MEDIA ADVISORY
December 2, 2010
There are Alternative Solutions to Climate Change!
More than 25 coordinated grassroots events planned across the U.S. and Canada, part of 1000 Cancuns Global Day of Action for Climate Justice
Contact: Jen Soriano, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, 415-572-7154, jen@ggjalliance.org
WHAT: On December 7, with the UN Climate Change Negotiations in Cancun approaching
an end, grassroots organizations across the world will be taking the future of the planet into
their own hands. More than 25 coordinated events will take place in the U.S. and Canada as
part of La Vía Campesina’s call for 1000 Cancuns for climate justice worldwide. All of the
actions will have one common goal: to oppose carbon market schemes that prolong our addiction to fossil fuels, and to lift up local solutions that are already reducing greenhouse gas emissions and cooling our planet.
Actions include a mass action to protest the 710 highway expansion in LA, an action at City
Hall in Antonio to pressure city council to turn their Mission Verde resolution into a binding law
for green jobs creation and clean energy transition, and an action in San Francisco to turn a
publicly-owned parking lot into a community garden. Events include people’s assemblies in
Canada and educational events on climate justice at universities and community organizations
across the U.S.
WHEN: December 7, 2010
WHERE: 12 cities in the U.S and 16 regions across Canada – click here for the complete list
Regions include: Albuquerque, the Bay Area, Chicago, the Gulf Coast, Los Angeles, Madison, New York, Olympia, Providence, San Antonio, Burlington, Washington DC, Calgary, Charlottetown, Brockville, Edmonton, Halifax, London, Peterborough, Regina, Saint John, Saskatoon, and Toronto.
WHY: “Our communities are on the frontlines of climate devastation. We are also at the
crossroads of the climate crisis and the economic crisis,” says Jill Johnston of Southwest
Workers Union in San Antonio, TX. “We know from experience that the UN is not considering
what we really need to survive. Policies like REDD and REDD+ are more of the same pollution
profiteering that got us into this mess in the first place. Our communities and the planet
urgently need real solutions. We are taking action to show that grassroots solutions are real
and viable solutions to the global climate crisis.”
Michelle Mascarenhas-Swan of Movement Generation in Oakland, CA adds, “Last year in
Copenhagen delegates called on the Obama administration to adopt reductions in greenhouse
gas emissions that would protect human health for frontline communities in the U.S. Instead, we
got the Copenhagen ‘Discord’. What we need is for the United States and Canada to drop this
ineffective document and embrace the Cochabamba People’s Agreement instead, which provides
guidelines for rapid emissions reductions and a framework for addressing the climate crisis with
solutions based in human rights and the Rights of Mother Earth.”
La Via Campesina International launched this call to action leading into the climate talks in Cancun. There will be more than 100 actions around the world, throughout Latin America, Asia, and Europe as well as in the United States and Canada. The actions include people’s assemblies and forums in Korea, Uruguay, Brazil, Nepal, Turkey, and mass actions in India, Argentina, Indonesia, El Salvador, the Philippines, and Mexico. All together these actions and events will bring together an estimated 1 million people. This people-power is nothing short of the power that will be necessary to bring just and sustainable solutions to scale to resolve the climate crisis. In this context, the UN negotiations can be seen in true perspective: as a narrow slice of the climate change field – and specifically as the multinational corporate-driven arena whose negotiations are more oriented toward saving fossil fuel companies and the neo-liberal economic system rather than making the hard decisions it will take to create social and environmental justice.
For more information:
La Via Campesina International Peasant Movement: 1000 Cancuns Worldwide
1000 Cancuns List of North American Actions and Resources about 1000 Cancuns
Canada – Week of People’s Assemblies
Indigenous Environmental Network Red Road to Cancun
