Red Road Cancun: Explosing the lies and demanding climate justice

The Indigenous Environmental Network team exposes the scam of carbon trading, and the debt of polluting nations
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Watch live and streaming videos: http://redroadcancun.com/?p=454
IEN media hotline: +52 998 108 0748
IEN e-mail: ienCop16media@gmail.com
+Contacto de Medios IEN Medios: +52 998 108 0748; Correo Electrónico: IENcop16media@gmail.com

CANCUN, Mexico – The scam of carbon trading and false solutions to climate change are being exposed by the Indigenous Environmental Network, in a live broadcast from a crew of Native broadcasters at the Cancun Climate Summit.

The Indigenous Environmental Network’s live program, Red Road Cancun, http://www.redroadcancun.com/ was hosted today by Casey Camp-Horinek, Ponca from Oklahoma and Dallas Goldtooth, Dakota Navajo. The team includes Clayton Thomas-Muller, Cree and Tar Sands Campaign organizer from Canada.

Tom Goldtooth, IEN executive director, Navajo and Dakota, said the negotiations in Cancun are now being coopted by the industrialized nations, including the US, Canada and European nations.

“Carbon trading benefits the polluters of the north,” Goldtooth said. He also urged a halt to new fossil fuel development.

IEN is exposing the debt from the north and its responsibility to restore forests, without carbon offsets and carbon debts.

As tens of thousands of people arrive in Cancun, Goldtooth said the webcast, Red Road Cancun, is exposing the false solutions. “Carbon trading is hiding the real issues,” he said.

Social movements are converging on Cancun from throughout the world and demanding climate justice.

Goldtooth said IEN is looking at climate justice in regards to human rights issues, public health issues and Indigenous rights. He described the passion of social movements and Indigenous Peoples in building a base of resistance: Non-violent, direct action.

“As Native people we have to go to the heart of who we are,“ said Goldtooth, pointing out that Anishinaabe back home in Minnesota realize how the weather is changing, as they fish and carry out traditional lives, as do coastal Natives.

Goldtooth said the expansion of oil drilling, coal mines and power plants are destroying the earth while increasing pollution and sickness, especially for Native Americans.

In Cancun, Natives with IEN are exposing the contradictions of the United Nations’ official negotiations.

Goldtooth said it is important for the world to reevaluate the meaning of the sacredness of Mother Earth. Indigenous Peoples with traditional knowledge have solutions and have the right to have a voice, he said.

On the issues of global justice, Goldtooth said there has been a blackout by the media. “We have been here, but we have been invisible.”

Calling on people around the world to support climate justice, Goldtooth said December 7 is a day of global protest and action. “One Thousand Cancuns,“ is mobilizing people around the world.

Indigenous Peoples, including IEN, are supporting Bolivia and President Evo Morales, which created the Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in April. This gathering resulted in the Peoples Agreement on the Rights of Mother Earth.

With their own Native communication team in Cancun, Goldtooth said IEN is watching the governments of the world and what message the media is spinning.

The multinational corporations back home, he said, do not want Native people to hear what Indigenous Peoples are saying in Cancun.

Pushing for a real reduction of greenhouse gases, Goldtooth said, “We are able to bring that truth to light through the media.”

Twa-le Abrahamson, Spokane Naiton, founding member and Youth Coordinator of the SHAWL (Sovereignty, Health, Air, Water, Land) Society, from Washington state, is on IEN’s communication team.

Abrahamson is sharing the news of the climate justice being organized for people of color in Cancun, including those of Youth for Climate Justice from the US, which is creating a leadership pipeline for youth of color. During today’s interview, it was pointed out that people that don’t have the $350 to stay at the Moon Palace each night in Cancun, are struggling with getting to the sessions, especially minorities, who are being excluded from the process.

Abrahamson attended the Indigenous Caucus Meeting at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change today. "Indigenous Peoples are the most adversely affected by the effects and some of the proposed solutions of climate change. Nuclear energy is being marketed around the world as a clean/green energy source. It is not," she said.

Kandi Mossett spoke of burying her friend, her own age, from cancer, back home in North Dakota. Describing the pollution from the power plants and other pollution surrounding Native people, Mossett said, “We are human beings, just because we don’t have money, doesn’t mean we don’t have feelings.” Mossett is a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation from Fort Berthold.

Mossett described how carbon trading market scams result in Indigenous Peoples losing their forests, after signing contracts that appear on the surface to be "saving the forests." Then, non Native species are planted that harm the environment and Native people lose all control of their forests and their homelands.

Ben Powless, Mohawk, observing the UN negotiations, said Indigenous Peoples are the most impacted from the destruction of Mother Earth. “It is time for respecting Indigenous rights and respecting Indigenous sovereignty,“ said Powless, adding that Indigenous Peoples are in Cancun to bring real change, not superficial change.
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RED ROAD CANCUN: Watch the live show at noon Central time each day, with videos streaming all day each day, webcast by Earthcycles:
http://redroadcancun.com/?p=454
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Red Road Cancun: Indigenous Voices Live from Cancun

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Photo: Ben Powless, Mohawk/IEN

(NOV 29, 2010) The Indigenous Environmental Network is broadcasting live from the Cancun Climate Summit. Red Road Cancun, http://www.redroadcancun.com/, webcast by Earthcycles, offers the world the voices of Indigenous Peoples.

These are the voices that polluting corporations and governments do not want to be heard. As profiteers push for carbon market scams and seizures of land and water rights, IEN is providing an online platform for Indigenous voices to halt threats to Indian lands, water and forests.

At the Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in April, more than 35,000 people gathered at the invitation of President Evo Morales. The majority were Indigenous Peoples. There were 17 working groups which produced declarations, culminating in the Peoples Agreement. It calls for new standards for greenhouse emissions and recognition of the rights of Mother Earth. The Peoples Agreement upholds the rights of Indigenous Peoples and states that corporations and governments are to be held accountable in court for pollution.

Ofelia Rivas, O’odham, was cochair of the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples in Cochabamba. Rivas, from the US/Mexico border region, is an independent grassroots Indigenous delegate. Rivas is among those taking the Declarations of the People from Cochabamba to Cancun.

Rivas will also be carrying another document, "In Defense of Water," from the National Indigenous Congress which met on the Yaquis' Vicam Pueblo, Sonora, Mexico, in November. Yaquis are among those whose water rights are under attack by the government of Mexico.

In Defense of Water begins with: “Water, our Mother and Father, is that which gives us life, along with the Earth, Fire, and Air. It is the foundation of our lives and of the existence of everything that is born and that is alive; and it is not something that you can buy and sell in the way that capitalism destroys our Mother Earth.”

In Cancun, Indigenous Peoples and campesinas are also arriving by caravans from throughout Mexico, with protests and marches planned for Mexico City and Cancun.

IEN said world leaders will again meet for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 16 & CMP 6) to discuss climate change and collaborate on finding answers for many multi-level questions on how to deal with mitigation, restoration, and prevention of further damage.

The Red Road Cancun webcast will include the stories of Native Americans suffering from coal mines and power plants. IEN will share stories of communities standing up to threats from industries who want their forests to "offset" their pollution.

“We will be highlighting stories from communities that are taking real and effective action to address the climate crisis. Communities that are protecting their forests from being logged; that are shutting down polluting industries in their own back yard, or that are creating small-scale renewable energy projects,” IEN said.

Red Road Cancan will webcast noon to 1 pm CST, and recast at 5 pm CST daily, Nov. 29—Dec. 10, 2010.
http://www.redroadcancun.com/

Watch live streaming video from abyayalanexus at livestream.com

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Indigenous to Obama: Halt Oil Sands demands and development

The Indigenous Environmental Network and Rainforest Action Network produced this statement in response to a lobby effort in Washington DC by Treaty One Chiefs of Manitoba regarding the Enbridge Alberta Clipper and the TransCanada Keystone Project. In this communication you will find our press statement that focuses on providing an Alberta First Nations perspective on the issue, as well as the advisory that was sent out by Treaty One Chiefs of Manitoba on December 31, 2008. Please distribute this to your lists far and wide.
Clayton Thomas-Muller

ENERGY JUSTICE IN TURTLE ISLAND – NORTH AMERICA

Indigenous Message to Obama to Issue a Presidential Order to Halt All Processes for Approval of the Expansion of Oil Sands Pipeline Infrastructure Entering the United States and to Support Alberta First Nation Chiefs Demand to Canada for a Moratorium on all Expansion of Canadian Tar Sands Development.
Clayton Thomas-Muller, IEN Tar Sands Campaigner cell 218 760 6632
Eriel Deranger, Rainforest Action Network Tar Sands Campaigner, Member of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) cell 587 785 1558
Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director, Indigenous Environmental Network cell 218 760 0442

By IEN and Rainforest Action Network

OTTAWA, Canada – First Nation Chiefs from northern Alberta Canada are not able to attend the January 8 event in Washington, D.C. The Chiefs, elders and youth representatives of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta Canada are experiencing firsthand the assault of unsustainable energy development that has destroyed their environment and subsistence lifestyle that has sustained them since time immemorial. This energy development is called the tar/oil sands development, that has been called the “Worlds’ Most Destructive Project on Earth." A large portion of Canadian oil coming to the United States is extracted from the oil sands at a tremendous cost to the environment, water, and climate change and infringing on the aboriginal rights of First Nations people downstream of the tar sands development zone. The First Nations living in the energy sacrifice zone of the tar sands wanted to stand in solidarity with other Chiefs from Canada’s First Nations traveling to the U.S. capitol to seek the support of President Elect Obama in their fight for human rights.
It is with prayer and with strong hearts that all First Nations and American Indian and Alaska Natives are asking President Elect Obama to take action that recognizes the sovereign Indigenous nations in Canada and the USA whose inherent rights are being violated. The Canadian government continues to fail to recognize its responsibility and duty to consult with the Indigenous frontline communities that lay directly within the path of destruction involved with the extraction, processing and transportation of fossil fuels in Canada, including its exportation of dirty high carbon oil to the U.S. In February of 2008 all 43 First Nation Alberta Chiefs signed a resolution requesting a moratorium on all new tar sands permits. However, the province and the federal government continue to grant approvals for new expansions in the area.
The Canadian government is further compounding land and water rights issues with the approval and construction of expansion projects infringing into traditional territories in Northern Saskatchewan as well as Alberta. The projects for the delivering of this crude oil include major pipeline construction in traditional Indigenous territories in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia and much of the mid-western USA states. The bulk of these projects have been pushed forward without any adequate consultation with the Indigenous communities and without recognition of the principles of free, prior and informed consent.
There are high profile litigations by Alberta based First Nations underway on this issue, most notably Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. ACFN is seeking a number of declarations from the Court, including asking the Court to rule that the Alberta Government has:
1. A duty to consult and accommodate ACFN prior to granting the challenged tenures;
2. Breached their duty to consult by failing to consult prior to granting the Challenged tenures; and
3. A duty to consult on the scope and extent of the ACFN’s Treaty Rights and other Aboriginal interests and concerns, prior to granting the challenged tenures.
Beaver Lake Cree Nation of Treaty 6 (BCFN) launched a massive civil lawsuit against the federal and Alberta governments, claiming unbridled oil and gas development in its traditional territory renders its treaty rights meaningless. BCFN claims the developments have forced band members out of traditional areas, degraded the environment and reduced wildlife populations, making it impossible for them to meaningfully exercise their Treaty 6 rights to hunt, trap and fish.
When considering energy production and resource extraction, the incoming administration must take into account the disproportionate impacts of climate change and energy development on the first inhabitants of this Turtle Island – North America. When considering energy and climate change policy, it is important that the White House and federal agencies consider the history of energy and mineral exploitation and Indigenous Nations, and the potential to create a dramatic change with innovative policies. Too often tribes are presented with a false choice: either develop polluting energy resources or remain in dire poverty. Economic development need not come at the cost of maintaining cultural identity and thriving ecosystems. The Indigenous Environmental Network, the First Nations of northern Alberta and all Indigenous Nations want to work with President Elect Barack Obama and his administration for catalyzing green reservation economies – not the continuation of an unsustainable fossil fuel economy.
A just nation-to-nation relationship means breaking the cycle of asking First Nations of Canada or American Indians and Alaska Natives to choose between economic development and preservation of its cultures and lands. Renewable energy and efficiency improvements provide opportunity to do both simultaneously. A green, carbon-reduced energy policy has major national and international human rights, environmental and financial consequences, and we believe that this administration can provide groundbreaking leadership on this policy. The reality is that the most efficient, green economy will need the vast wind and solar resources that lie on Indigenous lands in the U.S. and Canada. This provides the foundation of not only a green low carbon economy but also catalyzes development of tremendous human and economic potential in the poorest community in the United States and Canada – Turtle Island. -

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TREATY ONE FIRST NATIONS
Canadian Indigenous Community to Deliver Message of Oil and Human Rights to President-Elect Obama
Delegation follows in centuries-long tradition of delegations of American Indians traveling to Washington, DC to meet the “Great White Father.” Read article at: http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/12/canadian-chiefs-to-deliver-message-to.html