Green Party Watch

WASHINGTON, DC — US Green Party leaders expressed their dismay with the failure of the UN summit in Copenhagen to reach an agreement on international action to curb climate change.

Greens have been especially critical of the grossly inadequate emissions reduction proposals that the US and other rich countries brought to Copenhagen, the lockout of NGOs from the Bella Center while oil company executives were welcomed, the brutal treatment of protesters in Copenhagen, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s announcement by that concrete measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would be replaced by vows of transparency and good intentions.

Cynthia McKinney, 2008 Green Party nominee for President of the United States: “The ‘Copenhagen Accord’ announced on the final day of the summit is a sham. It was not adopted by UN delegates and carries no force. The US is trying to invalidate the UN’s efforts by pressuring developing countries to sign on to the Copenhagen Accord, threatening to withhold their share of the $100 billion in wealthy countries’ compensation from developing countries that refuse to sign. The compensation money is meant to help offset the economic effects of measures against climate change and the dire consequences of climate change that many developing nations will suffer. This is blackmail of the worst kind, placing billions of lives in danger. Unless a real and binding accord can be reached during next year’s meeting in Mexico, the Copenhagen failure risks a breakdown in global security, when the increasing effects of global warming lead to global conflicts over dwindling resources.”

Mike Feinstein, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States, former mayor of Santa Monica, California, and participant in the December 2007 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali: “What is the legacy of the Copenhagen meeting? No emissions reduction targets. No requirement for verification of progress from nations on emission reductions. No acknowledgment that developed industrial countries have created most of the problem and therefore must carry most of the burden of the solution. No firm commitment on mitigation and adaptation aid from developed countries to developing countries, especially in light of decades of exploitation and taking of resources from poorer nations and skyrocketing consumption rates in countries like the US. The US and its Canadian and European allies must be held responsible, as should growing large-scale greenhouse gas emitters like China and India, for placing the freedom of nation-states to continue polluting and growing in a cancerous, unsustainable manner ahead of the future of people and the earth. Failing to deal with climate change is a crime against our planet. Dividing the global community by pitting large emitters against the poorest and most vulnerable is a crime against humanity..”

Audrey Clement, co-chair of the Green Party’s EcoAction Committee: “The two most important causes of climate change — excess consumption and excess population growth — were apparently never raised in or around Copenhagen. The solution to the former is the adoption of energy conservation as the linchpin of national energy policies in the industrialized world. The solution to the latter is the promotion of family planning, sex education, and contraception, which require securing rights and equality for women throughout the world. If we don’t take our own steps to check population growth, global warming will do it for us.”

Martin Zehr, co-chair of the EcoAction Committee: “International diplomacy has proven inadequate in addressing the most fundamental issue confronting humanity. The hedged bet will be paid by future generations. With or without an agreement in Copenhagen, Greens will continue to include the voices of scientists and environmentalists in policy development and work to reduce the dominance of corporations in decisions about climate policy. It is clear that states, such as California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas need special attention in the national effort to reduce emissions. We’ve made water a top priority, since access to fresh water faces a particular threat from global climate change. The EcoAction Committee of the Green Party is increasing its role in public education, providing policy support to Green candidates and working with others towards a sharp reduction of GHG emissions at the federal and state levels no later than 2015. The failure of the Copenhagen conference to establish real targets for energy transition makes our work that much more important if we are to see any change in direction.”

According to this article, Green Party of England and Wales leader Caroline Lucas believes that the Greens are poised to win a seat in Parliament. She is quoted saying that the Labour Party, led by Gordon Brown, is responsible for the nation’s economic and social difficulties.

“The government’s response to the current economic crisis is creating more inequality, not reducing it,” she said.

She also pointed to recent Green Party votes across Europe as proof that the Green Party’s message is resonating with voters across the continent.

“A million people who responded to our policies, our candidates and perhaps, above all, to our values,” she said.

“A million voices calling out for honesty in politics, for tackling the issues that really matter, like climate change and good quality public services.

“A million people who wanted fairness from a party they could trust. What a message for the other parties.”

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The New York Times has a feature on Green Party member Greta Browne and her “Sometimes Lonely Trek for Global Warming Awareness“:

On Route 11 north of Tuscaloosa, Ala., last April, a pickup truck pulled up next to Greta Browne, and a young man began lecturing her about global warming.

He had seen Ms. Browne’s T-shirt announcing that she was “Walking for the Climate,” and he wanted to set her straight. Humans, he told her, have nothing to do with heating up the planet.

Ms. Browne, 65, a Unitarian minister from Bethlehem, Pa., has encountered more than one global warming naysayer since last March, when she began a trek up the Eastern seaboard to draw attention to climate change.

“Sometimes, you just have to stand up,” she said.

[...]

As she has plodded along, Ms. Browne said, she has come to understand her journey as a one-woman survey of the American mindset on global warming, though one, she readily concedes, that is deeply unscientific. Normally a glass-half-full type, she says the trip has made her “more pessimistic.”

“Mostly people think it is a problem,” she said, “but mostly they think it will not impact them anytime soon.”

A longtime member of the Green Party and the founder of a vegetarian cooperative restaurant, she has been concerned for years about global warming. But after she retired last year, she joined an environmental group and read “Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet” by Mark Lynas. The book, which argues that most of humanity could be wiped out by the end of the century if Earth’s temperatures continue to warm, galvanized her.

(thanks to Kevin M for the story tip)

Earth Times is reporting that the German Green Party is applying pressure on the Angela Merkel government to persuade the US government to abandon cluster bombs.

Children are often victims of the weapons, which can remain lodged in the ground for years after being fired, since they sometimes mistake the so-called bomblets for toys.

According to the Laotian government, more than 300 children a year die because of “bomblets” left over from the war in Vietnam and the surrounding nations.

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I would really like to claim the creation of the innovative title for our governor. Calling him “Ahnuld” makes him sound harmless like the neighbor next door that we enjoy talking to. However, I picked up that turn of phrase from NASA climatologist, Dr. James Hansen, who has used it effectively and publicly.

Our own Governor Greenwash is doing the public dance, wrapping green words around a policy of growth and exploitation, slamming environmentalists as being nay-says, contributing to our problems rather than to their solutions.

We currently have no narrative that allows us to explain the complexities of the water situation in California that has the simplicity of the Governor’s. His “we don’t have enough water so build more dams” is easy to explain and fits with a public mis-conception as to how nature works. Unfortunately, we are playing in nature’s ball park and nature bats last. (sorry for the sports analogy). read more »