Cochabamba Bolivian Earth Summit

A real earth summit just concluded on Earth Day 40 in Cochabamba, Bolivia (home to the water wars, where the people expelled Bechtel and their water privatization scheme and ultimately toppled the corrupt government). The premise of this summit was to ameliorate the problems of climate change and deal equitably with carbon debt. 20% of the population, from the rich Global North developed countries currently produces over 80% of the CO2 emissions while 80% of the population mainly from the developing countries in the Global South only produce 20% of the CO2 emissions. The Copenhagen summit last December failed to note this inequity and when climate negotiators from the Global South refused to sign the Copenhagen deal that only mandated the USA to go back to 2005 CO2 standards and imposed more stringent level on the developing countries, the US took back funds earmarked for climate help in Bolivia, Ecuador and elsewhere in the world. This stiffles any new green development and alternative energy and perpetuates current CO2 producing climate changing industry, (mining, soya and cattle production and deforestation from logging operations) most of which is owned and operated by multinationals regulated under the IMF and World Bank to pay for other debts incurred by economic hitmen during decades of US sanctioned and supported dictators.

In attendance at Cochabamba 17 working groups from approximately 55 countries worked on a World Referendum on Climate Change to keep temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees centigrade. Bolivia agreed to plant 10 million trees, protect indigenous peoples and their lands and asked that the $1.7 Trillion spent annually by the US on defense and war now be spent on climate change technologies around the world.

To set the global bar, Germany is in the process of signing an agreement with Ecuador to keep its oil reserves in the ground and compensate them for this lost income. This act will protect human health globally, keep CO2 out of the atmosphere by not drilling, refining or burning petroleum and protect the soil and water resources of indigenous peoples living in this region. This is the essence of real climate action. Kudos to Germany!

In response to this Bill Gates and Obama have agreed to make $8 Billion available for small scale farming projects in climate stressed regions. A small price and hardly an incentive to end large corporate farming and rain forest destruction. We know from history that local farming techniques and local seed varieties thrive and allow people to feed themselves at lower costs, stay on the land and earn a living without having to migrate to urban slums.

We live in a global world and everything is connected. Let's invoke the old environmental mantra, act local and think global. It can have positive outcomes for all.