Capitalism is the cause of climate illness! Global Movement begins the cure!
By Ron Ridenour
Presenting the People’s Agreement—“mother earth does not belong to us, we belong to it”—worldwide was the first act of the Global People’s Movement for Mother Earth. This was carried out in May by Bolivia’s President Evo Morales and representative activists from five continents.
Representing 35,000 people from 147 countries, they presented the conclusions of 17 workshops—held April 19-21 at the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth (WPCCC)—to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to the Non-Alignment Movement (now 130 Third World countries) plus China (the world’s second greatest polluter), and then to leaders of the European Union.
President Morales initiated the people’s conference as a response to the failed COP15 held in Copenhagen, Denmark last December. The so-called “Copenhagen Accord” was strongly biased in favor of the rich governments and transnational capitalist corporations that continue business as usual: extracting unlimited profits from human labor and natural resources while contaminating Mother Earth with its gaseous emissions and devastating wars.
Although conference delegates decided to take their analysis and proposals to COP16 to be held November-December in Cancun, Mexico, President Morales warned, at a May 6 news conference in New York, that there are only two choices: “Either save capitalism, or save Mother Earth. If Cancun is the same as Copenhagen, then unfortunately the United Nations will lose its authority among people in the world.” He implied that peoples’ movements might replace the UN.
