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. 

Thich Nhat Hanh: "You carry Mother Earth within you."

You carry Mother Earth within you. She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment. In that insight of inter-being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer. In that kind of relationship you have enough love, strength and awakening in order to change your life.

Changing is not just changing the things outside of us. First of all we need the right view that transcends all notions including of being and non-being, creator and creature, mind and spirit. That kind of insight is crucial for transformation and healing.

Fear, separation, hate and anger come from the wrong view that you and the earth are two separate entities, the Earth is only the environment. You are in the centre and you want to do something for the Earth in order for you to survive. That is a dualistic way of seeing.

So to breathe in and be aware of your body and look deeply into it and realise you are the Earth and your consciousness is also the consciousness of the earth. Not to cut the tree not to pollute the water, that is not enough.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh, "Beyond Environment: Falling Back in Love with Mother Earth", Guardian

"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.)

Dolphin Dance Film Screening @Kyoto Fri 1.21

Cranes over Umekoji Park- courtesy of Deep Kyoto

Think "Kyoto." Imagine the ancient capital with its elegant temples. Now, picture dolphins soaring through the crisp Kyoto air. This image just doesn't work, does it?

Well, Orix Corporation (a Tokyo and Osaka-based financial company) is working behind closed doors with Kyoto City officials to impose an aquarium featuring a dolphin show on Umekoji Park. This sanctuary in the center of the urban city was dedicated to the 1200th anniversary of Kyoto's ascension as the imperial capital of Japan and is meant to be a park to "last for hundreds years." City officials seem to have other plans as it distribute the public land at discounted prices to private corporation, ignoring the overwhelming voices of opposition from local residents.

This Friday evening at Urban Guild in Kyoto (Voices for Umekoji event), Kyotoites and their supporters will gather in opposition to the aquarium plans for a night of song, dance, and discussion (in English and Japanese). The home of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, Kyoto is an inland city with no links to the sea. It is an unsuitable location for an aquarium that will add an estimated 5400 tons of CO2 to the atmosphere per year while destroying one of the few carbon sinks and outdoor recreational areas in the city.

Visitors are attracted to Kyoto by its pristine temples, it's well-preserved architecture, and it's strong sense of tradition. People will not make the trip to Kyoto just to see dolphins. Tax-payer yen would be best spent on restoring the city and beautifying its parks, especially since Kyoto has the smallest amount of green space per capita for a city of its size. What more, Japan has more aquariums than any country in the world, measured in pure amount and per capita. Why build another one in a city with no marine links whatsoever?

Even worse, the exploitation of wild animals for entertainment purposes only serves to reinforce existing forms of domination over nature. The work of the Dolphin Dance Project to raise awareness of the beautiful lifestyle of wild dolphins and the man-made threats to them, including their unjust capture for aquariums, cannot be more relevant at this time. Michael Lambe of Deep Kyoto reports:

Watching this video, what’s really amazing to me is the incredibly trusting nature of these dolphins. I wonder why they don’t consider the boat and the humans in it as potential predators? There’s something amazing and quite moving about this trust, but it is also quite sad when you think how easily and how often this trust is betrayed.

One of the many arguments against the building of the Kyoto Aquarium is the issue of cruelty to animals, specifically dolphins. The building of a dolphinarium for “edutainment purposes” is a central aspect of the building plans and having seen those plans I can tell you that the space allotted for the dolphins is clearly both constrictive and cruel. Research has proven that dolphins are both intelligent animals capable of self-awareness, abstract thought, and creativity. They are also emotional animals that exhibit profound familial and social bonds. Some scientists have even suggested they should be considered “non-human persons” and afforded rights equivalent to our own. In other words, we ought to treat them better than taking them out of their natural habitat, confining them in pools and using them purely for our own entertainment.

Many of the postcards designed by Kawagoe Yoshio-san for the anti-aquarium campaign, depict dolphins, and frequently with a message that reads “君とは海で会いたい!” – I want to meet you in the ocean! This message that we should encounter wild creatures such as dolphins in their natural habitat and not in an entirely artificial environment is a strong one. So it seemed serendipitous that Chisa Hidaka the director of the Dolphin Dance Project should offer to show her short movie “Together” at the “Voices for Umekoji” event on Friday. The message is essentially the same.

Dancer and choreographer, Chisa Hidaka, initiated the Dolphin Dance Project in order to promote inter-species understanding. Having encountered dolphins in the wild, Chisa became intrigued by the similarities between dolphin play and human dance and began a project of filming inter-species improvised dance as a means of profound communication. The debut film, ‘Together: Dancing with Spinner Dolphins,’ won ‘Best Experimental Film’ at its world premiere at the Big Apple Film Festival. This film shows a human dancer and a wild spinner dolphin dancing playfully together beneath the waves. Though short, it is beautiful to watch and leaves you wanting more. Happily ‘Together’ is but a pilot for a longer film to be shot in 2011. ‘Sharing the Dance’ will be a full-length documentary about the making of a group dance with several human dancers and a pod of wild dolphins.

We are very proud to be showing the movie “Together” at our event on Friday!

Global Work Party: Tree Planting with Electric Vehicles in Hakodate, Japan

Over 7,347 events were held in 188 countries across the planet to encourage governments and communities to take action to reverse climate change as a part 350.org's Global Work Party.

Circle 10/10/10 on your calendar. That’s the date. The place is wherever you live. And the point is to do something that will help deal with global warming in your city or community.

We’re calling it a Global Work Party, with emphasis on both 'work' and 'party'. In Auckland, New Zealand, they’re having a giant bike fix-up day, to get every bicycle in the city back on the road. In the Maldives, they’re putting up solar panels on the President’s office. In Kampala, Uganda, they're going to plant thousands of trees, and in Bolivia they’re installing solar stoves for a massive carbon neutral picnic.

Campaigners from 350.org have convinced the Obama administration to reinstall solar panels on the White House after rejecting 350.org's first proposal. The Reagan Administration removed solar panels erected on the White House by former climate-minded U.S. President Jimmy Carter. The Mexican government has also agreed to reduce CO2 emissions by 10%.

With October 10th being just a little over a week before the tenth ordinary meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP10) being held in Nagoya which will cover the adverse effects of climate change on biodiversity, actions in Japan were organized to urge the Japanese government to make stronger commitments to reducing CO2 emissions by transitioning to greener technologies. The tree planters in the photo above used electric vehicles to plant 100 beech trees on Mt. Kijihiki. Organizer Peter Howlett describes the solidarity event:

Our tree planting began by first meeting at Oshima-Ohno Station. (This will be the new Shinkansen Hakodate Station in 2015.) Planters were shuttled from here in Mitsubishi's new electric vehicle; i-MiEV up to the top of Mt. Kijihiki where we planted 100 beech trees. This photo was taken mid-planting. We chose Mt. Kijihiki because we are proposing the installing of a community wind farm (10-15 2000Kw turbines) on this mountaintop to power a Ride-the-Wind shuttle train to connect New Hakodate Station with old Hakodate Station (18km).

If such a delicate and difficult task as planting trees on a mountaintop can be achieved with the use of renewable energy-based technologies , surely with the proper sense of commitment and urgency, these technologies can be adapted in all aspects of our daily lives.

350. org organized a similar event last year to raise awareness of global CO2 emissions in October 2009 where 5,200 simultaneous demonstrations took place in 181 countries. CNN called it "the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history." With almost 7,350 events this year, it is clear that the movement to protect our earth from climate disaster is only growing stronger and stronger.

-Jen Teeter

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.

UN Report: Go VEGAN to stop Global Warming

From the June 2 Guardian: "UN urges global move to meat and dairy-free diet: Lesser consumption of animal products is necessary to save the world from the worst impacts of climate change, UN report says:"

A global shift towards a vegan diet is vital to save the world from hunger, fuel poverty and the worst impacts of climate change, a UN report said today.

As the global population surges towards a predicted 9.1 billion people by 2050, western tastes for diets rich in meat and dairy products are unsustainable, says the report from United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) international panel of sustainable resource management.

It says: "Impacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to population growth increasing consumption of animal products. Unlike fossil fuels, it is difficult to look for alternatives: people have to eat. A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products."

Professor Edgar Hertwich, the lead author of the report, said: "Animal products cause more damage than [producing] construction minerals such as sand or cement, plastics or metals. Biomass and crops for animals are as damaging as [burning] fossil fuels."

The recommendation follows advice last year that a vegetarian diet was better for the planet from Lord Nicholas Stern, former adviser to the Labour government on the economics of climate change. Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has also urged people to observe one meat-free day a week to curb carbon emissions.

The panel of experts ranked products, resources, economic activities and transport according to their environmental impacts. Agriculture was on a par with fossil fuel consumption because both rise rapidly with increased economic growth, they said...

Agriculture, particularly meat and dairy products, accounts for 70% of global freshwater consumption, 38% of the total land use and 19% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, says the report, which has been launched to coincide with UN World Environment day on Saturday.

Read the entire article (with links) here.

Kathy Freston wrote an even better article on this topic, "Vegetarianism is the New Prius," published three years ago at HuffPost.

And Kim Hughes' meditative post, "Fucha cuisine: Buddhist tradition offers lessons in nonviolent simplicity through food," takes this subject even deeper: exploring how conscious and reverential cultivation, preparation and enjoyment of food can be a practice of peace—thereby inherently contributing to a cooler, calmer world on subtle as well as physical levels.

The First Annual Vegan Earth Day @Kyoto (Sunday, May 2nd 10-5): Interview with Chiko

• May all living things being able to live in a world of peace and harmony.
• 
  
• That we prevent our environmental problems from getting worse so that our children may be able to keep living on this earth.
• 
  
• May we live lives in health and with beauty.

These three ideas are the inspiration behind the logo for the first ever Kyoto Vegan Earth Day to be held in Kyoto during Golden Week this year on May 2, 2010. Organized by the same people that bring us the largest vegetarian festival in Japan year after year, the Kyoto Vegetarian Festival,(see post on 2009 Vegetarian Festival) the Vegan Earth Day will focus on the relationship our diets and Mother Earth:

As you know,the world already produces more than enough food, plant sourced for everyone. We would like suggest the way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the world's livestock, among the most serious contributors to global warming. We should care about climate change because if we don't, we can’t leave our children and their children sustainable earth.

Our vegetarian festival committee have hold vegetarian(vegan) festival since 2003 every October. a rare event bringing together vegan & vegetarian-, environment-, and peace-mind people from all over the country. An event for all ages, the festival gives you place to enjoy vegetarian food and listen to music while learning about vegetarianism, the environment, and more.

According to the Vegetarian Festival website 18% of greenhouse gases originating in the livestock industry. When one beef rice bowl requires over 2 tons of water to produce, versus 120 liters for a bowl of udon, the benefits to the earth of reducing meat consumption are quite obvious.

To find out more about how Vegan Earth Day was brought to life, Kyoto resident Jennifer Teeter interviewed Iwasa Akiko (a.k.a. Chiko), who has been organizing the Vegetarian Festival since 2003 (email correspondence translated from Japanese to English).

Can you tell us a little bit about the Vegetarian and Vegan scene in Kyoto?

9 years ago, when the first Vegetarian Festival was first held, people had only heard of the word vegetarian and many thought "vegetarian" simply meant vegetables. Also, many people thought it was strange for people to chose to lead a lifestyle where they didn't eat animals for religious purposes.

However, as the years have passed, judging by the people who come to the VegFest, questionnaires, the number of vegetarian restaurants and the media attention vegetarianism has garnered, we can see that the image of vegetarians has changed.

Perhaps Kyoto and Tokyo can be considered the easiest places for vegetarians to live in all of Japan. Kyoto is well-known for the vegetarian cooking of Buddhist monks called shojin ryori, and in addition, Kyoto attracts many foreigners, so the number of restaurants in Kyoto that are conscious of the diet of vegetarians has grown.

How did the Vegan Earth Day festival come to life?

The vegetarian festival started 9 years ago, but it was already an ALL VEGAN festival. Tokyo Earth Day, the largest open-air event in Japan, is quite famous, but many of us felt a little uncomfortable at the event. Despite the presence of many wonderful booths at Earth Day selling recycled plates and silverware, eco-bags, et cetera, we wondered why was there so much food with meat in it. There were only a few vegetarian shops on the premises and it felt as if there wasn't any vegetarian food at all but just long lines for restaurants selling animal products. It was a very strange atmosphere. While it is impossible for everyone to all of a sudden become vegan, couldn't we, on Earth Day at least, go without food made from animals?

So, now that people in Japan understand what it means to be vegetarian, we hope that the next step will be that people understand what VEGAN means. We have received requests that we have a Vegetarian Festival twice a year from the many people that come and stalls at the Vegetarian festival. It is from these requests that Vegan Earth Day was born.

Over the year, do you feel that the Vegetarian Festival has had an influence on the vegetarian scene in Kyoto?

I don't think we have influenced the vegetarian scene. It is more the hard work of vegetarian restaurants, the influence of celebs from overseas, and the health boom. These and other factors have played a part and and people in Japan are increasing their understanding about vegetarianism.

What changes have you seen over the years?

Now, there is more of a positive response when people say "I am a vegetarian." You hear more often people responding with "Wow, that's cool" and "Teach me some recipes." Also, we receive lots of messages telling us how people have become vegetarian after coming to the festival and learning about environmental problems and the devastating situation of animals for the first time. A great part of this open-air event is that while eating delicious food and learning, people can have a great time and reflect on their own eating habits and ways of thinking.

Do you have any advice for people that are thinking of becoming vegetarian or vegan?

It is not that difficult. First you have to give it a try. After two weeks, your body will feel great and you won't be able to stop.

The media presents a variety of ways to be vegetarian, from macrobiotic diets to the raw food diet. But, everyone is different so you need to find the way that works for you and enjoy your vegan life. Also, be confident in how wonderful it is to find vegan friends and together expand the circle of vegan friends for the future of the earth.

Finally, what is your favorite vegan food?

I guess I am a Japanese person after all, so my favorites are miso soup with tofu and brown rice, and I like eating lots of in-season fruit.

Chiko also explained the logo for Vegan Earth Day:

The logo has three green sprouts branching out from the center. They represent:

1. All living things being able to live in a world of peace and harmony

2. Preventing our environmental problems from getting worse so that our children may be able to keep living on this earth

3. Health and beauty (this is purposefully the smallest sprout:)

We created the logo to incorporate these ideas.

Thank you Chiko for your inspiring answers! From this interview, it is clear to see that this event promises to be thought-provoking, educational, and fun. Hope to see you there!

- Jen Teeter

The Earth Can't Afford Mo War Any More! World People's Conference on Climate Change & the Rights of Mother Earth • Carbon Footprint of War

On April 22, people from around the world will converge in Cochabamba, Bolivia on Earth Day to promote real solutions and a human rights approach to the climate crisis.

The World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth will push the world's leading carbon emitters, who promote unjust and false solutions such as carbon offsets, stricter binding carbon reductions and reparations for industrial-driven environmental destruction, to change course in preparation for the next round of UN Climate talks which will take place this December in Cancun, Mexico.

A major piece of the climate crisis that is not often discussed is the impact or carbon footprint of the US military. Did you know that the US military burns 3.5 million gallons of fuel every day on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? United for Peace and Justice member, the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice , has put together a great little Earth Day flier connecting climate destruction and war.

Lets amplify the voices of the people in Bolivia and make the connection between war and climate crisis during this years Earth Day events. Please Download a UFPJ version of the flier here and distribute it at Earth Day events in your community!

For a good article on the Peoples Conference: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/14-3
Download UFPJ "Carbon Footprint Of War" flyer

Long-time UFPJ member group Global Justice Ecology Project will be providing media support for the North America the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance-Indigenous Environmental Network delegation is attending with the aim of amplifying the perspectives of frontline communities resisting the impacts of climate change. Information will be posted on the Climate Connections blog: climatevoices.wordpress.com

"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.

Vandana Shiva: GMO crops "suicidal" compared to native crops adapted to flood & drought--"Resilience is built through diversity"

GMO companies have pushed their way into India, persuading small farmers to purchase expensive GMO seeds on borrowed money. Many of these farmers have committed suicide after the promises of better cotton yields turned out to be false hype--poor or bad GMO crop yields resulted in insufficient income to pay back their debts.

In February, India's government imposed a moratorium on the use of a GMO eggplant because of safety concerns.

In a recent interview with Reuters, Indian environmentalist and GMO-free advocate Vandana Shiva, warned that the use of genetically modified crops is "suicidal" because they, unlike native and normal crops, cannot adapt to flooding and drought:

"The (GM) system is more about companies making money from farmers than food security..."

Plenty of drought- and flood-resistant traditional crop varieties already exist and simply need to be brought back to market, supporters of traditional farming say.

Shiva said India has hundreds of varieties of rice, and many that show resistance to flooding, drought and saltwater are now being carefully bred at Indian research institutes to increase yields and are then re-released to farmers.

In India's northeast Assam province, where fields have been flooded for weeks after intense rains, demand has surged for two rice varieties that can survive weeks under water and also produce well even in dry conditions.

Planting a broader variety of crop strains - rather than a couple of GM varieties - should help protect the world food supply and insure it against emerging climate threats, including an expanding range of crop pests.

While a pest might decimate some varieties of crops, it is unlikely it could destroy a wide range of varieties, she said.

"Resilience is built through diversity," Shiva said.

Keeping small farmers on their land is also key, she said, because small farmers are more productive per acre than big-scale growers, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation's figures.

"The majority of people in the world are still farming on small farms," she said. "If we're addressing food security we'd better enhance the security of small farms."

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

Candle-night: It's Winter Solstice--Turn Off the Lights & Take It Slow

Candle-night, a winter (and summer) solstice event in Japan, Korea, and Mauritanius is a thoughtful, introspective, connecting, beautiful celebration:

We call for Candle Night Summer/Winter Solstice.

Turn off your lights for two hours from 8 to 10 p.m. on the evenings of the summer and winter solstices.

Do something special . . .
Read a book with your child by candlelight.
Enjoy a quiet dinner with a special person.
This night can mean many things for many people.
A time to save energy, to think about peace,
to think about people in distant lands
who share our planet.

Pulling the plug opens the window to a new world.
Awakens us to human freedom and diversity.
It is a process of discovery about our potential.
However you spend them, for just two hours, join us.
Turning off the lights, and help us spread
a gentle wave of candlelight around the earth.

On the evenings of the summer and winter solstices, for two hours from 8 to 10 p.m. Turn off the lights. Take it slow.

The creators ask people to be mindful of the natural rhythms of day and night and the seasons. In being attuned to the renewable sources of natural energy in our lives--the sun--we rediscover the renewable sources of energy within ourselves and live on a deeper, restorative, cosmic level that was meant for us. (The best way to to live naturally is to go to sleep when the sun goes down and awaken when the sun rises, according to holistic health perspectives).

By awakening and developing this natural connection to our world's natural rhythms, we awaken sensitivity to our own natural rhythms--resulting in the kinds of transformative states of consciousness::

Shin'ichi Tsuji:

"At a time of dynamic shifting of food, energy resources, finance, and etc. in the world, it is important to think locally, not globally. In this difficult time, it is also important to review our way of life through Candle Night, feeling connected to the world."

Kazuyoshi Fujita:

"Now is the time for us to protect the primary industry before a global food crisis develops, and also time to think about life's diversity. On Candle Night Summer Solstice 2008, the Tokyo Tower, a symbolic building in Tokyo turned out their lights. Why are lights-out events necessary? This is what each of us should think about."

Miyako Maekita:

"Recently, I visited some rural areas and I strongly feel that we should put more focus on local democracy. These areas also need our attention as along with as the capital, Tokyo. It is time to use democracy more effectively. Candle Night remains to be a platform, providing many alternatives to all of us."

Shin'ichi Takemura:

"What is real happiness? This is a type of question people hesitate to ask in ordinary settings. However, a small effort can be effective for creating the atmosphere. For example, by turning off the TV during meals, you can be peaceful. Candlescape offers a platform for people all around the world to share their feelings. I hope people will connect with each other on the globe.

Junko Edahiro:

The crisis we are now facing will not be solved quickly. We need to think about what real happiness is. Global warming itself is not a problem but a symptom. The real problem is that humanity wants to grow limitless on limited Earth. The true value of Candle Night is that it can give us an opportunity to think about what really matters to us by spending slow time.

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

How to Cool the Earth: Vegetables and Walking (Cool Earth Parade@Kyoto Sat, Dec 12th)

"A lot of people with similar motivations to better the world all congregated in one place. I wish it would happen more often!"

What is Sam Dreskin (pictured left) referring to?

The 7th Annual Kyoto Vegetarian Festival of 2009 held in Okazaki Park last October (formerly the "Veggie & Peace Festival"), an annual event to bring together:

vegetarian-, environment-, and peace-minded people from all over the country. An event for all ages, the festival gives you a place to enjoy vegetarian food and listen to music while learning about vegetarianism, the environment, and more. The Vegetarian Festival provides a place for people of all ages and nationalities to learn about a healthy lifestyle, while bringing attention to problems like the degrading environment and World Hunger.

With the governments of the world waking-up to the realities of global warming and climate change, this year's festival focused on the following themes:

★Living a healthy life, both mentally and physically
★Respecting life, not just of humans, but of the animals with which we cohabit the world
★Realizing how pollution and food over-consumption can degrade the environment
★Introducing organic retailers throughout Kyoto
★Providing a place to learn from NPOs

Over 80 different organizations, earth-friendly goods suppliers, and NPOs converged together sharing the multitude of ways in which we can fulfill the festival's ideals. Local vegetarian cuisine, including Deep Kyoto favorites like Sunny Place, Falafel Garden, Mikoan, Caffe dell' Orso and Cafe Millet were cooking up a storm while masseuses from Malinka soothed our souls with their dexterous hands.

Organic Beer from Yamaoka (left) and healist Malika(far right) from Malinka

NPOs such as Make the Rule/Kiko Network informed the public of the need for Japan to move beyond the Kyoto Protocol and make even more drastic cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in order to prevent further global warming.

Members of the Kyoto Make the Rule/Kiko Network Team selling furoshiki to raise money.

Seven activists from the Make the Rule/Kiko Network team are in Copenhagen at the Climate Conference advocating that Japan make a law to reduce greenhouse emissions. One of the members, Mutsumi Hirooka (廣岡睦) explained while folding a furoshiki:

"Although Japan is obligated by the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse emissions by 6% against 1990 levels by 2007, emissions had actually increased by 8.7% . While government officials misleadingly brag about meeting the Kyoto Protocol goal in 2009 by reducing emissions by 6% in one year, the accumulative effect of the increase in GHG in the atmosphere is not taken into consideration, meaning the emissions are now 15% higher than the original target. At present, Prime Minister Hatoyama is pledging to reduce emissions in Japan by 80% by 2050, on the condition that other countries make the same pledge to reduce emissions, increasing his campaign pledge for emission cuts by 65%. The highest Former Prime Minister Aso would commit to was 8%."

While the festival has come and gone, the Vegetarian Festival 2009 website provides a wealth of information for those interested in pursuing a lifestyle sustainable to the environment in both English and Japanese. The meat industry wreaks havoc on the environment, with 18% of greenhouse gases originating in the livestock industry. When one beef rice bowl requires over 2 tons of water to produce, versus 120 liters for a bowl of udon, the benefits to the earth of reducing meat consumption are quite obvious.

As Sam noted, in front of the Falafel Garden vendor, after enjoying an cruelty-free pita: "It is important that we see this as part of a daily lifestyle instead of a one day thing. The vegetarian festival inspires us to make the change by showing how easy, delicious, and full of love a vegetarian lifestyle can be."

What's more, the vegan festival is not only for vegans alone. Takayuki Okazaki (岡崎享恭）, a lecturer at Kyoto Sangyo University, explained that although he did eat meat, he was happy to have the opportunity to learn about different kinds of foods made out of non-animal products so that he could introduce them into his diet.

In addition to reducing our consumption of animal products, walking is much kinder to the earth than riding around in gas guzzling automobiles. This weekend, walk a little more in solidarity with the "Cool Earth! Kyoto Action 2009” Parade. The Parade will send a message from citizens in the Kansai Area to the Climate Conference in Copenhagen taking place December 7th – 18th.

DATE: Saturday, December 12, 2009
PLACE: Kyoto City, Japan

Download English flyer here:
http://gaj.s263.xrea.com/internal/091212_flyer_eng.pdf
Download Japanese flyer here:
http://climatekyoto2009.blogspot.com/

PARADE STARTS AND ENDS AT KYOTO CITY HALL
2:00pm Gather in open air space at front entrance of Kyoto City Hall /
Rally begins
2:30pm Parade Departs
4:30pm Parade returns to Kyoto City Hall / Parade ends


Dress colorfully, bring instruments, carry a placard you made, or just
bring yourself.

Organized by:
“A Cool Earth! Kyoto Action 2009” Organizing Committee
Co-sponsored by: Kyoto Ecology Center
Supported by: Kyoto Prefecture and Kyoto City
Endorsed by: Japan Environment Exchange (JEE) Kyoto International
School and other organizations.

Details follow:
The parade will leave from Kyoto City Hall at 2:30pm, go west to
Karasuma Rd., turn south to Shijo Karasuma, turn east to Shijo
Kawaramachi, turn north, returning to Kyoto City Hall at around 4:30pm.

Join any part of the parade. Come with fun costumes, placards, musical
instruments, or just bring yourself.


Kyoto City Hall access:
Tozai Line (Kyoto municipal subway line)
Get off at: “Kyoto-shiyakusho-mae”, and you are there.

Contact information:
Kiko Network: 075-254-1011 E-mail: Kyoto@kikonet.org
Chikyu Ondanka Boshi Kyoto Network: 075-251-1001
E-mail: syodanren@mc2.seikyou.ne.jp

-Posted by Jen Teeter

Gavan McCormack on a clash of civilizations: Nuchi du takara (Okinawan sanctity of life) versus violent militarism

In "Okinawa's Turbulent 400 Years," published at Japan Focus in January of this year, engaged scholar Gavan McCormack, author of Client State: Japan in America's Embrace,writes about the value conflicts underpinning citizen resistance to US militarism in Okinawa. He interweaves his analysis with background on the US military occupation of Okinawa and insights on related short-sighted, short-term, destructive capitalistic growth processes that threaten not only the well-being of Okinawans, but also the survival of everyone on our planet.

McCormack says the reason for Okinawans' passionate resistance of US militarism (and Japanese militarism before that) stems from the culture's pacifism rooted in a life-affirmative ethos:

Throughout Okinawa’s 400 years, two sets of contradiction have persisted: between Okinawan deep-seated peace orientation and the imposed priority to war and subjection by force, and between Okinawa’s multicultural and open, Asia-Pacific universalism on the one hand and “mainland” Japan’s dominant identity construct, defined by rejection of Asia and assertion of superiority, in forms often constructed around the emperor as divine, on the other.

According to one story, probably apocryphal, as King Sho Nei in 1609 chose non-resistance to the superior force of Satsuma, he uttered the words Nuchi du takara. Whether or not he ever spoke them, these words have come to be understood as a statement of Okinawan value. Sho Nei’s submission did not mean surrender. Facing physically superior opponents, submission was unavoidable, but conscience and value were not to be appropriated by force.

In two particular respects, this essay explores the contradiction between Nuchi du takara, the affirmation of the supremacy or sanctity of life, as the expression of Okinawan values and the competing principles imposed from outside: the priority to force (in the extreme form war, and therefore death over life) on the one hand, and the priority to growth, expansion, conquest, extended under fundamentalist capitalism to involve the appropriation and exploitation of nature itself over stability and conservation, on the other.

The US bases on Okinawa only contribute to 5% of the prefecture's economy.  They're not needed, and, in fact, impede the development of tourism and other industries.  Moreover, The US and Japan have repeatedly told Okinawans that the next new agreement means the end of bases. But after a string of broken promises, Okinawans now see through the US tactic of "bait and switch." In 1972, the US and Japan promised the "reversion" of Okinawa to quiet protests. This resulted in no change. And the latest, moving Futenma to Camp Schwab doesn't do away with pollution, noise, and assaults in Okinawa, it just moves them to another part of the island that has been relatively untouched since the US began their occupation:

Okinawans had imagined that “reversion” would bring them under the constitution, release them from the parameters of force and restore something of their ancient ideal of demilitarized, peaceful islands. It was not to be. The Okinawan people would never have chosen a permanent military identity, so the political challenge facing the Japanese state has been to neutralize the opposition to militarization and to secure the compliance of the Okinawan people to an agenda whose core is priority to the US alliance over the constitution, to military over civil or democratic principle, and to the interests of the Japanese state over those of the Okinawan people. Reversion, therefore, had to be built on deception and trumpery, bribery and lies. The post-reversion state used smoke and mirrors to try to create a theatre capable of deceiving and persuading on a mass scale.

The deceptions were thinly concealed. What was called “reversion” was actually purchase, at a cost greater even than Japan had paid a few years earlier to compensate South Korea for four decades of colonialism; “return” was also “non-return” since the bases remained (and Japan would pay the US to continue occupying them) and those who attempted to expose the truth of the deal were pursued mercilessly and their truths denounced as lies (continuing to this day, despite the emergence of proof of their truth from the US archives). When mass discontent against the bases threatened to boil over, a new round of “reversion” was promised, but again deception was the keynote: “reversion” actually meant substitution, modernization, expansion; the scale of the new works was concealed by calling them a “heliport,” and the expression “seiri shukusho” (base reduction) was chosen to try to convey the impression that overall that was what was happening.

Since Nago was the centre of opposition and the popular struggle centred there was able to block and frustrate the state design for a full decade, 1996 to 2005, money was poured into it to try to divide, weaken and corrupt it. Nobody, even the Governor, could openly state a preference for construction of a new base for the US over preservation of Oura Bay, with its newly discovered blue coral and its dugong colony, or the adjacent Yambaru forest and its creatures, so the Governor adopted the tortuous logic of arguing that the planned Cape Henoko structure would not really be a “new” base because it would in part be constructed on the site of an existing one.

US military bases in Okinawa (click on it for a larger version.( Image: Japan Focus)

McCormack charges that "Chicago-style" neoliberalism as the ultimate cause for Okinawa's continuous occupation for over 400 years:

Capitalism in 1609 was in its very early, mercantilist stage, but that same ruthless drive, expansionism, and search for profit that drove the European exploration, conquest, and colonial expansion has continued to morph through different phases, eventually becoming the dog-eat-dog neo-liberalism whose bankruptcy has become so plain today. The Edo state tried in vain to resist it and to preserve intact its own social and economic order. With the modern, Meiji state, Japan launched full pelt into its own version of expansion at all costs, first colonial, then post colonial...

In its most untrammelled, pure, market and profit-driven mode, “Chicago”-style capitalism has brought the world economy to the brink of collapse. Even more importantly, it has stretched the fabric of the earth to breaking point, putting at risk our survival as a species. The earth warms, the polar ice caps melt, the glaciers and the coral reefs shrink, the seas rise, the deserts advance, the polar bear, the tiger (and countless other species of land, sea, and sky) are endangered. Our present trajectory offers the prospect of gradual decline into chaos, punctuated by water wars, oil wars, food wars, and epidemics.