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
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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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Indigenous Peoples: Pollution and Diabetes

Bitter Sweet or Toxic?
Indigenous people, diabetes and the burden of pollution

Contamination of First Nations, Mohawk and O'odham lands linked to diabetes
By John Schertow
The Dominion
Excerpts:
WINNIPEG—Diabetes is now widely regarded as the 21st century epidemic. With some 284 million people currently diagnosed with the disease, it’s certainly no exaggeration—least of all for Indigenous people.
... There is growing evidence that diabetes is closely linked with our environment. More than a dozen studies have been published that show a connection between Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); carcinogenic hydrocarbons known as Dioxins; and the “violently deadly” synthetic pesticide, DDT and higher rates of the disease.
O'odham and Diabetes
The Tohono O’odham Nation’s experience bears a close resemblance to Grassy Narrows: the world’s highest rate of diabetes can be found in the southwest Arizona nation. According to Tribal health officials, nearly 70 per cent of the population of 28,000 has been diagnosed with the illness. The O’odham People make up the second largest Indigenous Nation in the United States.
Lori Riddle is a member of Aquimel O’odham Community and founder of the Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment (GRACE).
GRACE was instrumental in the 10 year struggle against a hazardous waste recycling plant that operated without full permits on O’odham land for decades. Owned by Romic Environmental Technologies Corporation, the plant continuously spewed effluents into the air until it was finally shut down in 2007.
The Romic plant was not the first contributor to the O’odham’s toxic burden, explained Riddle. Looking back to her childhood, she recalled: “For nearly a year, [when] a plane would go over our heads, you could see the mist. We never thought to cover our water. The chemicals just took over and they became a part of us.”
From the early 1950s until the late 60s, cotton farmers in the Gila River watershed routinely sprayed DDT onto their crops to protect them from bollworms. According to the Agency of Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), each and every year, the farmers used roughly Twenty-three pounds of DDT per acre.
In 1969, the State of Arizona banned the use of DDT; by this time the river was gravely contaminated. According to the ATSDR, farmers then switched to Toxaphene, a substitute for DDT—until it was banned by the US government in 1990.
Because of these chemicals, Riddle explains, the O’odham were forced to abandon their traditional foods and adopt a western diet. Farms also went into a recession, forcing many families to leave their communities. Companies, such as Romic, began moving on to their territory, exasperating the situation. “It’s taken a toll on our quality of life,” she says. “I’ve cried myself to sleep.”
The O’odham are dealing with what Riddle terms “cluster symptoms” including miscarriages, arthritis in the spine, breathing problems, unexplainable skin rashes, and problems regenerating blood cells. This in addition to diabetes, which frequently leads to renal failure, blindness, heart disease, and amputations.
Read article ...
http://intercontinentalcry.org/indigenous-people-diabetes-and-the-burden-of-pollution/
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