Rising Tide Mops up the COP – Copenhagen Climate Summit Archive Project!

Clipboard02Rising Tide North America is pleased to announce www.WhatIsCop15.net – an instant archive project compiling some of the incredible work of the global climate movement at and in the lead up to the 2009 UN climate summit in Copenhagen (the 15th Conference of the Parties or COP15).

Much has been said about the failure and collapse of the climate of COP15 last weekend to reach a binding agreement, and you’ll find lots of analysis at www.WhatIsCop15.net.

But the real story from the climate summit — which at best was expected expand the carbon market and entrench corporate control of climate policy — is a happy one.

It’s the massive organizing success and coming of age of the climate justice movement. 100,000 in the streets, tens of thousands in attendance at the climate justice oriented Klimaforum, and countless actions against the root causes of climate change.

Moreover, the sham of polluter-dominated climate policy political sausage making – which expelled groups like Friends of the Earth and Via Campesina from its proceedings – was revealed to millions of onlookers, as was Obama’s complicity in the whole affair.

Depressing as the state of things is, the understanding that there will be no just climate solutions without massive social change has crystallized for score of people in the past weeks: the movement of people demanding a radical shift in the existing order is growing by leaps and bounds, and we must celebrate this awakening!

www.WhatIsCop15.net compiles images, reports, videos, reflections and education resources from COP 15, to thank those who organized for climate justice in Copenhagen and to inspire those of us who weren’t there to equally monumental actions.

Whether you’ve been struggling to keep up with the news or were there in Copenhagen, we invite you to learn, enjoy, and spread the word about the online archive! We’d love it if you contributed content as well!

Boston Climate Activists Hang 30-Foot Banner Off Harvard Bridge During U.N. Climate Conference

Boston, MA – Activists with climate group Rising Tide hung a 30-foot banner reading, “System Change, Not Climate Change” on the Harvard Bridge (Massachusetts Ave.), the largest bridge spanning the Charles River this afternoon. The action comes in the final days of the United Nations Climate Talks in Copenhagen, as 115 world leaders arrive while negotiations have deadlocked. In the past week, over one thousand activists have been arrested in protests.

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A crucial message from Rising Tide North America

asGreetings friends and supporters of Rising Tide North America!

Would you like to see RTNA continue to grow and build its network of groups and individuals striking directly at the root causes of climate change? RTNA is humbly asking you, your family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues to support our grassroots efforts by putting your money where your heart is.

RTNA fills a niche in the fight for Climate Justice that is very hard to raise money for the traditional way since we advocate non-violent direct action and loudly oppose corporate power: as such your involvement in our work is essential to our success.

The donation of even a dinner out to eat a month worth of money from each person reading this would make many things Rising Tide has dreamed about for years finally possible:

What would the movement for climate justice be like if Rising Tide could provide free, on-call training and logistical support for community organizers demanding an end to fossil fuel exploration and burning in their own back yard?

A deeper commitment from our supporters to help fund our work would allow us to get great works of analysis like Hoodwinked in the Hothouse out to 100,000 instead of just 10,000 people.

We’re going to try to make donating a few dollars a month easy for you: you can use a paypal donation of $5, $10, $15, or $20 a month, by clicking this link below:

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The official blog of Global Justice Ecology Project created to amplify the voices of Climate Justice.

http://climatevoices.wordpress.com/

Photo essay of the 12 December March in Copenhagen continues after this blog post:

Copenhagen Day of Action on Climate Change:

Energy in the Streets; Disappointment in the Negotiations

Late last night a draft text on the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) scheme was released.  It was strongly condemned by NGOs from around the world.  The text of this agreement gave mere lip service to Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and to safeguards against conversion of native forests to timber plantations, not including them in the legally binding body, but rather referring to them in a preamble. Continue reading