SUN COME UP
The Oscar-nominated film Sun Come Up follows the relocation of the Carteret Islanders, a peaceful community in the South Pacific, and now, some of the world’s first environmental refugees.

‘Sun Come Up’ is launching a House Raiser campaign to build off the momentum of the Oscar nomination: 50 parties in 50 different homes. Each home commits to raising funds for the Carteret Islanders by February 27th, the date of the Academy Awards! All donations will go directly to the Carteret Islanders’ relocation program toward the building of new homes. Learn more!

Click here to sign up and feel free to email bleyer@gmail.com with any questions. You can also spread the word to your network by posting their widget on Facebook: http://www.call2action.com/widget/w673.

SUMMER OF SOLUTIONS
Applications have opened to join the Summer of Solutions this year. As an emerging leader in youth empowerment and green economic development, Summer of Solutions is opening up the opportunity to creative, dedicated young people who believe in improving their communities, advancing social justice, and improving the environment.

During the course of a summer, youth are able to design, receive support for, and help implement solutions in their communities. Summer of Solutions programs work in collaboration with community partners to create self-sustaining green economy projects that will continue to have a direct positive impact.In just three years, the Summer of Solutions program has expanded from a single site in Saint Paul, MN, and a partner program in Portland, OR, to fifteen programs across the country.

They welcome all participants ages 14-30 regardless of race, culture, class, gender, sexual orientation, and religion. Positions as volunteer participants (up to 20 hours a week) and full-time participants (40+ hours a week) are open. The program is free, and full-time participants are eligible to receive need-based financial support, the application for which is here. SoS is currently working to generate funding to support participants with all levels of need.

To learn more about Summer of Solutions and find a program, visit Grand Aspirations, the host organization of Summer of Solutions, or apply directly here.  The priority deadline for full-time applicants is Sunday, March 13th at midnight PST, and the final deadline for full-time applicants is Sunday April 24th at midnight PST. Volunteer applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

SoS looks forward to receiving your application, and working together, hands-on, to create stronger, self-sustaining communities across the country.

APPLY NOW!

It’s Friday night in Cancun.  I just exited the UN conference for the last time – leaving closed-door-negotiations behind as they work through the text of what they will agree on coming out from this conference.  After 2 weeks of organizing and navigating our way through Cancun, a major disappointment has been the blatant silencing of our voices, of civil society, throughout the process.   We saw this escalate last year in Copenhagen with the police crackdowns and the shutting out of hundreds of people from the Bella Center.  Instead of responding to the outrage of last year, the UN took it to a new dangerous level in Cancun. As negotiators are now left to debate our survival, I’m furiously moved to write on this.

Kandi Mossett, of IEN & Y4CJ, leading a chant at the La Via Campesina march on Dec 7.

On Tuesday, we received major press coverage of an action led by a few members of our delegation.  After a press conference, and at the same time as thousands of people took to the streets in Cancun, members of GGJ and Y4CJ walked out marching and chanting.   Beginning in the middle of the second week, the UNFCC had installed a new protocol that actions needed to submit for permitting 2 days ahead of time.  Because this was an unpermitted action, security immediately confronted them and literally stripped them of their badges.  Them, along with 12 others had their names listed and their accreditation taken away.  As an eye witness, I saw the oppressive act of stealing our voice, taking away their ability to participate for the rest of the conference.  (See the Democracy Now coverage of the action HERE!)
Tonight, the international alliance Climate Justice Now! held another action inside of the Moon Palace to protest the silencing of civil society, using the powerful image of people representing different constituencies (youth, indigenous peoples, among others) with UNFCCC gags over their mouths.  They too were escorted out of the center and stripped of their accreditation.

Yesterday, we were blessed with the presence and words of President Evo Morales.  He visited the La Via Campesina alternative forum, for an evening program of speakers, including himself.  Yesterday I was beautifully reminded of the voices of those who are not inside the negotiations, and those that came together in April at the Cochabamba People’s Summit.  But yet, the Cochabamba People’s Agreement on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, the declaration that was produced at the Summit and brought to Cancun as an alternative text to the Copenhagen Accord, is not being recognized, it is being ignored.  Evo Morales reminded us of the importance of listening to the people, and leading our politics by principle.  The silencing of the Cochabamba Agreement is yet another illustration of how the UNFCCC and governments like the United States are not concerned for the population of the world or their own constituencies, but are willing to muffle our needs and opinions in order to access personal, selfish gain in the negotiations.

Raising our fists in support of the Cochabamba People’s Agreement, with Aurora Conley.

Where does that leave us?  With an even more critical eye of the UN process, and a deep understanding of the levels of oppression and injustice we witness in these spaces.  We have to demand a more democratic and inclusive process, and we have to stand up to be heard even if that calls on direct action.  I’ve been blessed to be a part of this delegation, and to represent Project Survival Media.  I have been greatly reminded of the importance of independent, youth-led media that brings truth to power and keeps raising the voice of the voiceless.  We demand to be heard!

A little more about the workshop:

Generations Ahead: A new legion of eco-activists shares about how
 leadership is inspired, activated and sustained.
 What are the specific elements that drive new generations of young leaders 
to find their paths and galvanize others to take action to create a more
 sustainable world? Join some inspiring emerging leaders at the forefront of
 environmental and social change movements for a lively conversation.

The Bioneers conference will be in San Rafael, CA, from October 15-17, with intensives on October 14 and 18. Project Survival Media will be tabling at our booth, showing videos, selling T-shirts, and helping Bioneers to document the conference through video. So stop by and say “hi”!

PSM members who register for Bioneers will receive a 10% discount. Go to http://www.bioneers.org/conference to register, and use the coupon code ACE10. If you would like to become a PSM/ Earth Island Institute member, please make a donation of $25 or greater using our easy online donation form, or contact Madeline.

We are very excited for the event, and hope to see you there!

All Images ©Robert vanWaarden

Images ©Robert vanWaarden

Formed in 1991 as a nodal agency for developing and promoting non-conventional projects in the state, PEDA is striving forward to achieve its aim of a sustainable energy future. Alternatives like hydel power, solar energy, biomass/agro waste have been taken under research and practice.

During the financial year 1999-2000, four small hydel power projects on the Abohar Branch Canal at Chupki, Narangwal, Tugal and Dalla were completed. These projects account for a total power generation capacity of 5.5 MW. Micro hydel power projects on the Bathinda Branch Canal at Khatra, Kanganwal, Bowani and Jagera with a total capacity of 4.3 MW were also commissioned. Apart from this, many private investors have also been commissioned projects in this category.

Research and development in the field of solar energy has been going on at a consistent pace for the past few years now. The main office of PEDA in Sector 33-D, Chandigarh accounts for complete solar energy dependence. Recently when I visited the office, the huge solar panels spread over the entire dimensions of the roof left me amazed. The arrangement of the cubicles is such that sunlight provides a natural lighting for most of the hours till late evening. The computers and all other machinery depend solely on the power driven from the awesome solar panels overhead. The office even has a custom made elevator which, like every other thing present there, draws power from the very same panels. It is a set example that even heavy machinery can be smoothly operated using non-conventional sources of energy, provided that a careful blend of technology and design is used. The various solar powered appliances developed by the PEDA for commercial availability are displayed near the main counter with detailed information available on each of them.

Today, the PEDA took a giant leap with the inauguration of India’s first ever 2 MW solar power plant in Awan, a village newar Amritsar. Set up by the US based company Azure Power in the independent power producers mode, it will subsequently be expanded up to a capacity of 5 MW. With the Centre’s target of producing 20,000 MW of solar power under its solar mission, this initiative by the Punjab Government is quite laudable. By attracting entrepreneurs in the clean power sector, PEDA is indeed performing a pioneering role. The aim of setting up more such plants in the near future will surely bring in more such companies belonging to the renewable energy sector. Increase in competition would account for even better research leading to more efficient and productive plants. This, coming rightly at a time when the Copenhagen Summit is in full swing, has surely shown the concern and understanding towards the international cause.

Apart from this, Punjab possesses a capacity to shift 1000 MW of its needs to biomass. Currently, the exploited potential lies at a meager 20.5 MW. PEDA is constantly working in this field. The lectures and workshops conducted by PEDA all the year round aim at pressing the need of this renewable energy source along with the others it is researching in.

Through these acts of initiating numerous small hydel power project on various canals, encouraging biomass energy production, setting up the nation’s first ever solar power production facility and turning its own office into a state of the art modern complex by using the latest technologies and yet deriving them solely from the sun, PEDA has made a mark through example which even the other agencies need to aim for if the global warming problems need to be curbed.

This initiative of the Punjab Government depicts that the responsibility of all State Governments should complement the drive of the Central Government in accordance with the emission cuts which will be filed in the Copenhagen draft. Working on the same lines can indeed make this problem comparatively easy to be dealt with. Cooperation will play an important factor to frame the result of the deal coming out of this world summit. If all the world powers are planning to cooperate, why not start from the innermost unit and buildup to national cooperation and thereby to an international one?

It’s the final day of negotiations, and I don’t think any of us knew what to expect exactly. I know that we certainly didn’t expect that our leaders would magically & suddenly grow a conscience and throw traditional political deal-making protocol to the wind in favor of saving humanity. But maybe we dared to dream a bit . . . maybe we thought that our vigils, our protests, our actions, our pleas, the mountains of emails that have been pouring into our electeds’ inboxes that poor little interns have to sift through . . . maybe we thought some of that would help them aim a little higher, at least pretend to respect human life, no, ALL life, enough to make a real deal and save life on this planet. Maybe we thought the science would convince them.

While the final text has yet to emerge from COP15, all signs (including world leaders’ orations this morning) point to a treaty that will facilitate the impending apocalypse. Most notably, POTUS Barack Obama, once hoped to swoop in as a last-minute game-changer, stood in front of a microphone today to deliver a flat, uninspired speech confirming the US’s laughable carbon emissions targets: 17% by 2020, and 80% by 2050. Perhaps out of embarrassment, he didn’t even bother providing the baseline year for those targets, but we’ll assume that it’s consistent with earlier reports – 2005.

For those of you whose eyelids are drooping at the numbers, I’ll sum it up quickly by saying that that we need to commit to reductions of 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 to stabilize the climate and not threaten the lives of millions of people around the world.

So, when an hour later I received an email from Organizing for America, the group of dedicated organizers who brought you the Presidency of Barack Obama, I was a bit puzzled. Were they apologizing to me already?

They were not. They were sending me a holiday card. From the President. Who just told me through a live stream from the heavily guarded Bella Center that he’s like, totally okay with displacement, hunger, lack of water, resource wars, and death for millions of people on the planet.

“Happy Holidays, Persian Girl!” was shouted to me by groups of friendly Americans from around the country in a montage, before I was treated to a special appearance by the Big O himself, wishing me Happy Holidays & signing a card made out to me.

Possibly they’re wishing us happy holidays now because they know they may only have a few more years to do so before we’re dead of some climate change related affliction? Happy Holidays indeed.

[ Click here for a more positive take on COP15. ]

Yesterday morning the meeting – the last meeting that all of civil society from Canada could attend as access started to be limited as of today, and will become increasingly limited as heads of state and their attachés arrive in Copenhagen and at the conference center (the Secretariat accredited 40, 000 people while the center has space for just 15, 000) – was a full house. All the seats were filled and many more stood and listened from the back of the room. The important part was the sheer diversity of Canadians in the room, from farmers to steelworkers to NGOs to indigenous peoples; youth, professionals, academics, politicians, and faith groups alike. These people came from all parts of Canada, East to West, North to South, and from rural regions as well as cities. Not everyone in that room would call themselves an environmentalist, and their concerns were not limited to the environment. They could not be put into a box called ‘Environmentalists’, ‘Greenpeace’, ‘Activists’, or ‘Treehuggers’. They represented so well that all Canadians are concerned about climate change and feel that the government is not fairly representing their concerns or values at these negotiations and in domestic climate policy.

A man from a labour union in Quebec emotionally asked if Michael Martin (chief negotiator) and other members of CAN DEL has considered those that will be disadvantaged in Canada as a result of the insistence by Canada that we use a 2006 base year. His reason was that many have significantly reduced their emissions between 1990 (the year recognized internationally as a base year for emissions reductions) and 2006, and would therefore have to reduce significantly more, and at a greater price, than industries that ignored climate change have only just started, or will soon be starting, to regulate their emissions.

I was empowered in that instance because I realized that Canadians want change. Canadians do not want to be embarrassed by their government’s policies on climate change, as David Miller, Mayor of Toronto, stated he was on Friday. Canada’s do not want to obstruct the negotiations, or garner a bad international reputation.

I started to wonder, who exactly was being represented by our country’s position in Copenhagen – whose interests? Surely not my own. As a young person I can see that the inaction of the government of Canada today and this week in Copenhagen will have serious repercussions on … my future, as cliché as that may sound. I cannot stand for a government that does not represent its people, who has fundamentally violated the contract between citizens and leaders.

I came to the briefing this morning with a question: If the government’s positions clearly does not represent the concerns of youth, students, workers, academics, municipal leaders, provincial leaders, athletes, professionals, indigenous peoples, immigrants – and so many other Canadians- who precisely does their position benefit, and whose voice are they being swayed by?

The answer? Michael Martin responded that the question was of a political nature and therefore not his to answer. This, I knew. Martin speaks to policy and just policy. But, Martin is the only person we have access to. Our representatives, who are supposed to be accountable to Canadians, Prime Minister Harper, and Minister Prentice, have not confirmed a meeting with Canadian Youth. Further, the problem is not specifically policy-related. Rather, it is a question of accountability. The House of Commons voted in favour of a motion for better a emissions reductions target, and a recent poll states that 74% of Canadians ‘believe the government must go further in the fight against climate change and adopt a more ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reductions target’ (a poll by Léger Marketing released on Thursday by Équiterre).

Canadians must be given the chance to express their concerns to the government, and it is unacceptable that the only person we have access to is one who says quite clearly that he is not accountable to us, but rather, accountable to the government. We cannot have our concerns addressed by a person who is not accountable to Canadians.