Peace On Earth/Earth Garden 3/11 remembrance, gathering to co-create a life-sustaining culture, March 3-11, 2014 @Tokyo

Severn Cullis-Suzuki "Love is the Movement" Japan Tour • Simultaneous screenings of Velcrow Ripper's Occupy Love

"If you can’t fix the environment, please stop breaking it!” Severn said to the world leaders at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. She was only twelve years old. A video of her speech presenting environmental issues from a youth perspective went viral, and Severn Cullis-Suzuki became known around the world as “The Girl Who Silenced the World for 5 Minutes." 

Severn, daughter of Japanese Canadian scientist and environmentalist David Suzuki, is now 34-years-old and an environmental activist, speaker, television host and author. She has spoken around the world about environmental issues, urging listeners to define their values, act with the future in mind, and take individual responsibility. 

For the first time in six years, Severn returns to Japan for “Love is the Movement” – a series of talks about the future of the human race in the face of global environmental crisis. Issues covered include the localization movement, the fair trade movement, and other movements that focus on quality of life for our children and future generations. 

Severn Suzuki will be at Kyoto's Ryukoku University on February 21st.

Details (in Japanese) here: http://kokucheese.com/event/index/141937/

Other stops include Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Fukuoka, and Shiga. 

Simultaneous screening of Canadian filmmaker Velcrow Ripper's Occupy Love, the third film in the inspirational "Fierce Love" trilogy about global grassroots nonviolent environmental and democratic movements. 

Schedule (Japanese):  http://unitedpeople.jp/occupy/jouei. 

Details on the "Love is the Movement" Tour (in Japanese) here: http://www.sloth.gr.jp/events/sev2014/

All about Severn Suzuki here: http://severncullissuzuki.com/bio

"Love is the Movement" on Facebook (in Japanese): https://www.facebook.com/sev2014. 

May 2014 be filled with light, healing, and peace...

This luminous photo is from  Beautiful Energy's last Candles for Peace gathering of 2013.  Their first Candles for Peace gathering in 2014 will be Friday, January 10, as always, at the Kokkai-gijidomae Station, adjacent to the Japanese National Diet Building.

Beautiful Energy - 1st Anniversary Celebration - Tokyo - Nov. 30, 2013

(Photo: Beautiful Energy)

Via Jacinta Hin and Natsu no Color of Tokyo-based Beautiful Energy/The Stand for a Nuclear-Free World.

Beautiful Energy is... born out of the weekly Friday anti-nuclear demonstrations in Tokyo in front of and around the prime minister's residence and Parliament. Through inspired, peaceful action we stand for a nuclear-free world that thrives on renewable energy.

Our current, ongoing project is Candles for Peace. Every Friday, from 6-8pm Japan time, we gather in front of parliament in kokkai gijido, joining the weekly anti-nuclear protest, and create a beautiful display of candlelight to symbolize our intentions...

This group of visionary citizen activists in Tokyo radiate positive (and beautiful) emotional, ethical energy and holistic vision.  They're engaged in outreach and support for Fukushima nuclear refugees, (including bringing hot meals to elder refugees living in a shelter).  Sharing their kind of healing, constructive worldview is a first step in our collective transition from toxic to nontoxic, renewable energy production and use.

In November it will be one year since we lighted our Beautiful Energy candles for the first time. Time for a little celebration!

You are invited to our anniversary party in Tokyo on November 30. Join us for an intimate evening with live music, delicious graceful vegan foods and of course candles!

Date: November 30 (Saturday), from 19.00 – 22.30pm
Place: Bar GariGari (Tokyo, Setagaya-ku, Daizawa 2-45-9, .. Building B1 /

http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1318/A131801/13126176/dtlmap/ / opposite Ikenoue Station, Inokashira-line (2 stops from Shibuya)

Charge: 2,000 yen (inclusive vegan buffet foods, music charge and charity donation).

* Vegan foods provided by our Friday neighbors Yuko Ogura and Yayoi Ito of Guerilla Café

* Drinks are not included. Please order at least one drink at the bar

* 500 yen will go to Share Your Christmas (SYC). SYC collects and brings Christmas presents from around the world to people in Tohoku affected by the 3/11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster (https://www.facebook.com/shareyourchristmaswithtohoku)

Please bring your own chopsticks, so we may reduce waste and spread eco-energy!

19:00 Start

19:20 Anniversary Speech

19:30 Special Message from people from all over the world♪

19:45 Music time: nuclear-free world songs by Natsu, Chris and other Beautiful Energizers! (details to follow)

20:30 Enjoy conversation with each other!

22:30 End

Kindly let us know no later than November 20 if you plan to attend (and sooner if you can).

Spring Love Harukaze 2013: Creating the Future!

The legendary free urban gathering, Harukaze (“Spring Love”), is back for its fifth year—again set to bring good vibes to Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park on Saturday, March 30^th and Sunday, March 31st during the height of cherry blossom season. Following the ongoing event theme of “Building the Future”, this year we will focus upon three main sub-themes: supporting children in Fukushima, shifting to alternative energy use, and advocating the right to dance.

Come out with your family, friends, or on your own to this amazing weekend extravaganza to contemplate new lifestyles following the 2011 disaster, while also enjoying the gorgeous sakura and feeding your mind and soul with some Spring Love!

Date/Time : Saturday, March 30^th (12:00〜20:00)
Sunday, March 31^st (11:00 〜　20:00)
Venue : Yoyogi Park (Outdoor Stage area)* Rain or shine!!

Admission : Free!! (Donations kindly accepted)


Event Highlights :

• Top-rated musical and dance performances on three stages
• Peace Dome featuring talk sessions related to this year’s event themes, and more
• All stages and booths powered through solar energy and biofuel…no nuclear energy or fossil fuels!!
• Art Gallery
• Workshops
• Kids activity area
• Skate Ramp
• Love and Peace Parade / The Un-named Parade
• Chillout Flea Market featuring ecological and fair-trade goods
• Food/drink stalls featuring healthy/organic ingredients
• NPO/NGO booths

Event sponsored by:
 Harukaze Organizing Committee
, Kanto Regional Environmental Office
, Shibuya Ward Office
With cooperation from: A SEED JAPAN, BE-IN, BUENA SUERTE, Kadoman Planning, BALANCE, TEAM, Third Culture, WAON PRODUCTION, Peace Not War Japan, POSIVISION, RA, natural smile

Sister Event : Earth Day Tokyo 2013

This year’s event themes :

* Supporting Citizens in Fukushima

We believe that one of the missions of Harukaze Spring Love is to keep the conversation going re. what is continuing to take place in Fukushima prefecture. In Tokyo in particular, our lifestyles have been supported by the electricity made at the Fukushima nuclear power plants. The reality, however, is that nuclear power has provided large amounts of money in Fukushima prefecture, from which the lives of certain individuals have benefited economically. Fukushima’s innocent citizens, including its children have suffered greatly as a consequence of nuclear policy and the resulting accident. By keeping the discussion going regarding what citizens in Fukushima continue to face, we can figure out ways to offer support in this regard.

＊Spring Love Harukaze will include exhibition booths with information about citizens in Fukushima, as well as inviting guest speakers who are involved in providing support in this regard. Donations will also be collected and given to groups doing work in this area.

* Shifting to alternative energy use

The electricity for all stages at Spring Love Harukaze will be provided through solar energy. Additional electricity usage will come from one to two electrical generators that are powered using biofuel. In addition to reducing the amount of noise coming from the event area and providing a more quality listening experience, this will prove that it is indeed possible to power music festivals—as well as society in general!—through existing energy networks without relying upon nuclear energy or fossil fuels.

In addition to simply raising our voice against nuclear energy, we are leading through an example of positive action in this regard.

* Advocating the right to dance

The Entertainment Business Act serves to enact restrictions with regard to appropriateness within the entertainment industry. Originally established in the immediate postwar period to prevent prostitution, the law in fact serves to regulate dancing in live houses and clubs—and police have recently begun utilizing this law as a justification for crackdowns in this regard (particularly in the Kansai region).

Spring Love Harukaze is participating in the “Let’s Dance!” petition drive, which aims to exclude dancing from the list of restricted activities associated with this law. Please sign one of the petitions circulating throughout the event venue and show your support for the freedom to dance!

2013 Participating Artists

MUSIC

• ackky (journal)
• TOSHIO BING KAJIWARA (HE?XION! TAPES)
• Bryan Burton-Lewis (Third Cluture)
• DJ NOBU (Future Terror)
• ERA (DipAura/1968/meki-higon.com)
• GOCOO
• GUUSUN
• HI-GO (DipAura/1968/meki-higon.com)
• J.A.K.A.M. (NXS / CROSSPOINT)
• KILLING ME SOFTLY
• KILLY (mindwarp)
• LIKKLE MAI
• 野毛ハーレムLAND
• NOINONE(feat.ULU)
• NUMANOID a.k.a. DJ TSUYOSHI (Madskippers / Joujouka / IDPS)
• parAdice (△,DUNE)
• Polar Chalors
• RABIRABI
• SUSERI (from Melbourne)
• VOODLES
• 7e (mindwarp)

ART

• Gravityfree
• DOPPEL

TALK GUESTS : Coming Soon!

Additional Event Information

* Smokers: Please respect the event’s general no-smoking policy by smoking only within designated areas!

* Harukaze has a “gomi-zero” (“no garbage”) policy
. Please leave the venue as clean as you found it by separating your trash at one of the provided garbage stations. Garbage cleanup is an extremely expensive undertaking, and if this policy is not respected, we may not be able to offer this free festival in the future. Show some spring love by supporting “gomi-zero”!!

Volunteers needed before and during the event!!
 We ask anyone with ideas and passion regarding our peaceful shared future to please contact us! We are looking for those who can help us before the event dates and during the event for the following tasks: Site management, translation/interpretation, cleanup, various administrative tasks,
etc. If you are able to help, please contact us at 
newstaff@harukaze.asia

* Organization: Harukaze is put together by a collective of individuals who aim to use the power of messages, ideas, expression and art to create a positive shared future that is built upon ideals such as peace, ecology and culture.
 All staff, activists and artists are working on an entirely volunteer basis, and Spring Love Harukaze is funded entirely by the donations of like-minded individuals, as well as sales from goods during the event.
Fundraising: 
Harukaze will have several fundraising collection boxes placed on site. This event is not possible without the voluntary work of our staff, and your donations will be an essential force for this
free event to continue in the future. We ask all attendees to stand up for SPRING LOVE and its peaceful and progressive causes for future generations to come!

Event History

Enjoyed by many event-goers during its first run from 1998-2002, when it was known simply as “Harukaze,” the festival returned in 2009 together with Peace Not War Japan—adding discussions on peace-related issues into the lineup and collecting donations for grassroots peace organizations during the 2009 and 2010 festivals.

Following the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, the 2011 event included a candlelight memorial, panel discussions on issues related to nuclear power and alternative energy, and song tributes for disaster victims led by gospel singer (and festival director) Yuka Kamebuchi with her ensemble “VOJA” (Voices of Japan). The 2012 Harukaze event, “Think It!”, continued the discussion by encouraging festival-goers to reflect upon and implement alternative cultural perspectives and sustainable living into their own lives.

Highlights from Past Festivals:

2012 : http://tenthousandthingsfromkyoto.blogspot.jp/2012/04/tokyo-is-city-with-every-possible-sort.html

2011: 
http://pnwj-newsblog-e.blogspot.jp/2011/04/tokyo-art-and-music-event-mourns.html
http://asaphotograph.viewbook.com/album/springloveprayforpeople?p=1#47

2010 :
 
http://pnwj-newsblog-e.blogspot.jp/2010/04/spring-love-harukaze-2010-music.htm

2009 :
 http://pnwj-newsblog-e.blogspot.jp/2009/04/spring-love-rocks-yoyogi-park-with-love.htm

Junko Edahiro: "Representative, Half Farmer, Half X Institute"

Junko Edahiro: "Representative, Half Farmer, Half X Institute":

I think that being a Half Farmer, Half X is doable in Tokyo, New York, or Berlin. There are some people who say that "we should limit being a Half Farmer, Half X to people living in rural areas," but this will only result in the same structure of the city versus the suburbs, by which we are so burdened.

Rather, people should do what they can, be it balcony gardening or rooftop gardening, in places they love. Setting loose rules, such as committing 30 or 40 minutes a day to handling soil and plants will enable more people to start farming more easily. I think many people feel that starting farming is too much of a challenge, so how low you can set the bar is the key. Some people will choose to go deeper, or some may choose to just spread the word. We can all play different roles.

Traditional Americans & Japanese Against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) "Free Trade" Agreement

Poster for the 2008 Black Ship Festival at Shimoda. 

Locals did not appear enthusiastic about the commemorative event.

On both sides of the Pacific, family farmers, small and medium-size business owners, environmentalists, labor unionists, and traditionalists who want to conserve what remains of respective national sovereignty and local culture in the U.S. and Japan are voicing opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) "Free Trade" Agreement.

A recent Mainichi article about organic farmer and poet Kanji Hoshi echoes the thoughts of many traditional Americans as well as traditional Japanese people:

Hoshi is the author of an essay called "Sonno joi no shiso: han TPP no chiiki ron" ("The philosophy of revere agriculture, expel the barbarians: anti-TPP localism"), published in May 2011 in the book, Takahata-gaku (Takahataology).

In it, he writes: "I would like the philosophy of revering agriculture and expelling the barbarians to be the stronghold against the black ships of TPP," Hoshi writes. "We need to give primary importance to agriculture for its production of food for life, and to justly appreciate its function of protecting the environment. If we destroy our beautiful homeland, we will not be able to face our descendents. 'Expel the barbarians' refers to the elimination of our disposable consumer civilization. We need to possess a set of values necessary to live simply and spiritually rich in a mature society, and let us attempt self realization."

Hoshi's philosophy mirrors the "Back to the Land" movement that began in the U.S. in the 1960's and 1970's when Americans began a renewal of traditional regional rural cultures.

A parallel movement gathered steam in Japan during the 1990's, after the bursting of the economic bubble was followed by a "hollowing out" of Japan's industry and "corporate restructuring" (fueled by foreign takeovers of Japanese corporations). These neoliberal changes ended the prospect of permanent and lifetime employment for many young people in Japan who might have otherwise followed their parents' footsteps into the corporate or manufacturing worlds. Koji Nakano’s The Philosophy of Noble Poverty became a Japanese best-seller in 1992. Like their American counterparts, Japanese neo-traditionalists joined an already thriving local farming counter-movement. Many Tokyo-dwellers, disenchanted by or ejected from the neoliberal rat race, moved back to their ancestral rural hometowns.

In both the U.S. and Japan, these Back to the Land and Slow Food/Slow Life pioneers value organic and natural farming, renewable energy sources, quality of life and simplicity. Paul Gruchow's The Necessity of Empty Places elegiac exploration of American rural life before corporate agribusiness and chain stores invaded traditional landscapes epitomizes the American quest to renew local heritage.

Americans and Japanese opposing the TPP are the 99% who are actually conservatives. They want to conserve their economic and social systems as they are and renew what has been lost because of past American and Japanese unsustainable obsession with economic competition and growth—that unduly benefited the 1%. Americans and Japanese opposing the TPP want to save their jobs, their farms, their environment, their ways of life from the radical neoliberal shifts that the "free trade" agreement would bring. Because the deceptive nature about the ostensible benefits of past "free trade" deals have been revealed over time, American and Japanese people know that TPP "free trade" changes would only benefit financiers, corporate agribusiness (factory farms and plantations), some global corporations, and law firms representing these interests.

Who needs or wants cheaper (and shoddier) consumer products made by exploited workers (or quasi-slave laborers in Vietnam and Burma)? Who wants the loss of domestic jobs, delicious locally grown heirlom fruits and vegetables and authentic (from the grassroots up) culture? Who wants the loss of democratically created regulations protecting what's left of our planet, and democratically created labor standards protecting what's left of our human dignity? Who wants the continued erosion of constitutionally guaranteed rights and liberties in places where they're still extant?

Good political analysis (as always) on TPP at Shisaku and sensitive insights (as always) from a food sovereignty perspective at Kurashi. Here are some more articles from September on the American 99% view towards the TPP:

"Unions and Farmers—Plus Ben and Jerry—Unite Against Trans-Pacific Trade Deal":

...After the failure of post-NAFTA negotiations by the Clinton administration to create new trading blocs for Asia and the Pacific and for the Americas, the Bush administration attempted to expand both the geographic and policy scope of an emerging Asian-Pacific partnership. For now it includes the US, Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Chile, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore, but it could be designed to add more countries in the future, even China.

Obama, who had campaigned for a new style of trade agreement, delayed action on the Bush-proposed talks, but by late 2009 he embraced the project and the old paradigm. Although the new text is not publicly available (even though corporate trade lawyers get access), critics—who have surreptitiously seen parts of the text—say it largely follows the NAFTA, corporate-rights model.

But it seems that the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement not only is running into broad-based opposition, including from many businesses without Ben & Jerry’s high-profile social consciousness as well as unions, environmentalists and many other progressive groups. It also faces numerous internal conflicts and contradictions, argues Public Citizen Global Trade Watch director Lori Wallach...

More info and insights from Michele Chen: "Labor Day Showdown: Can Advocates Stop ‘NAFTA of the Pacific’?":

...The provisions of the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement or Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are still under wraps. But the general outline seems to mimic the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and similar pacts that have brought political and economic turmoil to rich and poor countries alike. The new negotiations are also taking place amid political friction over pending trade deals with South Korea and Colombia, which have run into opposition over concerns about labor abuses abroad and offshoring of U.S. jobs. Yet the White House continues to push free trade as a path toward the country’s economic revitalization...

Manuel Perez-Rocha, an analyst with the D.C.-based think tank Institute for Policy Studies, says that free trade deals tend to use “investment” and “growth” as a pretext for ruthless exploitation. The agreements “push wages lower and dislocate production with the ensuing loss of jobs,” says Perez-Rocha, adding that “the prospects for the TPP are very bleak and workers everywhere must resist it."

- JD

"The Indigenous Call: Take Back Our Future"

Brenda Norrell: Native Americans and First Nations were arrested Friday, Sept. 2, 2011, at the White House to send a message for President Obama to say "No!" to the Keystone XL Pipeline.

In the video, Gitz Crazyboy, First Nation Dene/Pikini (Blackfoot), Alberta, Canada, describes the threat of the tar sands for generations to come. The video includes images of Native Americans and First Nations arrested at the White House sit-in.

The pipeline would go across the heartland, and the massive Oglalla aquifer, from Canada to Texas, endangering the environment and generations to come. Already the Alberta tar sands are destroying the homeland of First Nations in Alberta.

Grassroots Asians part of interconnected worldwide coal-free movement: Coal is not the answer for post-3.11 Japan

China's example demonstrates that coal is not an answer to energy production. (Image: Sierra Club)

Congratulations to locals in Sabah, Malaysia and their global supporters in prevailing against a coal company 

that wanted to destroy this beautiful coast! (Image: Sierra Club)

Last month scientists reported that Pacific marine life passed into the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in thousands of years because global warming has melted ice cover in the Arctic. This month we've seen a flurry of news stories stating China's coal burning has "halted" global warming. Responsible media outlets like Reuters and Discover qualified the finding with pronouncements from climate change scientists who stressed that, over the long term, sulfur dioxide emissions from coal would increase global warming. Anyone who has been to China (or the Appalachian region of the United States) already knows coal is not an answer to energy production. The coal industry is as destructive as the oil and nuclear energy industries: causing permanent ruin of entire eco-systems and communities worldwide.

Even before 3.11, Japanese electricity producers were, together, the world's #1 coal importer and had planned or had under construction several new major coal-fired power stations in Japan:

Tepco previously said it expected two new coal-fired units to start operations in late 2013—a 1 GW plant at Hitachinaka and the 600 MW Hiromo No. 6 unit northeast of Tokyo, and J-Power has several plans for new coal-fired generating stations.

In past years, Japanese energy companies clashed with the Environment Ministry over emissions. Coal energy concerns now are using the Fukushima catastrophe to push through previously rejected projects and pursue growth. Owners of a mine project (20% owned by Japanese; 20% owned by South Koreans) in Vancouver, British Columbia want to produce coal for export to Asia over the objections of local residents. Itochu, a Japanese trading group, paid US$1.52 billion to acquire a 20% stake in Drummond International’s Colombian coal mining operation. The agreement gives Itochu “rights” to sell Colombian coal in Japan. The conglomerate, a major uranium supplier, used to buy most of its coal from Australian companies and has investments in Canada, Indonesia, and China. Two days ago, Mitsui bought a 49% share of Australia's Cockatoo coal project.

In Asia (and elsewhere), coal companies have seized farm land and destroyed villages, rendering entire populations homeless. The Sierra Club details this pattern of destruction, attempted destruction, and local resistance by rural people who want to save their ancestral homes and natural environments in "Down With Coal! The Grassroots Anti-Coal Movement Goes Global":

While China struggles with the enormity of the pollution burden from its world-leading annual coal consumption, it is not the only hotbed of future coal-plant construction. Activists in India, for example, report that regulators gave the green light to at least 173 coal projects during 2010 -- nearly one plant every other day. In Southeast Asia, large Chinese utilities such as China Huadian are setting up shop to finance and build a slew of new coal plants. Meanwhile, new coal mines are being proposed in Australia and Indonesia, overwhelmingly for export sales. Countries from Mozambique to Mongolia, which have had little domestic need for coal, are now being hyped as the next big players in the global coal rush. (Photo: A 2,000-MW coal plant in Madhya Pradesh, India.)

In the fertile farming areas that support large rural populations in much of Asia, the new coal boom spells civil conflict, as fields are seized, villages are ordered to pack up and leave, and communities resist. For the U.S. coal movement, the 2,500 people who turned out to protest the Capitol Power Plant was a large number. In India or Bangladesh, marches and demonstrations of more than 10,000 people are not uncommon.

The dominant international narrative focuses on the need to build large numbers of new coal plants across the developing world to spur economic progress. However, the assertion that development can only be achieved through a massive expansion of coal use is being met with increasingly fierce resistance by those asked to bear the most toxic and destructive burdens of this expansion: the people living next to coal projects.

Local populations are resisting private and public-sector pressure to dramatically expand coal-fired power because these projects are not intended for their benefit. While local people face displacement and the destruction of their livelihoods, electricity is often exported to urban centers. Communities are calling for a more sustainable model of energy development that prioritizes access to energy services for all, environmental sustainability, and human health. Their efforts to halt coal-plant construction have placed them front and center in the struggle over energy and development in the 21st century.

In the past, most communities struggling to take on ill-conceived projects have done so largely on their own, but that's starting to change. International coalitions are beginning to develop to bring publicity and support to front-line efforts. Here are a dozen places around the world where people are uniting to halt coal projects, increasingly with international support.

•  Sabah, Malaysia

In April, 1,500 people convened on a beach in Malaysia to savor a victory that had been judged impossible just two years earlier: the defeat of a 300-MW coal plant in the Malaysian state of Sabah, located on the northeast side of the island of Borneo. Celebrations were also underway 7,500 miles away, in California, among a group of activists who had helped draw international publicity to the issue -- including a Time magazine article entitled "A Coal Plant in Paradise."

• Phulbari, Bangladesh

Bangladesh's high population density (more than 164 million people in a country the size of Iowa) and rich agricultural land make coal mining a destructive proposition. In the township of Phulbari, as many as 220,000 people would be displaced by a proposed 15-million-ton-per-year coal mine and a 500-MW coal plant. Community opposition reached a crescendo in 2006, when paramilitary forces fired on a protest rally of as many as 70,000 people, killing three people and injuring 200. In the wake of these deaths, nationwide protests and strikes closed down the country for four days... During recent demonstrations, the Bangladeshi government has deployed its Rapid Action Battalion, notorious for torture and for the deaths of persons in its custody. The repression has failed.

• Andhra Pradesh, India

This coastal state of eastern India is experiencing a coal-plant construction boom, including the 4,000-MW Krishnapatnam Ultra Mega Power Project, one of nine such massive projects in planning or under construction across the country...The 2,640-MW Sompeta plant proposed by Nagarjuna Construction Company and the 2,640-MW Bhavanapadu plant proposed by East Coast Energy have both provoked large nonviolent protests that have ended in police attacks, including four deaths of local residents. Following coverage of the police action on Indian television, investigations revealed a pattern of "crony capitalism" among the permitting agencies and corporate sponsors. As of May 2011, the Sompeta plant had been cancelled and the Bhavanapadu plant had been placed on hold by officials, with corruption investigations continuing...

• Dawei, Burma

In Dawei, on the beautiful southern peninsula coast of Burma, Italian-Thai Development Plc signed a deal in Nov. 2010 to build a 4,000-to-6,000-MW coal plant, the largest in Southeast Asia and possibly the world. Within weeks of the signing, 19 villages had received orders to move. Dawei is 10 miles from Maungmagan, a scenic beach and rich fishing district...

• Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, Thailand - On Feb. 24, 2011, 10,000 people formed a human chain in this province in Thailand to protest a coal-fired power plant planned by Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand...

• Konkan Coast of Maharashtra, India

Home to 112 million people, this state in western India is building a concentration of large coal plants on a tiny sliver of land south of Mumbai known as the Konkan Coast (dubbed "the California of Maharashtra")...Concerned by the pollution and displacement entailed by the massive proposals, farmers have targeted some of the largest projects. One of these is the 4,000-MW Girye Ultra Mega Power Project, which prompted mango farmers and others to stage marches, hunger strikes, and other nonviolent actions. They successfully forced the project to seek a new location [PDF] as protests barred the government from acquiring the needed land.

• Orissa, India

In this state on the eastern coast of India, the scale of coal-plant development is staggering... In March, activists from across India converged on Orissa for a national conclave to plan a response to the coal boom, as well as the related issues of energy use and climate change. The mobilization includes the National Alliance for People's Movements, Focus Odisha, and numerous other groups.

• Madhya Pradesh, India

Since 1977, when the World Bank financed the first coal-fired plant in the region, the Singrauli district of this state in central India has been notorious for roughshod development and population displacement. Now more massive coal plants are being built or planned... The concentration of power generation in an agricultural area has left local communities reeling. The Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project, for example, has displaced 6,000 people. One man is benefiting: Mukesh Ambani, the controlling owner of India-based Reliance Power, whose reported net worth of $27 billion makes him one of the world's five richest individuals.

• Queensland and New South Wales, Australia

On a tonnage basis, Australia already leads the world in coal exports, and that lead may widen significantly if several massive mines are allowed to move forward in the eastern coal-mining states of Queensland and New South Wales... Farmers and ranchers are fighting back with a concerted effort to protect rich agricultural lands and precious water resources from mining operations...

•  Victoria, Australia

While the low-quality coal in this state in southeastern Australia is not suitable for export, it provides 91 percent of the fuel used for power generation in Victoria itself...

• Colombia

One of the oldest examples of citizens working across national boundaries on coal issues is the coalition of human rights and labor organizations that has brought attention to the massive mines in Colombia, such as the 35-by-5-mile Cerrejón coal mine, operated by Cerrejón Coal Company, and the mines operated by Drummond. The expansion of these mines has been marked by paramilitary violence, high numbers of deaths in mining accidents, and displacement of entire communities, including Tabaco, a 700-person Afro-Colombian village that was razed in 2001. Witness for Peace has brought members of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth to visit the mines, as well as people who live near the Salem Power Station in Massachusetts, which uses coal from Colombia.

• Sarangani Province, the Philippines

In the Philippines, grassroots protests against new coal plants and open-pit coal mining have taken place across the country...At a separate demonstration, students at Mindanao State University dressed as Na'vi from the film Avatar marched on the fenced property of the proposed plant site...

The co-authors (collaborative activists worldwide) conclude:

As grassroots resistance grows in countries around the globe, a nascent, interconnected, worldwide anti-coal movement is emerging. In an increasingly globalized world, local campaigns can quickly reach a global audience and tap into previously unimagined support networks. While the participants in this new movement are diverse, some of the patterns are becoming clear: sustained and passionate grassroots activism is challenging the idea that fossil fuels are the only option. Many governments have backtracked or shelved plans in response to political pressure or legal actions. Some banks, investors, and even energy companies are growing increasingly wary of further supporting coal.

But it's still too early to write the obituary for King Coal. The industry is now attempting to wrap itself in the cloak of "development," justifying dirty energy projects in the name of providing energy access for some of the world's most economically poor countries. While many coal projects have encountered strong opposition, too many others are proceeding without challenge.

...Like tobacco, coal insinuated its way into our lives delivering a cheap, short-term energy high, but leaving a bitter long-term aftertaste -- in the case of coal, ruined rivers and lands, lives wrecked and cut short, abandoned communities, and an increasingly polluted and potentially unlivable atmosphere.

We need clean energy alternatives, not the continuation of dirty energy that destroys people's health, livelihoods, and resources. Will you join the growing global movement to move away from coal?

(24 February 2011 - Thailand. Children join Greenpeace & thousands of other people from Nakhon Si Thammarat to protest plans for a new coal-fired power station to be built in their province by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). The protesters call for EGAT to immediately withdraw its coal project due to projected serious economic, social and environmental impacts. Photo: Greenpeace Int.)

Small is Inevitable: Shift from Consumption-Driven to Sustainable Paradigm

John Einarsen's In the Realm of the Bicycle is not only poetic; it is prophetic.

Firmin DeBrabander's "The Green Revolution Backfires: Sweden’s Lesson for Real Sustainability" published June 10 brings us counterintuitive news that Sweden's greenhouse emissions have increased since Stockholm began pushing electric and hybrid cars because people are driving them more.

The philosopher's conclusion: we cannot save the world by "greening" old habits. The only solution: reduce, even stop driving cars.

The consumption-driven "American Dream" (oversized cars and houses) has turned out to be an environmentally disastrous "World Nightmare" model that can no longer be pushed onto developing countries if the world is to survive: DeBrabander notes that we must shift to a reverse direction, making less developed societies the new paradigm:

American industry hungrily targets the rising Chinese consumer class. For the sake of the planet, we better hope it doesn’t get its way. Consider: China currently has a car ownership rate approximately one-sixth that of the US. If China achieves car ownership rates comparable to the US, that would put an additional 800 million cars on the road. And that’s just China. Even if we somehow succeeded in making China’s fleet super efficient, it would still be more than the planet can handle.

More on this inevitable shift from "Seeking a Cultural Revolution: From Consumerism to Sustainability" by Matthew Berger at Inter Press Service last year:

The last 50 years have seen an unprecedented and unsustainable spike in consumption, driven by a culture of consumerism that has emerged over that period, says a report released Tuesday by the Worldwatch Institute.

This consumerist culture is the elephant in the room when it comes to solving the big environmental issues of today, the report says, and those issues cannot be fully solved until a transition to a more sustainable culture is begun.

"State of the World 2010" subtitled "Transforming Cultures: From Consumerism to Sustainability" tries to chart a path away from what Worldwatch president Christopher Flavin calls "the consumer culture that has taken hold probably first in the U.S. and now in country after country over the past century, so that we can now talk about a global consumerist culture that has become a powerful force around the world."

In this culture, says the book-length report, people find meaning and contentment in what they consume, but this cultural orientation has had huge implications for society and the planet. The average U.S. citizens, for instance, consumes more each day, in terms of mass, than they weigh. If everyone lived like this, the Earth could only sustain 1.4 billion people...

"In India and China, for instance, the consumer culture of the U.S. and Western Europe is not only being replicated but being replicated on a much vaster scale," Flavin says.

Consumption has risen sixfold since 1960, the report says, citing World Bank statistics. Even taking the rising global population into account, this amounts to a tripling of consumption expenditures per person over this time. This has led to similar increases in the amount of resources used – a sixfold increase in metals extracted from the earth, eightfold in oil consumption and 14-fold in natural gas consumption.

"In total, 60 billion tons of resources are now extracted annually – about 50 percent more than just 30 years ago," the report says.

Escalating resource consumption has also led to unsustainable systems of distributing and producing those resources. In the field of agriculture, for instance, every one dollar spent on a typical U.S. food item yields only about seven cents for the farmer, while 73 cents goes to distribution, says the report's chapter on shifting to a more sustainable agriculture system.

It points to this as one outcome of increasingly unsustainable consumption habits. These habits have formed only recently – the same dollar yielded 40 cents for the farmer in 1900 – but they have now become ingrained, it says.

This consumption is based on more than individual choices. As co-author Michael Maniates says, "We're not stupid, we're not ignorant, we don't even have bad values."

Rather, we are acting under the heavy influence of cultural conventions that influence our behaviour by making things like fast food, air conditioning and suburban living feel increasingly "natural" and more difficult to imagine living without, he says.

To prevent future environmental damage, "policy alone will not be enough. A dramatic shift in the very design of human societies will be essential," says the report...Most of the report, in fact, discusses action that has been and can be taken to shift the cultural paradigm, rather than the damage the current paradigm has done.

The 244-page report cites a wide variety of examples such as the enshrining of the rights of nature into Ecuador's constitution and schools pushing children to think more sustainably by giving them healthy, locally-grown lunches and encouraging them to walk or bike to class...

The report also points to the roles different societal institutions can play in spurring cultural shifts. Among these, religion, government, the media, businesses and education all have key roles to play. Taken separately, their efforts might seem small, admits Assadourian, but taken together they can effect real change.

"Keep in mind that consumerism had its beginning only two centuries ago and really accelerated in the last 50 years... With deliberate effort we can replace consumerism with sustainability just as quickly as we traded home-cooked meals for Happy Meals and neighbourhood parks for shopping malls," he says, alluding to the tenuousness of what appear to be deep and solid cultural roots.

"Eventually consumerism will buckle under its own impossibility," predicts Assadourian. We can either act proactively to replace it with a more sustainable cultural model or wait for something else to fill the void, he says...

Earth Day festival this weekend at Yoyogi Park, Tokyo

Fom Philip Brasor's "Earth Day Japan Needed More Than Ever" posted at The Japan Times:

Plans for this year's Earth Day festivities in Tokyo, which organizers predict will attract some 140,000 people, remain fluid in light of the disaster, but in addition to fund-raising activities for the victims of the earthquake/tsunami, one of the themes of this year's festival is saving electricity, an issue that has become much more immediate with the loss of the Fukushima nuclear reactors and the probability of another hot and muggy summer in the city. Electricity for the entire festival this year, including the power to drive public address systems for concerts and lectures, will be generated using recycled cooking oil, or so-called biodiesel fuel. There will even be a car on display that was designed to run on hemp oil.

More than 400 nonprofit organizations and nongovernment organizations will be on hand manning booths, distributing literature and selling wares. The 27 restaurants participating in the Earth Day Kitchen will serve dishes containing ingredients that are locally grown, organic and free of genetically modified elements. The president of Earth Day Tokyo since its beginnings, author, naturalist and Japan Times contributor C.W. Nicol, will honor 2011 as the International Year of Forests by presiding over the Earth Day Forest...Patrons are encouraged to bring their own dishware to cut down on waste, and those who do will receive a discount on all prepared food. The nonprofit recycling group A Seed Japan will provide utensils to those who come empty-handed, but you pay for it...

There will also be workshops in Japanese paper-making and various exhibitions, including one by Japan's only photojournalism magazine, Days Japan, featuring photographs related to issues having to do with the environment and poverty.

At least four nonprofit food resellers will be in the park selling fresh organic produce grown on farms in the Kanto region, some even within the Tokyo city limits. In many cases the farmers who actually grew the fruits and vegetables on offer will be counting the change. Other outlets for consumables include a Himalaya Bazaar featuring handmade clothing and accessories, and a Fair Trade Village occupied by various foundations dedicated to helping small producers in foreign countries get real value for their goods.

Read Brasor's entire article at the above link and find out more about Earth Day Tokyo 2011, Apr. 23-24, Yoyogi Park and other locations in the Shibuya-Harajuku area at www.earthday-tokyo.org

Hikari Matsuri (“Festival of Light”) commemorates Hiroshima & Nagasaki as it celebrates the arts & sustainable lifestyles

Similarly to other countries worldwide, Japan is home to an extensive lineup of summer outdoor music and arts festivals. A favorite event for festival-goers is the Hikari Matsuri, held in early August in Fujino, Kanagawa prefecture, which is located southwest of Tokyo along the Sagami River.

The festival features the usual fare of musical performers, international food stalls and nearby camping and onsen (hot springs) facilities. Additionally, the Hikari Matsuri offers a unique location: the grounds of a former elementary school, whose all-wooden buildings were converted in 2003 into an artists’ studio complex known as the Makisato Lab.

From August 6-8, 2010, the 7th annual Hikari Matsuri transformed the old school grounds into a dynamic space featuring a market with organic goods, a striking outdoor stage enshrouded in billowing white cloth, and classrooms converted into spaces for musical performances, mini dance clubs with DJs, film screenings, and more.

As its name suggests, the event also featured various impressive displays of light. Huge strobes beamed multi-colored patterns onto the surrounding trees, gorgeous installations of candles inlaid into clusters of bamboo tree trunks were placed throughout the grounds, and a dramatic fire dance performance took place on Saturday night—the highlight of the entire weekend for many.

The fire’s significance, however, went beyond simple artistic expression. All of the flames onsite were lit from embers of the fires in Hiroshima that followed the dropping of the atomic bomb exactly 65 years prior, which have been tended by Buddhist monks and other peace advocates ever since.

The festival’s opening ceremony on Friday evening featured a screening of the documentary film Atomic Flame (Japanese title: Gate), a project of the Global Nuclear Disarmament Fund that follows Japanese Buddhist monks as they walk across the southwestern United States to extinguish the flame at the Trinity test site in New Mexico where it originated. Festival organizers explained:

Gate will be shown on the outdoor stage, using solar powered electricity and candles to create a subdued, minimalist space where we may together call for peace. Truthfully speaking, there is not much more that we can do with regard to this issue beyond learning, thinking, feeling, and praying. While such actions may seem like trivial things, they are in fact immensely important.

Hikari Matsuri also included a nighttime study program, organized by Peace Not War Japan and the Neo Ryukyu Arc network, to explore various contemporary issues related to peace and sustainability.

The first speaker was Oyama Mikae, a member of the local NPO Transition Japan. The organization has gradually been recognized as an active hub of the international Transition Network movement, thereby earning the town of Fujino global recognition for its progressive action. The website describes the initiative:

A Transition Initiative (which could be a town, village, university or island etc) is a community-led response to the pressures of climate change, fossil fuel depletion and increasingly, economic contraction. There are thousands of initiatives around the world starting their journey to answer this crucial question:

"For all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how do we significantly rebuild resilience (to mitigate the effects of Peak Oil and economic contraction) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (to mitigate the effects of Climate Change)?"

In response to these environmental challenges, the Fujino community has begun holding regular workshops on permaculture and other sustainable practices, publishing a regular newsletter titled “Transition Fujino”, and spearheading additional initiatives designed to elicit peoples’creative ideas regarding how to live without depending on fossil fuels. An excellent article highlighting the Transition Intitiative project in Fujino—which, coincidentally or not, has one of the highest concentrations of artists in all of Japan— may be read here.

Left: Information about the Transition Network posted in the former gymnasium of Makisoto Elementary School (now, Makisato Labo)

Right: Participants of nighttime study session

This presentation was followed by a screening of Hopi no yogen (The Hopi Prophecy), a 1986 documentary by Japanese director Miyata Kiyoshi. The film describes how the Hopi and Navajo tribes in the southwestern United States have responded to the resource colonization of their lands

that have been repeatedly plundered for plutonium and uranium, or—in their words—“carving out the earth’s vital organs.”

The film, a classic among social activists in Japan, recounts how tribal leaders—horrified after learning that plutonium and uranium taken forcibly from their land were used to create the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki—decided to go public with a prophecy that had been passed down from Hopi elders. The message described how humankind has now come to stand at the crossroads of two possible futures, depending on which actions are taken: one of total annihilation, and the other of peaceful sustainability.

The last of the four messengers chosen to interpret the prophecies, Thomas Banyacya, tried repeatedly to reach decision makers with the prophecy, with little success. His obituary in The New York Times following his 1999 death poignantly describes his efforts:

Although he was often warmly received by United Nations officials, his efforts to give a speech were repeatedly rebuffed. But then, as he explained, the elders had told him to knock on the door four times. On his fourth attempt, in 1992, he was allowed to make a brief speech at the General Assembly hall, but on a day when the General Assembly was in recess. Only a few delegates were present when he carefully sprinkled cornmeal on the podium and then delivered his message stressing the need for world leaders to listen to those still living in harmony with nature.

The rest of the obituary may be read here, and the full text of Banyacya’s address may be read here.

Left: Entrance to Hikari Matsuri festival grounds

Right: Night view of the festival taken from the second floor of a former classroom building

As part of grassroots citizen efforts to promote sustainability and ensure that our future is the more positive of the two possibilities outlined in the Hopi prophecy,



Peace Not War Japan and the Neo Ryukyu
Arc network will continue their series of
Peaceful New Earth events to highlight efforts of indigenous cultures and fostering connections between peace movements. Read about the first two events in the series here and here.









Text by Kimberly Hughes
Photos by Sheila Souza

Hands Across Sand calls for end to offshore drilling around the world

Photos from Hands Across the Sand, Yokohama, Japan

On February 13, 2010, over 10,000 concerned people in Florida, USA joined hands on nearly 100 beaches along the entire state coastline to demand an end to the dangerous, contaminating practice of coastal oil drilling.

Two months later, in one of the worst disasters in recent history, the entire southern U.S. Gulf Coast was threatened by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill--a catastrophe whose full extent is still unfolding.

Aiming to prevent future similar disasters, the Florida organizers put out a call for a similar event to take place worldwide this past June 26th. From the official Hands Across the Sand website:

The Deepwater Horizon disaster is a wake up call. Even as the Gulf disaster grows, British Petroleum and other oil companies continue to push for new offshore drilling anywhere oil might be found regardless of the risks they pose. The offshore oil industry is a dirty, dangerous business and no one industry should be able to place entire coastal economies and marine environments at risk.

America could be, should be the world leader in expanding cleaner energy sources yet our political process is paralyzed by oil money. It is time for our leaders to take bold, courageous steps and open the door to clean energy and renewables and free our country from its addiction to oil.

Footprints on the Path to Clean Energy, the official blog of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, reports:

On Saturday, June 26th tens of thousands of people gathered at more than 900 locations in 39 countries to be part of an event called Hands Across the Sand. The message was simple, clear and powerful: NO to offshore drilling and YES to a clean energy future that will end our addiction to oil and other fossil fuels. This worldwide event transcended social and political lines to become one of the biggest grassroots phenomenona since the first Earth Day in 1970.

The 26th of June marked the 68th day since the world’s most technologically-advanced deepwater drilling rig exploded, killing 11 people and injuring others. After burning for two days, the rig sank on April 22nd, ironically the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Since then, tens of millions of gallons of oil have spewed into the Gulf of Mexico and there is no definitive relief in sight. Thousands of square miles of ocean are devastated, shorelines and marshes are covered in tar and sludge, precious wildlife are dead and coastal communities, still recovering from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, are economically crippled.

The full report may be read here.

An interactive map from the Hands Across the Sand website shows the worldwide locations where events were held. Three took place in Japan, including one in Yokohama, where participant Cylinda Marquart had the following inspiring message to share:



"Most of us were strangers before we met up on the beach, and yet there was a powerful energy that seemed to run through our chain of linked hands," Marquart also commented. "It felt hopeful, somehow. For fifteen minutes I held the tiny hand of a two-year old that I had met only moments before, and he just beamed this amazing smile out at the ocean. I couldn't stop wondering what he was thinking."

The Hands Across the Sand event in San Francisco happened to coincide with a previously organized event titled Slash Oil, where more than 500 participants (including members of the antiwar group Code Pink) gathered for a creative human formation spelling out the event's name. Photos are available at the event website here. Event organizer Brad Newsham is a San Francisco-based taxi driver who organized several "Beach Impeach" events during the presidency of George W. Bush, and who blogs on the fascinating interactions that ensue when he offers one free ride to a taxi customer every day. His website is here.

Videos and photos from other events taking place worldwide are available on the Hands Across the Sand gallery page, as well as the up-to-the-minute Facebook page.

Naomi Klein's "Gulf Oil Spill: A Hole in the World", published recently in the Guardian, is the latest example of her masterful probe into the destructive forces of the neoliberal capitalist mindset that allowed the Deepwater Horizon disaster to occur.

Recent additional excellent, in-depth reports of the incident also include "The Devil Went Down to Louisiana: Disaster in the Gulf" from Curve magazine, and "The Spill, The Scandal and the President" from Rolling Stone Magazine.

--Kimberly Hughes

Anna Lappé on healing our planet and the conversion to a climate-friendly food system

Anna Lappé, daughter of Frances Moore Lappé, author of the ground-breaking 1971 Diet for a Small Planet reveals more about the "power of food to heal our communities, our countries, and our planet" in her new book, Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do about It .

Lappé points out that the unsustainable multinational industrial food industry (dependent on fossil fuels; toxic chemical pesticides and fertilizers) is responsible for as much as 1/3 of all greenhouse gases.

However, around the world, small farmers and their supporters are resurrecting traditional and creating new forms of sustainable agriculture that reverence our planet and life. This is a lifestyle that can cool and heal our planet.

In her book, Lappe spotlights people working for sustainability in Korea and China, as well as Mali and the U.S.

"Earth Hour" call around the world for a binding pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions

Millions of people concerned about sustainability are observing "Earth Hour" around the world--turning off their lights at 8:30 p.m.--in a call for a binding pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

15th anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol

On February 16th, the15th anniversary for the coming into force of the Kyoto Protocol (2005), students of Hakodate La Salle Jr. and Sr. High School and citizens of Hakodatecame together to create a sand message at Ohmori Beach.

Their crossword of "KYOTO" and "350" signifies their importance of the Kyoto Protocol as a first step towards returning to a world where CO2 levels are below 350 parts per million in the atmosphere.

For more information about the importance of reducing C02 emissions to below 350, check out 350.org, an international organization building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis. On October 24th, 2009 they organized what is considered "the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history," with more than 5200 events in 181 countries to raise awareness of climate change.

- Posted by Jen Teeter

Naomi Klein warns against disaster capitalistic exploitation of climate change in Copenhagen; Indigenous Environmental Network: REDD is one example

                                                    (Photograph: Mark Knudsen/Klimaforum09)

At the Klimaforum09, a parallel grassroots gathering in Copenhagen, Naomi Klein warned "The Copenhagen deal may turn into the worst kind of disaster capitalism," according to The Guardian.

"Down the road at the Bella Centre [where delegates are meeting] there is the worst case of disaster capitalism that we have ever witnessed. We know that what is being proposed in the Bella Centre doesn't even come close to the deal that is needed. We know the paltry emissions cuts that Obama has proposed; they're insulting. We're the ones who created this crisis... on the basic historical principle of polluters pays, we should pay."

Klein added that this is a chance to carry on building the new convergence of movements that began "all those years ago in Seattle, fighting against the privatisation of life itself".

Instead of addressing urgent climate change issues in good faith, many players are short-sightedly and selfishly focused on financially benefiting from a crisis that threatens planetary survival.

One example of the exploitation of climate change is REDD (carbon trading), which indigenous people call the "biggest land grab of all time."


Members of the Indigenous Environmental Network, blogging from Copenhagen, are speaking against Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) and the Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) in the climate treaty: "REDD pilot projects, in which carbon in forests would be sold to industrialized societies as greenhouse gas pollution licenses, will sever the connections between Indigenous peoples and the forests they protect."

According to a must-read IEN publication, "Reaping Profits from Evictions, Land Grabs, Deforestation and the Destruction of Biodiversity, carbon trading (greenwashed as environmentalism) is one of the newest forms of expropriating territory and resources from indigenous peoples.

It's Getting Hot in Here: Dispatches from the Youth Climate Movement has details on the Danish government's leaked backroom deals (known as the "Danish Text") with other wealthy nations--first published in The Guardian, where it can be read in its entirety):

...the leaked text effectively kills the Kyoto Protocol and its emphasis on compliance and binding targets, while gutting much of the negotiations that have been underway over the last two years. Here’s a short summary of a few of the problems with the leaked text:

The Danish Text repeatedly refers to “the shared vision limiting global average temperature rise to a maximum of 2 degrees [Celsius] above pre-industrial levels.” This vision is certainly not shared - as the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance stated yesterday, “according to the IPCC a two degree increase in the global mean temperature will mean a three or more degree increase for temperatures in Africa, [causing] 50% reduction in crop yields in some areas.”

The text also specifies that “developed country parties commit to deliver upfront public financing for 2010-201[2] corresponding on average to [10] billion USD annually for early action, capacity building, technology and strengthening adaptation and mitigation readiness in developing countries.” While this figure is still bracketed, the idea that the Global North is considering initially giving only $10 billion per year in mitigation funding to the Global South is viewed by many G-77 nations as a slap in the face – especially given that the governments of the Global North have spent over $4 trillion in the past two years on economic stimulus and bailouts of the banking and auto industries. (NOTE: In negotiating text, the brackets refer to sections that are still in negotiation.)

In one of the most controversial sections, the draft specifies that ”a Climate Fund be established as an operating entity of the Financial Mechanism of the Convention. … Support from the Fund may be channeled through multilateral institutions.” This is a key point that has been denounced by much of the Global South: this plan would take trillions of dollars in climate funding out of the hands of the U.N., and put it in the hands of multilateral institutions like the World Bank – which are effectively controlled by the U.S. and Europe.

The REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) outline in the text allows intact, natural forests to be replaced by tree plantations and includes poor provisions for monitoring, reporting and no verification at all. Indigenous peoples – whose rights the U.S. is famously reluctant to respect, as one of four countries in the world to refuse to sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – are not even mentioned in the Danish Text. The unique rights of Indigenous peoples, and indeed human rights or climate justice in general, are not part of this backroom deal.

As expected, Martin Frid has a series of great posts from Japanese perspectives--with links to important Japanese and other Asian NGOs blogging from Copenhagen--and news about protesters challenging backroom deals along with a beautiful photo essay on his harvest this fall that reminds us of what's at stake).

--Jean Downey

Fair trade, zero-emission cargo ship for sustainable development--the Tres Hombres--to dock at Copenhagen on Wednesday!

Ten Thousand Things has just learned that the topsail schooner Tres Hombres will be arriving in Copenhagen during the UNFCCC period - perhaps Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on the wind.

Perhaps you have heard of the Greenheart Project, an international Tokyo-based NPO that is designing and building a solar-powered, zero-emission, fuel-less cargo ship to serve communities in their sustainable development issues. Greenheart is collaborating with the topsail schooner Tres Hombres to create a consumer label for products transported cleanly at sea. Tres Hombres will be tying up at Amaliehaven docks, and unloading part of her cargo of fair trade and organic products -including coffee and wine. Some of it will even be for sale to the visitors. In any event, it is a good opportunity to see this fine specimen of minimal carbon transport on her maiden voyage, support clean technologies, and meet the inspiring crew.

Arjen is the captain of the ship for this voyage to Copenhagen.

Over the past two years Arjen (Boogie van der Veen), Jorne (Langelaan)and Andreas (Lackner) have restored this amazing 32 meter long schooner. Their dream is to reinstate sailing-boats as the answer to increasing CO2 emissions caused by transport of goods. They’re calling this “Fairtransport”.

As of Tuesday morning, Jorne reports:  "Tres Hombres was west of Skagen, sailing with a light wind on her beam (going 5 knots). The ship was held up the previous days by North Easterly headwinds. Although in the first days there were quite some crewmembers seasick, the ship kept herself fantastic, on one occasion logging more than 9 knots. Everything is well and the ship is expected to arrive in Copenhagen Wednesday morning."

To contact the visionaries at Greenheart, click here:

-Posted by Jen Teeter

Over 460,000 support round-the-clock Sit-In • New Petition to STOP Pluthermal (MOX) nuclear power generation in Kyushu!

(Protesters in Kyushu. Photo: MIRAI website)

Local opposition groups have set up tents for a 24/7 sit-in in front of the head office of KYUDEN (Kyushu Electric Power Co., Inc.) in the center of Fukuoka City, Kyushu. Over 460,000 citizens are demanding that use of MOX fuel at Genkai be suspended.

(Protest display in front of Kyushu Electric Power Co. head office, Photo: MIRAI website)

They are protesting planned pluthermal (MOX) program at the Genkai nuclear power plant--in tandem with negotiations with KYUDEN and Saga prefectural government. (Kyushu Electric was one of the ethical Japanese utilities companies that cut crude oil imports from Sudan over concern about oil revenues being used to fund the Sudanese government’s genocide in Darfur --hopefully the company will listen to the voices of those who are concerned about the extreme dangers of pluthermal nuclear energy production to the lives of people living in Japan and nearby Korea).

“Pluthermal” is a Japanese word which combines two English words, the “plu” of “plutonium” and "thermal". Pluthermal refers to the utilization of 'plutonium' fuel in commercial ('thermal') nuclear power plants. The fuel is commonly referred to as plutonium uranium mixed oxide fuel, or MOX fuel. Many critics are saying the Japanese government is promoting this dangerous and expensive project because they want to lead in the world in advanced nuclear technology and then to export this to other countries, especially Asian countries. The Japanese government plans to introduce pluthermal to other nuclear plants throughout Japan (Fukui, Niigata, Fukushima, among other prefectures) despite widespread opposition by residents. The next target for pluthermal conversion is the Ikata nuclear plant in Ehime, Shikoku--located directly on an active tectonic faultline.

One of MIRAI's supporters is Aileen Mioko Smith, founder of Green Action: Working for a Nuclear-Free Japan. She is the wife of the late photojournalist William Eugene Smith, renowned for his photographs of victims of Minamata. Aileen is a dedicated anti-nuclear activist who has supported local opposition groups quite actively as well as she has a lot of data and information how pluthermal nuclear generation is extremely dangerous. (We are going to post on her work on this soon.)

The Steering Committee for MIRAI (Future) are posting reports of the protest on their website (only in Japanese, good photos). South Korean citizens are also very concerned--Saga is closer to South Korea than to Tokyo. No Base Stories of Korea has great background and coverage.

MIRAI and other local opposition groups are now collecting endorsements for their petition to stop Pluthermal Project before December 2--when KYUDEN is planning to start operation in full blast.

Please help stop pluthermal generation at Genkai nuclear plant by endorsing this PETITION. It will be submitted to the Japanese national government, Saga Prefecture local governments and Kyuden:

Both individuals and groups can endorse--please write the name of your country after your or your group's name.

(Citizens in Kyushu signing the petition)

Already in Japan more than 670 signatures for the Japanese-language version of the petition were collected in only 2 days. From small local grass-rooted groups to large national organizations (including NGOs, social movements, trade unions, groups of young parents, food-safety groups, & consumer unions); organic food shops/restaurants; kindergartens, and rock-n-roll bands and artist groups have already expressed their support.

The English-language version of the petition will help demonstrate international concern about the dangers of pluthermal nuclear generation and solidarity with the over 460,000 people in Japan who want this plan stopped.

(Nuclear power plants in Japan. Image: International Nuclear Safety Center)

(More about citizens' movements against MOX here at this Sept. blog,"Nuclear Status Industry Report 2009: The Renaissance of nuclear energy is much exaggerated (with the possible exception of Monju)." The blog spotlights nuclear energy analyst Mycle Schneider's report at the The Right Livelihood (Alternative Nobel) Award website:

The study provides the facts and figures of nuclear power around the world that fly in the face of the stunning international nuclear revival propaganda.

435 units operate in the world, that is 9 less than in 2002. For the first time in nuclear history not a single new nuclear unit in the world has been connected to the grid for over two years. One quarter of the units officially under construction have been listed there for over 20 years and over one half has had repeated delays. The economic costs have sky-rocketed rather than gone down as in the case of other energy industries.

Schneider won the 1997 Right Livelihood Award jointly with the late Takagi Jinzaburo, who invited Schneider to the 1991 International Conference on Plutonium in Omiya. The two saw similarities in France's and Japan's treatment of nuclear power; they began work together on the issues of waste and plutonium shipments between the two countries.

With Japan and France hosting the two remaining large-scale interests in plutonium use, and MOX (uranium-plutonium mixed oxide fuel) being the only use for plutonium outside fast breeder reactors (FBRs), Schneider started work with Takagi on a two-year intensive international research project on 'A Comprehensive Social Impact Assessment of MOX in Light Water Reactors', which was realeased in November 1997. In December 1997, France shut down its Superphénix FBR. In Japan, after several accidents and scandals, public confidence in the industry decreased dramatically.

Citizens across Japan have organized in opposition to Pluthermal, including the "Know Pluthermal" Shiribeshi Citizens' Network in Hokkaido, profiled at the Citizens Nuclear Information Center (CNIC) of Tokyo.)

-- Jean Downey