respect the foundational principles of this convention. Respect the integral values of humanity. Respect the future of your descendants. Mandela said, “It always seems impossible, until it’s done.” So, distinguished delegates and governments around the world, governments of the developed world, deep cuts now. Get it done.
Mic check!
PEOPLE’S MIC: Mic check!
ANJALI APPADURAI: Mic check!
PEOPLE’S MIC: Mic check!
ANJALI APPADURAI: Equity now!
PEOPLE’S MIC: Equity now!
ANJALI APPADURAI: Equity now!
PEOPLE’S MIC: Equity now!
ANJALI APPADURAI: You’ve run out of excuses!
PEOPLE’S MIC: You’ve run out of excuses!
ANJALI APPADURAI: We’re running out of time!
PEOPLE’S MIC: We’re running out of time!
ANJALI APPADURAI: Get it done!
PEOPLE’S MIC: Get it done!
ANJALI APPADURAI: Get it done!
PEOPLE’S MIC: Get it done!
ANJALI APPADURAI: Get it done!
PEOPLE’S MIC: Get it done!
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Miss Appadurai, who was speaking on behalf of half of the world’s population, I think she said at the beginning. And on a purely personal note, I wonder why we let not speak half of the world’s population first in this conference, but only last.
AMY GOODMAN: That was a speech by Anjali Appadurai here in Durban at the U.N. climate change talks. Just after her speech, as you heard, she led a mic check from the stage, a move inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protests around the world. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, as we broadcast live from Durban, South Africa. Back in a moment.
Source: Democracy Now!
Appendix 9
Point Hope Protest Letter to JFK, March 3, 1961
The Inupiat, one of the oldest continuous communities in North America, successfully protested Edward Teller’s Project Chariot; a scheme to carve out an Alaskan harbor with nuclear explosives in the 1960s. The community faces similar risks today as Shell moves forward with its exploration for crude in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. Critics say the extreme weather conditions of the Arctic and an inadequate oil-spill response plan is a disaster in the making.
Point Hope
Alaska
March 3, 1961
Mr. John F. Kennedy
President of the United States
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. President:
We the Health Council of Point Hope and the residents of the village don’t like to see the blast at Cape Thompson. We want to go on record as protesting the Chariot Project because it is too close to our homes at Point Hope and to our hunting and fishing areas.
All the four seasons, each month, we get what we need for living. In December, January, February and even March, we get the polar bear, seals, tomcod, oogrook [bearded seal], walrus, fox and caribou. In March we also get crabs. In April, May and June, we hunt whales, ducks, seals, white beluga, and oogrook. In July we collect crow-bell eggs from Cape Thompson and Cape Lisburne and store them for the summer. In the summer we get some seals, oogrook, white beluga, fish, ducks, and caribou. In the middle of September many of our village go up Kookpuk River to stay for the fishing and caribou hunting until the middle of November. In November we get seals again and we need the seal blubber for our fuel. The hair seal skin we used for trading groceries from the store.