Climate Change

For now, we are discussing a problem left to us by capitalism - climate change.” This was the conclusion of Bolivian President Evo Morales in his closing remarks to the October 10-12 World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Defence of Life in Cochabamba.

More than 5000 people from more than 40 countries took part in the summit, established to give a voice to the poor and marginalised victims of climate change. Proposals and demands agreed on at the summit will be taken directly to the United Nations climate talks in Paris starting on November 30.

"Clocking in at just under an hour, this is the film Stephen Harper doesn’t want you to watch before voting [...] In turns captivating, moving, enraging and inspiring, Whoa Canada is never boring. It’s a testament to the power of a group of young people with a couple cameras and an idea, and a searing indictment of the Harper decade." [1]

You can watch the whole movie as well as nine short scenes that we've packaged separately for easy sharing. It's all here:

www.Whoa-Canada.ca

A public workshop on the future of the Columbia River Treaty held in Osoyoos has found that the Treaty must be modified to meet the needs of First Nations, growing population numbers, increasing competition for water; fisheries health and environmental values, as well as negative impacts on Canadian agriculture and the impact of a changing climate.

Organized by the Canadian Water Resource Association (CWRA) and the Adaptation to Climate Change Team (ACT), the workshop took place on Wednesday, October 7th at the Sonora Centre.

Over the last week, hundreds of people have told us that they’re planning to risk arrest this November at the the Climate Welcome Action. I’ve been moved by the courage of these people and their stories.

Here are some of the reasons that people across the country are mobilizing to the reasons that have motivated them to risk arrest outside the Prime Minister’s residence in less than a month:

“I am a mother to a small child and I owe it to him to fix the mistakes that we've made.”- Katrina - Nanaimo, BC

At the UN Climate Change Conference COP 19, the even-more-depressing-than-usual climate summit that took place in Warsaw in 2013, one small ray of light made it through the dark corporate clouds that were otherwise suffocating even the slightest effort to address the ongoing environmental disaster. On the last day of the conference, an unusual alliance was formed as environmental organizations and trade unions together walked out of the venue under the banner of “Enough Is Enough.” Sick of the meaningless talks, they stated:

From end 2014 through Fall of 2015 global sea levels surged. 

From end 2014 through Fall of 2015 global sea levels surged. 

At the beginning of the federal election campaign, Toronto Centre NDP candidate and respected author Linda McQuaig stated a simple fact: “a lot of people recognize that a lot of the oil sands oil may need to stay in the ground if we're going to meet our climate change targets.” This sparked a corporate media backlash, accusing her of being ideologically-driven,
anti-Alberta and anti-jobs.
 

This Changes Everything is a book capacious enough to allow Naomi Klein two positions at once. But a real climate-justice movement will at some point have to make choices.

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — MILLIONS of Americans once wanted to smoke. Then they came to understand how deadly tobacco products were. Tragically, that understanding was long delayed because the tobacco industry worked for decades to hide the truth, promoting a message of scientific uncertainty instead.

The same thing has happened with climate change, as Inside Climate News, a nonprofit news organization, has been reporting in a series of articles based on internal documents from Exxon Mobil dating from the 1970s and interviews with former company scientists and employees.