Thought I would share the submission of my husband, Dr. Peter Carter, well and duly translated into Spanish! I will post the English version soon ... this conference is filled to the brim, and I have just stopped into a little internet cafe to post this.
Sólo el gobierno de Bolivia tiene los números correctos para que el Hemisferio Sur, y de hecho el mundo entero, sobreviva al cambio climático global
por Peter D. Carter, MD (Canadá)
Escribo desde la encantadora ciudad boliviana de Cochabamba que es la anfitriona para más de 10.000 personas en forma gratuita, para lo que será sin duda la mayor conferencia mundial sobre el cambio de clima. Llegué aqui con anticipación para acostumbrarme a la altura porque yo vivo a solo unos cuantos metros por encima del nivel del mar en Canadá.
Cochabamba y el gobierno de Bolivia son los anfitriones de más de 10.000 participantes a la conferencia, haciendo de esta ciertamente la más grande conferencia sobre cambio climático en todo el mundo. También es la más importante debido a la posición formal sobre cambio climático ante las Naciones Unidas del gobierno de Evo Morales y porque el tema en cuestión es la supervivencia de la humanidad.
En 2007 se publicó la mayor evaluación sobre el medio ambiente global redactada por cientos de científicos, llamada la Cuarta Evaluación Ambiental Global (GEO-4) del Programa Medio Ambiental de las Naciones Unidas. Esta publicación estableció que ahora el cambio climático global es una amenaza para la "propia supervivencia de la humanidad". Sólo un líder nacional ha declarado lo mismo y este fue Evo Morales de Bolivia el pasado mes de diciembre en la Conferencia Climática de la Naciones Unidas en Copenhagen.
La posición formal sobre cambio climático del gobierno boliviano es única entre los gobiernos del mundo e incluso entre las organizaciones internacionales. Esto se debe a que es singularmente honesta. Aunque se diseñó para proteger la supervivencia y los medios de vida de todos los bolivianos, ocurre que esta política es la única posición que coincide con la ciencia del cambio climático, sin ningún compromiso político o económico. Por lo tanto es la única posición que podría evitar la devastación a nivel mundial debido al cambio climático global. Tal como dijo el embajador boliviano Pablo Solón ante la ONU, el cambio climático global es el único tema en el cual no se puede ser flexible.
Cuál es esta posición única sobre el cambio climático del gobierno de Bolivia? Aquí está:
1. El aumento promedio global de la temperatura de la superficie del planeta Tierra debe estar limitado a 1°C y por lo tanto …
2. La concentración atmosférica de dióxido de carbono debe ser limitada (lo cual significa reducida) a 300 partes por millón (ppm).
3. Las naciones industrializadas deben dejar de emitir carbono. Esto significa una replanificación total para la conversión hacia una energía limpia, perpétua y de cero carbono para todos los pueblos. ¡Qué idea más maravillosa!
4. Las naciones industrializadas deben extraer "miles de millones de toneladas" de dióxido de carbono directamente del aire. El hecho es que la ciencia del cambio climático ha establecido totalmente que sólo las emisiones cero de carbono, complementadas por la extracción del dióxido de carbono directamente de la atmósfera, puede llevarnos a una reducción del actual catastrófico nivel de dióxido de carbono en la atmósfera (390 ppm) y evitar que aumente aún más. Este es el secreto mejor guardado de los países industrializados, porque es un hecho científico que se conoce desde hace muchos años y aún sigue siendo ignorado.
Ningún otro gobierno u organización internacional tiene una posición que incluya por lo menos uno de estos cuatro puntos.
¿Por qué es tan catastróficamente alta la concentración actual de dióxido de carbono (CO2)? La ciencia del cambio climático ha establecido que la concentración de CO2 en la atmósfera es la más alta de los últimos 15 millones de años y, tal como lo estableció la Administración Nacional Oceánica y Atmosférica de los Estados Unidos (NOAA) el año pasado, "probablemente es la más alta de los últimos 20 millones de años". NOAA dijo que la acidificación del océano debido a todo este carbono en la atmósfera es la más alta en 20 millones de años.
El veinte por ciento de todo el dióxido de carbono que ha sido emitido a la atmósfera se va a quedar ahí, calentando el planeta durante los próximos 1000 años. Por lo tanto los poderosos y ricos países industrializados no solo deberán de dejar de añadir más CO2 a la atmósfera, sino que tendrán que eliminar, como dice el Presidente Morales, los miles de millones de toneladas de dióxido de carbono de la atmósfera.
Las cifras más importantes para la humanidad son 1°C y 0 emisiones de carbono. Sin cero emisiones de carbono, no pueden surgir otros números, excepto números más y más altos que nos llevarán a una catástrofe climática.
Por qué el límite de 1°C, que ha sido propuesto sólo por el gobierno de Bolivia, es la única manera en que la humanidad puede sobrevivir al cambio climático global?
Una razón importante es la seguridad alimentaria. El calentamiento global y la alteración del clima causado por las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero conducirán a la disminución de la producción de granos del mundo. Las naciones poderosas le han prestado poca atención a los efectos del cambio climático global en la agricultura, sobre la base absurda de que sus agricultores tendrán que adaptarse a los cambios climáticos. Como cualquier campesino sabe, el éxito en la agricultura depende de un clima estable, épocas previsibles, y la ausencia de sequías, tormentas severas, inundaciones y plagas de malezas e insectos nocivos. Estos y otros más son los cambios que previsiblemente sucederán y cada vez más con el incremento continuo del calentamiento global y el cambio climático, especialmente en el muy vulnerable Hemisferio Sur.
Otra parte de la respuesta al 1°C se encuentra en lo que dicen los datos ignorados del modelo informatizado agrícola y de cambio climático. Estos datos se encuentran en el Grupo Intergubernamental de Expertos del Cuarto Informe de Evaluación sobre Cambio Climático (2007). Para el hemisferio sur, la producción de sus principales granos se reduciría a partir de un aumento de 1°C de temperatura de la superficie de nuestro planeta. Las naciones en desarrollo deben tener como límite el aumento de 1°C de temperatura global para su supervivencia. ¡Con un aumento de 2°C de temperatura, los modelos proyectan una reducción entre el 25% al 30% del rendimiento para los países en el Hemisferio Sur!
También con un incremento de más de 1°C, la producción mundial de alimentos se verá "amenazada" con una reducción y es por esto que todo el mundo debe tener el límite de 1°C de temperatura para la seguridad climática y la seguridad alimentaria. Con un aumento de 2°C, la producción de alimentos se reducirá en el hemisferio norte. ¡En los hechos la evaluación de la IPCC del 2007 notó que la disminución de los alimentos al norte del Ecuador a 2°C fue establecida en la evaluación de la IPCC del 2001!
Por lo tanto, la verdad de la ciencia del cambio climático ha probado que los pueblos del mundo deben luchar para rechazar la meta de la politica de los +2°C y luchar por el límite que Bolivia propone, de un máximo de 1°C para el aumento de la temperatura global. Los gobiernos les dirán a sus pueblos (con la única excepción del gobierno de Bolivia) y también muchas organizaciones internacionales (que apoyan el límite de los +2°C) dirán que el 1°C es imposible y no es viable económicamente. El pueblo tiene que responder que esto no es cierto, e incluso si fuera cierto, que este no es motivo para seguir "apoyando" el objetivo de +2°C y que ni siquiera debemos intentar el límite de 1°C y la supervivencia.
Sólo existe un líder en el mundo hoy en día sobre el cambio climático mundial. Este líder es el presidente boliviano, Evo Morales.
El Dr. Peter Carter es un médico jubilado y analista de investigación en salud ambiental de Canadá.
Showing posts with label Evo Morales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Evo Morales. Show all posts
20 April 2010
15 April 2010
GreenHeart Education's Submission to World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth
The most important thing for this conference to achieve is to (com)passionately back and energetically promote the Evo Morales/Bolivian position, which is the only position in the world that agrees with the science:
+1ºC, 300 ppm, zero carbon, and climate survival
We must ensure that we create a global people's movement that will call for — FIGHT FOR – a 1ºC limit to global average temperature increase (a 2ºC "target" is global suicide).
Why is a 1ºC limit vital for our survival?
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) says that at +1ºC, world food production is threatened.
It has long been established that at +1ºC, food production in the global South will start to go into decline, leading to famines and mass migrations, thereby destabilizing world security.
At +1ºC, the summer Arctic sea ice will be long gone, and the winter Arctic sea ice will be melting, resulting in a catastrophic acceleration in the increase of global temperature.
At +1ºC, the already-thawing permafrost (which contains double all the carbon in the atmosphere) in the Arctic will be emitting very large amounts of methane (which has over 70 times the heating power of carbon dioxide).
At +1ºC, frozen solid methane gas (hydrate) in the Arctic seabed will melt at a rapidly increasingly rate, emitting methane into the ocean and into the atmosphere. This will result in abrupt, unstoppable, totally catastrophic global heating.
2. EDUCATE, EDUCATE, EDUCATE - In many school systems around the world, nothing has changed, even though today's students have no guarantee of a viable future. We are still teaching a 20th century curriculum based on fossil fuelled growth, expansion and "progress" (that is, UNsustainable development). Today, EVERY YOUTH on the planet has
- the right to learn the state of the planet and the risks to their future
- the right to learn the science of climate change (free from the propaganda of deniers), and
- the right to learn how to create the best possible future for themselves (growing their own food, constructing rainwater collection systems, exploring renewable and perpetual energy technologies, bonding with the rest of Nature).
We all need to demand of our education systems that they introduce policy for sustainability and climate change mitigation. All countries have education systems. Wherever possible, as many children as possible go to school. School is a common-culture-building tool. It gives us mental constructs in common — written language, math, someone's version of history, a political and "resourcist" view of geography. And analytical science/technology. So now that this kind of "get-ahead" education has contributed to making us want to always get more ... how could it teach us that we have to learn to be sustainable? And stop belching fossil fuel emissions? Most people do not make any demands of any kind on school systems for environmental content. We need to look up at these bastions of decision-making and demand that they cooperate. — Elise Houghton, Environmental Education Ontario (Canada)
The most important thing to publicize is the Bolivian climate change position, especially the limit (not a "target" to be strived for!) of a 1 degree Celsius global average temperature increase — and the reasons and rationale for it. THE SURVIVAL OF HUMANITY IS AT STAKE. PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD MUST LEARN THIS, HEAR THIS (OVER AND OVER), AND TAKE IT TO HEART. The Bolivian position is the only one that agrees with the science of global warming and climate change.
We have no time left, if we are to guarantee a viable, climate-safe future for humanity. We are fighting for the lives of our children. From now on, we cannot trust any solutions proposed by wealthy nations who cannot see that fighting the good climate change fight is for the common good of all life on Earth (or who can only conceive solutions that will benefit themselves financially). From now on, we can only trust initiatives and solutions proposed by the PEOPLE who stand to lose everything -- their lives and their livelihoods, their food security and water sources, their homes and their entire homelands.
If this means revolutionary measures, so be it. Certainly transformative measures are called for. But it might also mean slowing down, adopting some old traditional ways (as we also adopt en masse some new environmentally friendly technologies). We must, as rapidly as possible, transform our deadly fossil-fuelled global economy into thriving renewable/perpetual energy-based localized economies – making the world safer, cleaner, healthier, more equitable and more peaceful at the same time.
5. GET SERIOUS ABOUT SUSTAINABLE (AND NOW, SURVIVABLE) DEVELOPMENT. It is long past time for us to take sustainable development and United Nations Agenda 21 seriously. If we had adopted the radical concept and principles of sustainable development when they were presented at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, we would be well on our way to mitigating the climate change emergency by now. Dennis Meadows says it's too late for sustainable development, that we must turn our attention to "survivable development" — but the concept is the same. It means putting the children of all species first, and placing the well being of everything we cherish (our families, our communities, our sacred places, our food and water sources) at the centre of our discussions, planning and decision-making. (I remember asking the Copenhagen Climate Conference negotiators to put photographs of their children on their desks, so that they would remember whose lives they were negotiating for. They did not do that.)
6. DEMAND TRANSFORMATIVE CHANGE. We must ask for what we need in order to survive the global climate change emergency: a +1ºC limit on global average temperature increases (not the deadly +2ºC "target" that has taken hold in negotiations and media reports), zero carbon and climate survival — the guarantee of a safe climate for our children.
Let us start painting the picture of the transformative changes we need. Until we start dreaming big, envisioning big, asking big, demanding big, we are not going to get the big changes – the complete conversion – that we need.
7. ZERO CARBON, ZERO CARBON, ZERO CARBON – Over the last 100 years, and especially since World War 2, we have been gorging ourselves on carbon-based energy. Industrialized nations have pushed atmospheric carbon levels to the highest level they have been in 20 million years. Zero carbon technology, a zero carbon economy and virtually zero carbon lifestyles must be our goal. Anything more than zero carbon condemns our children to a future of climate hell, and threatens extinction of most life on Earth.
With "peak oil" looming, let's decide to use the last remaining easily accessible oil to move ourselves into the Golden Age of Perpetual Energy. THE BURNING AGE IS OVER! No more burning! No more fuels! (And to those who argue that they have invested money in fossil fuel developments, let us say, "Leaving the oil/gas/coal in the ground is like money in the bank. When (if) we learn how to extract and use it in climate-safe ways, you may withdraw your earnings. Until then, we will consider it a crime to profit from progenycide.")
Let us ask our friends, neighbours and relatives to envision a world lit and run by the power of the sun (photovoltaics and solar thermal), the wind, the Earth's core heat (geothermal), the tides and the waves – all the perpetual energy sources.
8. LET US STOP WORSHIPPING UNSHARED WEALTH AND START SCORNING IT. This is a simple change of mindset. We have turned personal profit, greed and usury into virtues. Let us turn them back into sins. Wealth should be a shared community asset. Let us learn from our indigenous brothers and sisters, several of whom had traditional rituals and ceremonies for the sharing of wealth.
9. COMPASSION, COMPASSION, COMPASSION – If we hold the children in our hearts, we can safeguard the future and save humanity and life on Earth. If we allow our governments and the corporations to put money first — "business as usual" — then we will fail. Compassion can be what saves us.
a. We must network with all the world's religions and spiritual traditions, as they are already walking the path of compassion — and already starting to work on climate change solutions.
b. We must all see ourselves as educators about the truth of the dangers of climate change.
c. We must see ourselves as protectors of the rights of all future generations.
d. We must be courageous and willing to make sacrifices for the sake of our children — as so many generations did before us.
e. We must green the heart of people, communities, governments and organizations everywhere.
07 April 2010
Bolivia or Bust — In More Ways Than One!
Today's the day we leave on our journey to South America. We're heading to Bolivia for the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth.
Because of my Rule of Three, we'll also have a tiny vacation while there, and then visit my brother in Ecuador on our way home.
First, I want to let you know that I'm not sure how often I'll be online while there, so my posts might not be daily.
Next, I'd like to explain to you, briefly, why this conference is so momentous and pivotal.
You know (if you've been reading this blog) that climate change is already an emergency for people who aren't rich white guys. (It seems that practically all the climate change deniers and skeptics are rich white guys.) That means that the most climate-change-vulnerable peoples and places in the world are already feeling the impacts of climate disruption and chaos.
Bolivia is one of those nations that is seeing the climate change right before its eyes. The glaciers surrounding La Paz, for example, are melting — literally disappearing. Agriculture is becoming more difficult because the climate is no longer predictable. And this in continental South America's poorest country.
So in some ways, it makes sense that Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, would step up to the plate and organize a nongovernmental climate conference to counter the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks for governments.
Morales obviously understands what's at stake, as he is calling for a 1ºC limit on global average temperature increase. (Everyone else is "targeting" 2ºC, which will spell disaster for most life on Earth.) He's calling for a return to 300 parts per million of carbon dioxide. (Others are calling for 350 ppm or even 400, yet look at what's happening around the world at ±385!)
Morales is calling for industrialized nations to stop emitting carbon. (Woohoo! Zero carbon!) And he is calling for industrialized nations to extract billions of tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere.
This guy is not joking around. He understands the threat to his citizens' wellbeing. He totally gets the climate change emergency, and is calling for emergency measures. He — well, this conference — is pretty much our last hope. If the saboteurs show up and start calling for 2ºC or 350 ppm .... If they say that developed nations shouldn't have to shoulder it all or any of that old schlock, we can kiss it goodbye. Kiss life goodbye.
So please stand in solidarity with President Evo Morales of Bolivia and those of us attending the conference. He's the only saviour we've got left and this conference could be our last chance at climate sanity and survival. This is why it's Bolivia or bust.
10 January 2010
The Call: World People's Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth's Rights
Copenhagen offered nothing to the ordinary people — especially those living in so-called developing nations. (The "developed" nations still have much to develop ... like compassion, a conscience, a wee bit of ecological literacy perhaps.) So we were cheered to read this "Call" from Bolivian president Evo Morales to support, promote and possibly attend the People's World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth's Rights, in Cochabamba (don't you love that name?) 19-22 of April, 2010.
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