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World to US: We Demand ‘Climate Justice’
Jeffrey Allen, OneWorld via Yahoo News
Dubbing the battle against climate change a moral test for the United States, global anti-poverty and religious leaders called on U.S. politicians Monday to take drastic and immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to minimize the country’s contributions to global warming.The activists, academics, and international charities echoed the charges leveled in a recent major scientific report that the hazardous consequences of a changing global climate will take a particularly powerful toll on people living in the world’s poorest countries.
Meanwhile, the climatic changes already occurring stem disproportionately from the activities of individuals and corporations based in the world’s wealthier nations, they said.
Organizers, who represented a wide range of interests and included non-profit organizations including ActionAid, Friends of the Earth, Jubilee USA, and Oxfam America, said more than 300 climate activists and concerned individuals attended the meeting, and scores more participated through a live Web simulcast.
They heard speaker after speaker demand that officials in the United States join their colleagues from Europe, Asia, and other regions in encouraging citizens and requiring corporations to change their climate changing ways.
With only 5 percent of the global population, the United States is responsible for over 25 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change, said Archbishop Desmond Tutu, addressing the conference by video from South Africa.
(18 Apr 2007)
Also at Common Dreams.
Related: Impressions of a conference called Climate Change and International Development. (Gristmill).
Ex-U.S. military chiefs warn warming worsens security
Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters
Global climate change acts as a “threat multiplier” in some of the world’s most volatile areas, and raises tensions even in stable regions, 11 former U.S. military leaders warned on Monday.
To combat this, they urged immediate planning and international cooperation without waiting for total certainty on the consequences of global warming.
(16 Apr 2007)
More at Energy Bulletin.
Climate change threatens security, UK tells UN
Andrew Clark, Guardian
· Council debates ‘weather of mass destruction’
· US claims other factors more important for peace
Britain has warned reluctant members of the United Nations that there are few greater threats to global security than climate change, delivering a stark message forecasting armed conflicts over scarce supplies of food, water and land.
On a trip to New York, the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, chaired the security council’s first debate on global warming. It was convened despite criticism from countries such as India and China which argue that the issue is outside the security council’s mandate of maintaining international peace.
(18 Apr 2007)
Related at AFP and at the Guardian: “The debate on climate change at the UN top table is a sign that the big powers are at last beginning to see sense”
