Environmental Justice Week next week

bristol | the environment | announcement Thursday November 05, 2009 15:33 by blaf - Bristol Latin America Forum

3 events linking Latin American issues home

On Tuesday night, Cinema Klandestino open their Cine Rebelde mini-season and kick off Enironmental Justice week with 'Our Oil and Other Tales', a look at oil geopolitics in Venezuela.

On Wednesday afternoon, explore the concept of Environmental Justice with Bolivian activist and trade unionist Cristian Domínguez, Professor Malcolm Eames from the Low Carbon Research Institute at Cardiff University and Judy Ling Wong, director of the Black Environment Network.

On Wednesday evening, hear Colombian social movement activist Isaac Marin explain BPs social and environmental devastion in Casanare in Colombia, with Yasmine Brien from Bristol Rising Tide re-contextualising climate change and global energy politics in terms of climate justice, including a look at so called “green” solutions such as biofuels, at an event entitled "What Does Climate Justice Look Like? Copenhagen & The Energy Crisis: The Case of BP in Colombia".

1. Tuesday 10th November - 8pm

Cinema Klandestino present Our Oil And Other Tales

With introduction and discussion afterwards led by Mark Ellingsen (Bristol Solidarity with Venezuela) and Thomas Muhr (University of Bristol)

A two-month journey across Venezuela, from Lake Maracaibo to the Orinoco Delta. The people of the oil fields and the mining centres talk of their close encounter with these exploitations. For the first time, in the revolutionary Venezuela, a documentary delves deep in the problematic of oil and coal, from the angle of the life experience of communities, oil workers, indigenous people.

The film takes a look at world politics on oil and other extractive activities, jointly with the themes of sovereignty and self-determination of a people engaged in a real process of change.

Directed by: Elisabetta Andreoli, Gabriele Muzio, Sara Muzio y Max Pugh
Produced by: Gattacicova (Italy) and Yeast Films (UK)
From the film makers of “another way is possible in Venezuela”

83 minutes, Spanish with subtitles in English

Call 07747 833376 and listen to the brief message for venue and directions.

2. Wednesday 11th November - 1.30-4.30pm

Environmental Justice seminar
University of Bristol, School for Policy Studies, Centre for the Study of Poverty and Social Justice
LT1, 3-5 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TB

‘Environmental Justice’ refers to the human right to a healthy and safe environment, a fair share of natural resources and access to environmental information and participation in environmental decision-making. Social movement campaigns for environmental justice usually focus on environmental inequality, where poor, black and other disadvantaged groups bear the burden of pollution. This seminar looks at this issue at a local and global level from NGO, activist and academic perspectives and will be of interest to all those working towards social justice. This event is open to the public. FFl or to reserve a place, email: karen.bell@bristol.ac.uk

Cristian Domínguez, has been at the forefront of environmental justice campaigns in Bolivia, opposing water privatisation and working for the nationalisation of natural resources. The organisation he represents, the CSUTCB, is one of the main social movement organisations which brought president Evo Morales to power.


Professor Malcolm Eames has participated in and led research and consultancy projects for a wide range of agencies including: DTI, DETR, UK Cabinet Office, Environment Agency, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the European Commission. In 2004 he produced a report on environmental inequalities in the UK which has underpinned the current UK Framework and Strategy for Sustainable Development.

Judy Ling Wong has an international reputation as a pioneer in the field of black and minority ethnic participation in the built and natural environment. She works on urban design, identity, health, employment, and access to the countryside and urban green spaces. The groundbreaking methodology developed by BEN to engage urban-based ethnic minorities has been very influential in many areas of mainstream policy.

3. Wednesday 11th November - 6.30-9pm

What Does Climate Justice Look Like?
Copenhagen and The Energy Crisis: The Case Of BP In Colombia

As world leaders and world activists prepare to descend on Copenhagen to take action on climate change, have we fully understood its structural causes? Colombian NGOs argue that the developed countries need to control their patterns of consumption, luxury and waste. Who is responsible for the global North's ecological debt to the global South?

Colombian social movements argue that multinational oil and mining corporations, especially BP and other British based companies, have destroyed their environment, their human rights and social fabric. This raises vital questions linking environmental justice with international solidarity. As Colombian communities struggle to defend their territories against multinational plunder, what can be done to build links with those affected by the seemingly unquenchable thirst for profit? How can corporations like BP be made accountable?

Guest speaker Isaac Marín from COSPACC, Colombia introduces and explores the situation on the ground in Casanare. The leader of this grass-roots organisation looks at the social and enviromental effects of BP in the region. Yasmine Brien (Rising Tide) re-contextualises climate change and global energy politics in terms of climate justice, including a look at so called “green” solutions such as biofuels.

Organised by Colombia Solidarity Campaign, Bristol Rising Tide and Espacio Bristol-Colombia. Chaired by Alice Cutler from Trapese. For info on this event contact: o.edwards@gmail.com or suspiciousasians@yahoo.co.uk
07838 504840

At the Old Council Chamber, Department of Law, University of Bristol
Wills Memorial Building, Bristol BS8 1RJ

Isaac Marín is a campesino leader from Eastern Colombia. His first organisational and political space was with the National Association of Peasant Farmers (ANUC), holding several positions at the regional level for a period of 12 years. He is a founder member of the group Corporación COSPACC, a civil organisation with national reach since its inception into social and political life 7 years ago. From this space, they contribute to the construction of different political and organizational processes with rural communities, neighbourhoods, student groups, womens associations, environmentalists, trade unions and organizations defending human rights.

Alongside these movements COS-PACC work to defend their territory and the enforcability of political, social, cultural and environmental rights of the communities and the Colombian people.

Yasmine Brien is actively involved in environmental and social justice campaigns with groups such as Bristol Rising Tide and Espacio Bristol-Colombia. She has recently returned from Colombia where she was accompanying social organisations and communities, and took part in a Friends of the Earth international delegation to verify the impacts of biofuel production.

While climate change has become a widely discussed issue, particularly in the lead up to December's UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, climate justice is rarely at the centre of these discussions. As a result, countries such as Colombia remain on the frontline of the worlds energy crisis bearing the brunt of the worlds fossil fuel dependency and search for so called "green" solutions in the form of biofuels and reforestation programmes.

Alice Cutler is a member of Trapese, a Popular Education Collective which offers workshops and training aimed at inspiring and promoting action for changing our world. Trapese are involved in organising a programme of film and events, *START PRODUCING THE FUTURE- Experiments against Enclosure - Tools to reclaim the Commons”, to accompany C-Words:
C Words is part of Arnolfini's 100 Days season, marking the countdown to the 15th UN Conference on Climate Change, Copenhagen, December 2009. For more information on all events in the C Words season, please visit the 100 days website, www.platformlondon.org and www.arnolfini.org.uk.

Background

Since the eighties, the exploitation of oil and its derivatives are one of the most important lines of the Colombian economy. However, thousands of barrels extracted daily have failed to reduce the social inequality that afflicts more than 50% of Colombians. The reason is simple: the national energy policy and international economic dynamics have facilitated the arrival in our territory of transnational corporations who earn most of the profits of the business, while we are left with a modest royalty and all the side effects of the extractive economy.

One of the most recognized side effects is the British oil company BP. Their presence in Colombia during the first half of the twentieth century was quite shy, but in the nineties through their ability to operate the nation's largest wells - Cusiana and Cupiagua in the department of Casanare - the company saw hugely increased production and profits. In the region today we find a sad reality: Casanareños remain in poverty, neglect and marginalization as the black gold resources have gone into private hands: illegal groups and corrupt politicians.

Thus, hundreds of people are affected by the actions of this crime. However, the lack of reporting and complaint mechanisms have resulted in the invisibility of these facts. Given this reality, COS-PACC has embarked on accompanying measures, reporting and training in rural communities in Casanare to try to understand this phenomenon and encourage social organization processes to mitigate and eliminate harmful effects of the oil economy in the region.

Also for information/reference

CENSAT Agua Viva (Friends of the Earth Colombia) call for CLIMATE JUSTICE:

"Climate Justice is primarily a call to transform unequal social relations. Unequal economic relations (which historically have generated exclusion, poverty and misery), unequal political relationships (which have historically excluded the indigenous, afro descendants, women, poor and southern countries) and unequal ecological relationships (whereby the victims of climate change are the most impoverished and excluded people throughout the world).

To achieve these changes, promote education, organization, mobilization and building sustainable relations in local settings, rural, and urban popular at the same time, we promote the strengthening of the Movement of Victims Affected by Climate Change and strengthening international movement for climate justice now.

10 Principles of Climate Justice

1) To discuss and tackle the structural causes of climate change.

2) The developed countries need to control their consumptive patterns, luxury and extravagance. This includes the reduction of excessive consumption of fossil fuels and mineral resources like coal.

3) Reduce now emissions from the North by at least 5%, with respect to their emissions in 1990. Propose further emission reductions of 40% by 2020 to achieve zero emissions at the global level.

4) Prevent at all costs the ecological baggage generated by the transfer of agents of contamination to the south, for example, through the transfer of large industry.

5) Ensure that the innovations and technologies for mitigation and adaptation to climate change are in the public domain and free of corporate governance and private patent monopoly.

6) Agrofuels are a false solution! They affect security and food sovereignty, extending the agricultural frontier, destroying forests and biodiversity, create monocultures, promote the concentration of land under regimes of terror, deteriorating soils, depleting water sources, and consume more energy than they generate.

7) The CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) and REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) are not alternatives! They are mirages of profit for local communities that historically have preserved their forests sustainably.

8) The North must recognize and pay the ecological debt to the South. Southern countries are not responsible for the historical pollution of the planet, by contrast, they have been victims of looting by the North to protect their patterns of consumption. The ecological debt should be recognized and paid for by the North to the South to ensure sustainable wellbeing.

9) Cancel the debt and prevent the generation of new debt that leads to further marginalization and impoverishment of the South.

10) To recognize, collect and promote knowledge and sustainable practices of indigenous peoples, afro-descendants and campesinos as alternatives to climate change and environmental crisis.”