Join the Peoples Climate March!

Check your town for their events. 
http://peoplesclimate.org/march/?r=avaaz

World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

90% of all disasters are related to weather, climate and water. 

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) provides world leadership, expertise and international cooperation in:

• Weather
• Climate
• Hydrology and water resources
• Related environmental issues

                                                    Read more.

Climate Change is Killing our Mother Earth

Last updated on 1 August 2014, 9:01 am

In their own words: indigenous people from Canada, Finland, the US, Guatemala and Peru tell their climate stories.

Nordic Sami people in the early 1900s – before they had to worry about climate change (Pic: Christopher Forster/Flickr)

By Sophie Yeo and Gitika Bhardwaj

From Alaska to Peru, indigenous people across the world are already having to face up to the damage that climate change is imposing on their land. 

Due to their reliance on the land – culturally, spiritually and physically – indigenous people are one of the most vulnerable to climate risks. But campaigners warn against seeing them as one heterogeneous group.

From region to region, the difficulties and opportunities posed by climate change differ wildly. While in the Arctic circle, communities are worrying over thinning ice, in Peru communities are having to deal with the loss of their rainforests.

This week at RTCC, we’ve been looking at where indigenous people fit in the climate jigsaw, including their role in the UN, adaptation initiatives in Kyrgyzstan and how a Brazilian tribe is using solar powered smartphones to fight illegal logging.

To round up, we’re handing the stage over to indigenous people themselves. Here’s how they are coping with the loss of their “Mother Earth” – and how they’re fighting back.

Ghislain Picard
Assembly of First Nations National Chief 

Climate change is having a dramatic impact for Indigenous peoples in Canada.  Because of the geographic location of many of our communities and our relationship to the land and environment, our reliance on traditional foods and resources, we are the first to experience the impacts of climate change.

1993: A Heiltsuk girl from the First Nations of Canada holding one of the paddles of the “Glwa”, the Heiltsuk canoe (Pic: UN Photo/John Isaac)

Many governments and organizations – including Indigenous governments and organizations – have been calling on Canada to do more to address and reduce the impacts of climate change.

We absolutely must recognize here in Canada as well as in the international community the negative health and lifestyle impacts of climate change and act immediately to ameliorate these impacts in the interests of all peoples and our environment.

Katherine Sorbey,
Mi’Kmaq, Canada

The Mi’Kmaq have one of the longest coastlines of any of the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada. Climate change is affecting our in land rivers and lakes with warmer waters and a larger incidence of acid rain, and coal burning pollution killing our fish.

Climate change is affecting people’s behaviour, with more and more distrust for decision makers and greedy business praising money.

Climate change is affecting our transmission of knowledge or transgenerational teachings with fewer and fewer opportunities to walk the shores, woods, wetlands, caves, mountains where we can see or hear fowl, animal, or fish life, with insects and plant life and thus begin our talks and stories with those around us to pass on our language, knowledge and world view as an eco-centric people.

Mary Rose Watts
Mi’Kmaq, Canada

Climate change is killing our Mother Earth – our continuum will come to an end sooner than foretold.

Agnes Williams 
Seneca, USA

The nuclear issue – including fracking – is a big thing for us in our community. New York State is trying to develop gas resources – we have a lot of gas resources and people are going at it.

In New Brunswick, there was a demonstration by the Indians where they protested against fracking from an energy company from Texas. Then there was an injunction, people’s heads got busted and they were all put in jail because they were protesting.

Climate change is a really big thing. We always hear how our populations will not sustain, the glaciers are melting and we’re not going to be sustainable anymore.

That’s one of the projects we have had with the Indigenous Women’s Network which is sustainable community gatherings since the 1980’s and what we try to do is bring together people who are working towards sustainable communities – whether its food or energy – so that we can be better stewards of the land and not just become the victims of climate change.

In 1939, Ojibwe, Navajo, Seneca, and Dakota peoples were invited to share indigenous folklore and dance with the King and Queen of England during the hot dog picnic at President Roosevelt’s cottage in New York (Pic: FDR Presidential Library & Museum/Flickr)

Ingrid Sub Cuc
Kaqchikel Maya, Guatemala

Solola has never seen a season as dry as it is experiencing right now. The corn fields are beginning to dry out and the corn is not developing as it would normally. Farmers are beginning to go out in the early morning to water more than usual because it hasn’t rained in weeks.

The community is worried that if the climate continues to change as drastically as it has in the past few years our indigenous communities might experience the biggest change in diet, with less corn being produced. Indigenous people in Guatemala depend heavily on corn for their diets.

Without tortillas indigenous people wouldn’t just lose their food but their identity, their work, their income and their history.

Tomas Aslak Juuso
Sami, Finland

We are reindeer herders and we are seeing the reindeer change their migration patterns … This has changed our livelihoods. We now have rain falling steadily for long periods in the middle of winter.

In the past it would only rain once a winter, if that. This causes ice-snow, which the reindeer can find impossible to break through to reach the plants beneath, and also makes the ice on lakes and the surface of the ground unpredictable.

Bouba Aeisatu
Cameroon

The government sometimes dispossesses Forest People without any compensation. Commercial deforestation simply cuts the trees down without preparing the Indigenous Peoples. We are forest people; we use the forest for medicine, for hunting and gathering, for fruits.

Gideon James
Gwich’in Elder Arctic Village, Alaska

I really think the fish are moving toward the Yukon (120 miles south). Global warming is here. Scientifically, we can’t solve it, but as human beings, we can slow it down by driving less. [Cars cause] carbon dioxide.

There is bad weather and every year it’s getting worse and worse. Thirty years ago the permafrost was solid underground, so the land was flat. Now there’s dents everywhere. If we don’t identify greed, we will destroy the earth. The greedy take and take. Get greed under control!

Members of the Gwich’in Nation go on a peace march in 2005 (Pic: yeimaya/Flickr)

Trimble Gilbert
Traditional Chief of Arctic Village, Alaska

More vegetation is growing because of lots of rain. The brush is hard for caribou … Couple of years ago, we saw a polar bear; then another year we had problems with wolves killing our dogs.

Things are changing so much. The river turned red from the red rock. This has never happened before. The basin upriver was shaken by rain, hail, and thunder.

Rich people go anywhere they want and always roll over us Native People with money. A plane from Fairbanks burns 50 gallons an hour, so that’s a 100 gallons roundtrip every day. We [Arctic Village Gwich’in] don’t burn that much. The city is different.

John Goodwin
Iñupiaq Elder and marine mammal hunter, Alaska

Grandpa and grandma would tell stories how the “world is getting warmer and warmer.” Back then, when it would get into the 20s, that was a heatwave. Ice would be so thick in the (Kotzebue) Sound, it would take a while for it to get out because there was a lot of thick ice out there, but now ice is not as thick as it used to be.

Ugruk [bearded seals] are always looking for good ice to lay on, this is a migration area as they go north to find ice, so if no ice here, then they keep going. So some years we have no ugruk.

Gladis Vila Pihue
President of the National Organisation of Indigenous Andean and Amazonian Women of Peru

When a mining company came to Huancavelica, many people came into the community to profit, and the money changed our lifestyle – we saw things we had not seen before, like prostitution and alcoholism.

These changes weaken our communities to the point where they are disappearing as we can no longer maintain our way of life, our culture. We lose our collective way of life.

To date, the government says things like “we built a bridge, we’re helping with climate change mitigation,” but there is no real strategy, indicators or engagement with communities to put a strategy in place.

That is what we want.  Many communities already feel the effects – glaciers are reducing, in the Andes water is less accessible and we have to walk further to get it. Rivers are overflowing in the Amazon.

Indigenous people in Peru, where this year’s UN climate conference will take place (Pic: International Development Law Organization/Flickr)

We used to plant chakra next to the river, now we cannot. Our food security has already been impacted.  For centuries our people have relied on mother nature to dictate when to plant and when to  harvest, and now there is no regularity for us to rely on.

With thanks to Cultural Survival and Rights and Resources for their help with gathering the quotes

Read more on: Canada | featured | Indigenous People's Week

- See more at: http://www.rtcc.org/2014/08/01/indigenous-people-climate-change-is-killing-our-mother-earth/#sthash.kZUF9QGk.dpuf

WOMEN'S EQUALITY DAY - AUGUST 26

What is Women’s Equality Day? 

At the behest of Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), in 1971 the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as “Women’s Equality Day.”

The date was selected to commemorate the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. This was the culmination of a massive, peaceful civil rights movement by women that had its formal beginnings in 1848 at the world’s first women’s rights convention, in Seneca Falls, New York.

The observance of Women’s Equality Day not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, but also calls attention to women’s continuing efforts toward full equality. Workplaces, libraries, organizations, and public facilities now participate with Women’s Equality Day programs, displays, video showings, or other activities.

"ONE WOMAN, ONE VOTE"  (45 MINUTER)

The High Price of Materialism

Wondering about Consumerism: The Story of Stuff

Wondering about Consumerism: The Story of Stuff

Wondering about Consumerism: The Story of Stuff

Wondering about Consumerism: The Story of Stuff

Wondering about Consumerism: The Story of Stuff

Wondering About Consumerism: The Story of Stuff

Click on this YouTube video link to view The High Price of Materialism.

10 Vital Steps to Peace in Syria

Ban Ki-moon: The values for which the United Nations stands are at stake. We must not abandon the Syrian people to cruelty and crisis.

··         Ban Ki-moon

·      The Guardian, Thursday 26 June 2014 12.14 EDT

o    Jump to comments (124)

Conquering territory through aerial bombardments into densely populated civilian neighbourhoods is not a victory. Starving besieged communities into surrender is not a victory.' Photograph: Zohra Bensemra / Reuters/Reuters

The horrific war in Syria continues to worsen and bleed beyond its borders. A cold calculation seems to be taking hold: that little can be done except to arm the parties and watch the conflict rage.

The death toll may now be well over 150,000. Prisons and makeshift detention facilities are swelling with men, women and even children. Deaths by summary execution and unspeakable torture are widespread. People are also dying from hunger and once rare infectious diseases. Whole urban centres and some of humankind's great architectural and cultural heritage lie in ruins. Syria today is increasingly a failed state.

The United Nations has tried hard to address the conflict's deep roots and devastating impact. Our humanitarian and other efforts are saving lives and reducing suffering. But our fundamental objective – an end to the conflict – remains unmet. The bleak prospects for peace have darkened further with the flare-up of violence and sectarian tensions in Iraq. The cohesion and integrity of two major countries, not just one, are in question.

But the international community must not abandon the people of Syria and the region to never-ending waves of cruelty and crisis. The following six points can chart a principled and integrated way forward. 
1. Ending the violence

Residents wait for UN food aid at al-Yarmouk camp south of Damascus. 

Photograph: Handout/Reuters

It is irresponsible for foreign powers to give continued military support to parties in Syria that are committing atrocities and flagrantly violating fundamental principles of human rights and international law. I have urged the United Nations security council to impose an arms embargo. The sides will have to sit across from each other again at the negotiating table. How many more people must die before they get there?  
2. Protecting people 
The UN manages a huge humanitarian relief effort. But the Syrian government continues to impose unconscionable access restrictions; it has removed medical supplies from aid convoys and deliberately starved and collectively punished communities it regards as sympathetic to the opposition. Some rebel groups have acted similarly. Moreover, the international community has provided barely a third of the funding needed for the relief effort. I continue to appeal for an end to the sieges and for unfettered humanitarian access across internal front lines and international borders.  

3. Starting a serious political process 

The warring parties systematically blocked the relentless initiatives of two of the world's leading diplomats, Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Brahimi. The presidential election earlier this month was a further blow, and failed to meet even minimal standards for credible voting. I will soon name a new special envoy to pursue a political solution and a transition to a new Syria. Regional countries have a special responsibility to help end this war. I welcome recent contacts between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and hope that they will build confidence and reverse a destructive competition in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere. Syrian civil society groups are making courageous efforts to maintain the fabric of society and keep open channels of solidarity and communication. 

4. Ensuring accountability for serious crimes

 

Refugees cross from Syria to Turkey via the Orontes river in December 2012. 
Photograph: Manu Brabo/AP

Last month, a resolution that aimed to refer the conflict to the international criminal court failed to pass the security council. I ask those member states that say no to the ICC, but say they support accountability in Syria, to come forward with credible alternatives. The Syrian people have a right to justice and action against impunity. 
5. Finishing the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria 
The UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have worked together to destroy or remove from the country all of the declared materials in a once large arsenal. Many member states have provided critical resources and support for this challenging task, which was undertaken in an active war zone and which will now be completed at various destruction facilities outside Syria. While almost all of the killing in Syria is being done with conventional weapons, it has been essential to reinforce the global norm banishing the production and use of chemical weapons. 
6. Addressing the regional dimensions of the conflict, including the extremist threat 
Foreign fighters are in action on both sides, increasing the level of violence and exacerbating sectarian hatreds. While we should not blindly accept the Syrian government's demonisation of all the opposition as terrorists, neither should we be blinded to the real threat of terrorists in Syria. The world must come together to eliminate funding and other support for Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. The latter is also a threat to all communities in Iraq. It is crucial for the region's leaders, political and religious, to call for restraint and to avoid a spiral of attack and reprisal.

 

Syrian refugees at a protest against Bashar Al-Assad at a refugee camp in Antakya, Turkey, in March 2012. Photograph: Aykut Unlupinar/Anadolou/EPA

For the moment, the greatest obstacle to ending the Syrian war is the notion that it can be won militarily. I reject the current narrative that the government of Syria is "winning". Conquering territory through aerial bombardments in densely populated civilian neighbourhoods is not a victory. Starving besieged communities into surrender is not a victory. Even if one side were to prevail in the short term, the devastating toll will have sown the seeds of future conflict.
Dangerous sectarian tensions, massive movements of refugees, daily atrocities and spreading instability make the civil war in Syria a global threat. All the values for which we stand, and all the reasons for which the UN exists, are at stake across the devastated landscape that is Syria today. The time is long past for the international community, in particular the security council, to uphold its responsibilities.

Are We Losing Our Human Rights?

ARE WE LOSING OUR HUMAN RIGHTS?

'The world stands disgraced' - Israeli shelling of school kills at least 15

• UN condemns IDF attack on sleeping children as violation of international law    The Guardian

The Fourth Geneva Convention contains a number of articles which provide special protection to children. The events of two world wars, clearly established the need for special protection to children; that “children shall be the object of special respect and shall be protected against any form of indecent assault. The Parties to the conflict shall provide them with the care and aid they require, whether because of their age or for any other reason.

Wars kill people, including teachers in their classrooms, nurses in their hospitals, and farmers in their fields. But when children die in the hail of steel soldiers direct at one another there is a special kind of obscenity. Children have no agency, not even the slightest shred of the responsibility or complicity that adults to one degree or another may possess.