EarthAction

Sustainable Development in China

 

Beijing smog - Source: Guardian UK

With the heavy burdens of climate change, environmental degradation and rising populations competing for resources, many countries are looking to sustainable development initiatives. Sustainability serves to meet the needs of both developing and developed populations while limiting their harmful impact on the environment so that future generations may live comfortably and prosper. Further, sustainability seeks to reuse precious resources in such a way that their access or function shift from a limited supply to an alternating, enduring resource. 

 

 With a population of over 1.3 billion, China would do well in the 21^st century to develop programs that sustain the environment and its people for generations to come, and potentially bolster their image on a global scale.  China could have the world’s largest economy by the year 2030, and their position as an economic leader ensures that the world will follow the trends they set.  There is a great responsibility to lead and usher in a more sustainable future, not only for China’s rise as a global political power, but as its industrial sector begins to take off and flourish. 

 According to a recent report, since 2001, China has answered the worldwide call to develop responsibly across a broad spectrum of areas including: economic restructuring, health and lifestyle improvements, resource conservation and environmental protection.  But there are still many challenges ahead. A developing industrial sector has forced China to become an extreme polluter as many companies are forced to choose cheaper (and dirtier) methods for production. 

 The Global Markets Project, a conglomeration of the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, has spearheaded China’s effort to make major shifts in economic, political, social, and global development to ensure a forward-thinking agenda is omnipresent in all of China’s decisions regarding production, consumption, trade and infrastructure.  They produced studies in 2008 outlining many of the issues facing sustainable development which must be overcome in the following years. 

 Accomplishments:

• China’s poverty rate declined from 10.2 percent in 2000 to 2.8 percent in 2010.
• Energy consumption declined 26 percent from 2005 to 2010.
• China is developing global forest product chains that imports and exports raw materials that try to comply with patterns of sustainability.  

Challenges Ahead:

• GDP only ranked 100^th in the world and there are still over one hundred million living in poverty.  
• There is uneven sustainable development across regions.
• China has weak scientific and technological capacities.
• China’s global forest product chain development is impeded by trade policies, poor governance and incompetent business practices.  
• Global cotton and textile product chains must be stronger.  The cotton industry needs to shift to areas that favor sustainable production.  
• Further problems in sustainability involve carbon storage, biodiversity, water regulation and cultural heritage.

Potential Solutions:

If China becomes more involved in the global community through trade and resources, then it will gain stronger global partnerships that will increase the viability of sustainable development. An amalgamation of International Relations expertise combined with much of the findings in the aforementioned study found that:

• China must match forest product commodity chain sustainability through better management, marketing and by matching foreign productions standards.  
• China must strive to increase technology funding and implementation.
• Create systems in which coal consumption decreases by as much as 670 million tons in three years, by 2015.  
• Reduce reliance on energy intensity by 21 percent in 2015.
• Overhaul their global cotton and textile production industry by relocating the industry to more sustainable areas; exporting production; improving the demand for sustainable products; improve production standards; and initiate green trade policies and sustainable initiatives that are mandated and governed responsibly.  

• China’s electronics and electronic equipment manufacturing sector needs to be improved through regulatory standards and management during e-product manufacturing, during e-waste collection, dismantling and disposal, and require improved resource management, energy use and green initiatives in production standards.

By outlining a sustainable and energy efficient strategy, China could reduce its dependence on industrial antiquities and be successful.  Imagine a China that is less reliant on fossil fuels and factories that produce harmful waste.  This would benefit not only China and its people, but the world.  

- Anisha Sekar: EarthAction Contributing Writer

This article comes to you from NerdWallet.com, an unbiased source for quantitative analysis.

Two Birds with One Awesome Stone: Comic Books and Environmentalism

LEGENDARY GREEN MAN GROWN INTO SUPER HERO BY ECO COMICS

Publisher Eco Comics has today announced the launch of a comic book series featuring one of the most iconic and prolific characters from myth and legend, the Green Man.

The publisher says: “Green Man has come to represent the environmental movement and our endangered eco-system, and so has more relevance now than ever. It is therefore fitting that his comic book debut will be entirely paperless and published by Eco Comics”.

-Read more at Mohawk Media

-Preview art and images: http://blog.mohawkmedia.co.uk/ & www.facebook.com/official.GreenMan

-Click here to order Green Man #1 or for the free preview edition

 

Open Letter to President Obama and Former Governor Romney: Defend America Against Keystone XL

"The True Cost of Oil" - A photo of the Canadian Tar Sands taken by Garth Lenz.

You can help stop Keystone XL by signing the Open Letter to President Obama and Governor Romney.

3 EASY STEPS: 

1) Add your name (below).  

2) Print out copies.

3) Hand-deliver them to the Romney and Obama campaign offices nearest you.

“And today, I’m directing my administration to cut through the red tape, break through the bureaucratic hurdles, and make this project a priority, to go ahead and get it done.”
- President Obama, speaking about the southern leg of Keystone XL
Cushing, OK (March 22, 2012)

“If I’m president, we’ll build it if I have to build it myself.”
- Governor Romney, commenting on the Keystone XL pipeline
Pittsburgh, PA (May 4, 2012)

Dear President Obama and Governor Romney,

As candidates for president, you both support construction of the southern (OK-TX) leg of Keystone XL, a pipeline that would transport tar sands through the Great Plains from Montana to refineries in Texas.

Primer on Citizen Advocacy and Desertification

DESERTIFICATION, the loss of soil in the dryland regions of the world, is one of the world's most serious problems. More than 40% of the world's people live in dryland regions in over 100 countries. Desertification is related to food security, conflict, women, biodiversity, climate change, and migration. It is a problem that we can solve.

 

Primer on Citizen Advocacy and Desertification

 

A new Primer on Citizen Advocacy and Desertification is intended to help guide the efforts of citizen groups and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) interested in promoting policies and practices that help stop the spread of desertification. The Primer was developed by The Global Citizens Initiative (TGCI), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) secretariat and EarthAction. It draws on the themes discussed at the World Community Forum on Desertification held from February 28 to March 9 2012 sponsored by these three organizations, and on documents and resource materials developed by UNCCD and EarthAction.

 

The Primer is short, snappy, and useful. Let us know what you think about it.

View or download it now (right-click to save): Download Desertification Primer

ACTION UPDATE on Campaign to Save Elephants

August 6, 2012

Image Source: Flickr User @Doug88888

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international agreement between 175 Parties (governments). Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. Today, it accords varying degrees of protection to more than 30,000 species of animals and plants, including elephants.

In January 2012 EarthAction asked people everywhere to send a message to their nation’s representative on the CITES ‘Animals Committee’ and ask them to move elephants from their current Appendix II classification, back to the more protected Appendix 1 classification where they were originally placed in 1979. Unfortunately, the Animals Committee didn’t consider the issue of elephants at their March 2012 meeting.

This reclassification of elephants to the Appendix I list would ban all new trade in ivory and allow for strict monitoring of the sale and transport of ivory with the expected result being a dramatic decrease in black market trade. Many countries oppose this change. Under their current classification, it is estimated that every year 38,000 elephants are killed for ivory sales on the black market. We must act to make our voices ring louder than theirs and fight to protect Africa's elephants.

The CITES Conference of the Parties (COP), with representatives of all nations that have ratified the treaty, meets every three years. Their next meeting, COP 16, is set for March 2013. The deadline for a nation to submit a proposal for consideration of moving elephants from Appendix II to Appendix I is 4 October 2012.

ACTION

Contact your nation’s CITES representative (available at cites.org) and ask them to submit a resolution to the CITES Secretariat to reassign elephants to Appendix I classification for consideration at the March 2013 CITES COP. Remind them that they must make this submission by October 4, 2012.

Note: At the previous CITES COP in 2010, it was decided that there would be no discussion of moving elephants from one classification to another for 9 years (3 COPs). This was not a binding decision however, and it needs to be overturned in light of the growing trade in ivory and murder of elephants.

SAMPLE MESSAGE (to be sent by email, telephone, or post) TO YOUR NATION’S CITES REPRESENTATIVE:

Dear CITES Representative for [your country],

I am writing out of deep concern for the remaining elephants of the world. As our nation’s representative to CITES, I respectfully ask that you do everything in your power to see that our country submits a resolution to the CITES Secretariat by 4 October 2012 calling for the reassignment of elephants to Appendix I classification at the CITES COP set for March 2013. I urge you to give elephants the highest amount of protection. Please keep me informed of what action our government takes on this issue.

Sincerely,

[your name, organization (if applicable), and contact information]

A Positive View of Rio+20

EarthAction's friend and colleague Josep Xercavins I Valls, Professor at Technical University of Catalonia, and President of the WDGpa – World Democratic Governance project association, attended Rio+20 and sent us this review that focuses on the positive outcomes of this important gathering. Xercavins I Valls finds many steps presented in the agreed upon final document that can lead us to a more just, sustainable and equitable world.  

RIO + 20: The first globally significant political agenda of the 21st century!

A small step for the world, the first clear message about some change of direction towards a sustainable human development, a great challenge for the future in the hands of the United Nations!

Read more in English...

Lea más en español...

 

 

Climate Change: It's real, it's happening. It's going to get a lot worse.

3,282 hottest temperature records broken or tied in June, 2012. via the National Climate Data Center.

Bill McKibben has an article about the climate crisis in the August 2nd issue of Rolling Stone. It's more than sobering. McKibben pulls together the numbers and facts that confirm what we all know in our bodies, hearts, and heads about climate change. It's real, it's happening. It's going to get a lot worse. 

Read it and weep. 

Read it with compassion for all the animals and plants that will struggle through a future with increasingly severe droughts, famines, floods, hurricanes, tornados, typhoons, etc.. 

Read it and organize. 

In solidarity,

Co-founder & Executive Director, EarthAction

 

Meet Pok Hong, Indigenous Kuy Activist

Pok Hong is an indigenous Kuy activist who has been instrumental in the campaign to save the Prey Lang Forest. EarthAction recently sponsored her visit to the United States as a delegate to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York. She is currently continuing her tour of the U.S. and meeting with officials in Washington D.C. If you would like invite Hong to speak at your meeting, event, or for a media publication, please email contact[at]earthaction.org. Read the interview below to get to know Hong and why she's fighting to save the Prey Lang.

Thank you to the Prey Lang Network for sharing this interview with us.

Image Left: Pok Hong, Indigenous Kuy Activist

 

Why is PL important to you?

Prey Lang forest is life itself. It is central to the lives of indigenous people. If we lose the forest, we lose the lives of all of us who are part of the forest. Prey Lang is full of bio-diversity. When we lose the forest, we lose life itself. We can never get back what is destroyed when the forest is lost.

Why is PL important to the Cambodia?

The loss of Prey Lang would contribute to climate change, floods, droughts and food shortages. Many Cambodians depend on Prey Lang to survive. We look for food in the forest, where no chemicals or pesticides have been used. The forest provides us with medicine which we could otherwise not afford and resins and other non-timber forest products which we sell for profit. Without the forest, many of us have no livelihoods.  Like many forests Prey Lang is a rainmaker. All around the country we have noticed that when we lose forests, we lose critical rain particularly in the dry season. Then when rainy season comes, deforested areas tend to flood and have been badly affected by storms. Prey Lang is important in local climate regulation and for our water and food security.

Why is Prey Lang important to the world?

Prey Lang offers immense treasures to the people of the world.. . miraculous plants, wildlife, and the knowledge of indigenous forest communities. The forest enriches us and protects us. It’s a place we can all learn from. This is why we call Prey Lang “our forest.”  By sustaining Prey Lang we can support a different kind of development. One that is more respectful and inclusive of nature, indigenous people, and the poor. Instead of using up the forest, we use the forest to build our future. Prey Lang is a place of spiritual importance and ancient heritage. The forest is full of sacred, hidden temples that cannot be seen with the eyes. I want people to come and learn about this.

Pok Hong (second from the left) with EarthAction Executive Director Lois Barber (center)
at the UNPFII in New York last week.

You're Invited!

Join us this Thursday for a special event at the United Nation's Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in New York City:   The Impact of Doctrines of Domination on Indigenous Peoples in Cambodia   What Neoliberal Development is Doing to Indigenous Peoples in Cambodia, with Regards to their Basic Rights of Self-Determination and  Rights to their Traditional Lands, Territories and Resources.     A Special Side-Event Presentation by the Prey Lang Community Network, Indigenous Active Rights Members, Organization to Promote Kuy Culture, and NGO Forum Cambodia.   Dedicated to the memory of Chut Vutty, a founder of the Prey Lang Community Network and the Director of the Natural Resource Protection Group, who was killed by Cambodian military police on 26 April 2012.  THURSDAY, MAY 10th, from 1:15pm - 2:30pm.  UNITED NATIONS NORTH LAWN BUILDING. CONFERENCE ROOM B    In the last two decades, much of Asia has embraced the neoliberal paradigms of the West. In Cambodia, this has led to the new discovery of indigenous territories—including forests, lands, and waters—as vast resources that are targeted by the state and transnational corporations for rapid extraction through logging, mining, dams and industrial agriculture; that then converts into wealth for the few, and the dislocation of the many. In this discovery, Indigenous perspectives are regularly disregarded as backwards, unsustainable, and irrelevant. A greater irony is hard to imagine. The speed at which these “resources” are being sold off is a matter of grave international concern. This event will focus on how these processes are playing out in the upland regions in Cambodia such as Prey Lang, and will offer Indigenous critiques and constructive recommendations for a different kind of future.  Co-organized by EarthAction, Amnesty International, Cultural Survival, and the Southeast Asian Development Program.

Death of Chut Wutty - Coverage on NY Times Blog

Mr. Chut Wutty. Photo by Mathieu Young.

Forest Activist Killed by Military Police in Cambodia

This past weekend, the killing of activist Chut Wutty and his tireless efforts to protect the Prey Lang forest and the environment of Cambodia received some high profile coverage on a New York Times Blog. Hopefully this story will gain traction, and with international pressure, our demands for an investigation into Chut Wutty's shooting will be heard.

From the blog:

"A little more than a week ago, the Cambodian forest activist Chut Wutty died under circumstances for which officials have already provided three different accounts.

He was with two journalists in the Cardamom Mountains in Cambodia, taking photos and collecting evidence of illegal logging when he was stopped by the military police. There was an altercation, and somebody opened fire. Mr. Chut Wutty, who carried a pistol with him because of frequent harassment and death threats, was shot, and a military police officer was killed as well. The two journalists with Mr. Chut Wutty, according to reports, dived for cover and were unable to witness the actual shooting."

The death of Mr. Chut Wutty has led to a rally around the cause that the man had lived and died for. Help us continue the work of Chut Wutty by taking action to save the Prey Lang Forest of Cambodia.

Click here to read more at the New York Times Blog.