You are currently browsing the daily archive for December 10th, 2008.
By Chris Detjen, SustainUS COP14 Delegate. Originally published at sustainus.org/blog
On the day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly announced that she would block needed reforms to the European Union’s climate package, a crowd of 200 people from more than 20 countries loudly called her and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to task outside the prime minister’s residence in Warsaw. The rally began less than two hours after Merkel entered the building to meet with Tusk about the EU package.
For their threats to halt EU-wide emission reductions of 20 percent by 2020 unless given the option to hand out extra emission allowances to big German and Polish polluters, Merkel and Tusk both received Fossil of the Day awards. Avaaz.org delivered 126,000 petition signatures to the two leaders from people around the globe, and activists from Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund gave powerful speeches demanding that Merkel and Tusk rescue the economy and the climate simultaneously through green jobs and strong climate protection targets.
But it was young people who made the event possible (a huge majority of those in attendance were in their 20s), and who gave the rally its considerable energy. Anna Keenan of Australia, Sandra Guzman of Mexico, and Hannah McKinnon of Canada, three passionate and inspiring young leaders, brought the rally to a fever pitch with their remarks.
“By the time I retire in 2050,” Anna said, “we will need to have reduced emissions by 95% if the planet is still going to be inhabitable.”
“How will we get there if Merkel isn’t willing to start reducing emissions today?”
The youth who rallied in Warsaw today came, by and large, from the conference in Poznań. The geographic composition of the group was about as lopsided as it has been throughout COP 14. But five young leaders from Nepal, Mexico, and Cameroon did rise to speak of the inequalities associated with the global north’s inaction on climate change.
“The struggle to end global poverty and the struggle for climate justice are two sides of the same coin,” said one. “We are here to say, ‘Enough with the nice words. Enough with the nice declarations. This is the time for action.’”
The five speakers had tough words for Merkel and Tusk.
“We ask the leadership of the European Union to look us in the eye and tell us, ‘If 50,000 people were dying every single day in Europe and North America, as they are in the developing world right now, would your response be as timid and lacking in courage as it is now?’”
One of the rally’s recurring themes was the interdependence of our political leadership, and the way in which actions like the ones Merkel and Tusk have taken in the past week give other world leaders places to hide. Yuliya, a young person from Ukraine, told me after the rally that Ukrainian leaders look to Europe for examples. As Ukraine sorts out its own climate protection targets and emissions baselines, which are complicated by the fact that emissions there have declined by 50% since 1990 as a result of economic stagnation, Merkel and Tusk’s cowardly actions could create dangerous political ripple effects.
Özlem, from Turkey, said this truth applies to her country as well, but at the level of the UNFCCC:
“Turkey has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. If this EU package is blocked, it will give Turkey another excuse to go on without ratifying it.”
Of course, cowardice often comes with a price. Marlon, from Germany, knew exactly what to say when I asked him what he would do if Merkel continued to obstruct climate progress:
“All I know is that I would never vote for her again.”
Changes to the EU climate package have not yet been agreed upon, and it is not too late for Angela Merkel and Donald Tusk to re-emerge as principled leaders. Today the international youth climate movement demanded this leadership from them in the clearest possible terms.
A trip through your local supermarket will tell you that things have gotten expensive. Yesterday, I was in line at my school’s salad bar, only to notice prices have increased by several dollars.
But here in the United States, we’re fortunate enough to count on certain protections to shield us from devastating food price increases. In the Middle East and parts of Africa, however, people face a significantly different reality.
Last year, the global food crisis ripped through much of the Middle East. Skyrocketing prices and staggering crop production left many citizens throughout Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt frantic for food. But the problem of food cost inflation has virtually fallen off the world news radar since the financial crisis has plunged countries further into economic turmoil. But, price hikes continue to have serious impact on families and, despite best attempts to meet the immediate need, the issue of food security remains unresolved.
Oxfam reports that net prices of staple foods have skyrocketed by 150 percent during 2007 and 2008, crippling the impoverished in developing countries. Estimates suggest that the number of malnourished people worldwide has increased by a whopping 119 million.
In the Middle East in particular, food costs soared. In Egypt for example, the cost of wheat is reported to have tripled. Prices of meat, fruit, and beans in this country have also increased by 25 percent.
These difficult circumstances left families with little to do but starve or riot for just prices. The New York Times reported last year that violent food protests in Yemen killed up to a dozen people.
Moved by the pressure of an angry, hungry populace, the Arab world has chosen to explore uncharted territory and invest in agriculture in the most unlikely of places–the fertile banks of the White Nile in Southern Sudan. With the help of this foreign investment, the Sudanese government is now plowing $5 billion in new agribusiness, much of which is designated for export to countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. So, while crops of pumpkin, beans, eggplant, and other local staples such as sorghum are now producing steadily along the river’s shore, the final product is being exported across the Red Sea rather than addressing domestic food needs in Darfur.
Sudan receives an enormous amount of food aid each year. And yet, Sudan has incredible potential for self-sufficiency. Last year, for example, the country exported the same amount of sorghum as it received from the United States in emergency food aid: 283,000 tons. Officials from the UN World Food Program go as far to say that Sudan could one day play the role of Africa’s breadbasket.
But the Sudanese government seems to be keen on increasing its own profits at the expense of its own hungry people. It continues to withhold crucial natural resources from 2.5 million displaced citizens, who languish in camps across, run off their land by the government’s harsh counterinsurgency policies. Meanwhile, international foreign aid and humanitarian organizations pick up the bill to keep the innocently displaced alive.
