Protesters demand real action on climate change
2015Christine Frank 2015-12Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 1 →
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VOL. 33, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2015 WWW.SOCIALISTACTION.ORG U.S. / CANADA $1 On the eve of the UN Climate Summit in Paris, some 785,000 people marched and rallied in 2500 loca tions around the world to demand concrete action to phase out fossil fuels and implement clean, renewable energy to prevent catastrophic warming of Earth’s atmosphere—with a binding agreement to achieve that. Perhaps the largest action took place in London, where about 50,000 marched from Hyde Park to the site of government offices in Whitehall.
Despite the ban on demonstrations in France due to the State of Emergency declared after the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks, 10,000 lined the streets and formed a human chain along the originally-designated route of a climate march that had been unjustly prohibited. The action was initiated by Indian activist Vandana Shiva.
Another 5000 demonstrators gathered in the Place de la Republique in Paris on Nov. 29 to put pressure on the UN’s COP 21 climate talks. The peaceful pro test was brutally attacked by police with clubs, beat ings, and tear gas, followed by 289 arrests. The gov ernment slandered the action as violent, when clearly the onus was on the cops, not the protesters.
Actions defying the ban took place in other French cities as well. Dozens of French environmental activ ists who oppose the attacks on their civil liberties have been placed under house arrest, and computers, documents, and personal effects have been confiscat ed in police raids. Clearly, the French authorities are applying a double standard toward climate crisis ac tivists when enforcing their “special measures” since they are allowing remembrances for the 11/13 dead, sporting events, concerts, trade fairs, and Christmas markets but not peaceful actions to defend the cli mate from the onslaughts of the fossil fuel industry.
Unlike many reformist environmentalists and NGOs, who have passively accepted the suppression of the right to assemble and refused to speak out, more militant protesters are saying, “Stop Polluters, Not Demonstrators!” and “Change the System, Not the Cli mate!” Civil disobedience is being called on Red Line Day, Dec. 12, the final day of the conference.
The police-state tactics that define a demonstration as two-plus people with a shared political message, and silence the voices of dissent, now allow the giant transnationals to freely manipulate the delegates.
It’s no accident that some of France’s and the world’s biggest polluters—EDF, the state-owned electri cal firm; BNP Paribas, one of the largest banks; Air France; and GDF Suez—are major sponsors of the UN climate talks. No less than 20% of the conference’s proceedings are underwritten by corporations, al lowing Energy Giants such as Shell and Chevron to influence the deliberations through pressure tactics and backroom deals.
We have known for years that the major obstacle to progress has been Big Oil, Gas and Coal along with Big Auto, who have financed climate denial to cast doubt on the science. Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times recently exposed the cover-up by Exxon/Mobil in which the company lied about fossilfuel combustion causing global warming. Its own sci entists already knew of the consequences of hydro carbon burning back in the 1970s, but their findings were deliberately suppressed by Exxon executives. Consequently, the public was misled for decades.
As for the talks themselves, they began on Nov. 30 with heads of state making one statement after the other late into the night as to the dire situation in which the world finds itself and how COP 21 must mark a turning point in history.
Yet, the 170 voluntary national pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions between 2020 and 2030 coming from countries responsible for 97% of global carbon pollution fall woefully short of what is actu ally needed to keep the global temperature increase under 2 degrees Celsius.
In fact, according to a dozen different studies, cur rent reduction goals are likely to cause a cataclysmic 2.7-3.7C rise instead! Low-lying, small island nations rightly insist on a much safer temperature ceiling of under 1C, and for good reason. The Marshall Islands, which are only six feet above sea level, are disap pearing below rising seas, largely due to melting ice sheets. Many residents have already fled their home land.
Their president delivered to the conference floor 350.org’s demand to keep at least 80% of fossil fuels underground and to finance a just transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050. Finance equity is espe cially important for poor nations so they can avoid a dirty path to the decent quality of life to which they (continued on page 5, in “Thousands in Bay Area protest Paris climate talks”)
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INSIDE SOCIALIST
Chicago cop killing — 2 Calif. climate march — 5 Minn. cop killing — 3 ‘Lesser-evil’ elections — 6 Planned Parenthood — 4 A new literary voice — 8 ‘Lesser-Evil’ Elections
Films / Labor briefs — 9 Canada — 10, Haiti — 11 After Paris — 12