Don't get me wrong! I appreciated and loved my front row seat to almost every act in the finely orchestrated two week run of "COP16 Climate Theater."
And unlike many participants, I was long aware of the decision to separate the 'peoples' from the official conference.
Two members of the tck DailyCancun team, Polly Higgins and Bing Gong, followed COP16 from the frontlines. Polly, who spoke at Klimaforum and camped at the Ecovillage, was not able to file stories because her computer crashed and internet access at Klimaforum was spotty. Bing, however, shared his videos on a regular basis. But with OneClimateTV hosting ongoing live and recorded shows from Cancun Messe and up in the Moon, finding a niche for even more film proved impossible. I was, quite frankly, on overload, between my own work and pushing to get written copy published.
Huge apologies, Bing.
So, here now, I am filing their reports, and also including stories by Global Justice Ecology Project's Anne Peterman and Orin Langelle.
Let the people be heard!
The tck pyramid inside the Cancun Messe. Photo by Deborah Phelan
Colonialism by the Sea
by Polly Higgins, barrister and international environmental lawyer TreeHugger recently reviewed Higgins' newest book book Eradicating Ecocide.
It was a surreal setting for the latest episode of the world's climate negotiations: mega-all-inclusive exclusive hotels stretching the whole way along a 3 kilometre-long promontory, promoting themselves and their private stretches of pristine beach as 'Colonialism by the Sea.' UN negotiators and business lobbyists jostled inside alongside all-in-one fly'n'flop package deals for marrying couples (with 300+ friends booked in for a week of sun'n'surf). The jewel in the crown was the Moon Palace golf resort 22 kilometers south of Cancun, which was reserved for the exclusive use of the UN and where the negotiations were held. It housed the negotiators and a sprinkling of Heads of State who came to participate in the last few days. It is the most exclusive of the resorts, open only to those with a pass. The NGO's (who have only 'observer status') were housed either 7 kilometres away at the pass-restricted Cancunmesse conference shed/human storage facility (nearby a token 50 metre high wind turbine had been erected 6 weeks before the event) or back up-town at the government sponsored business and NGO space Villa de Cambio Climatico which was finally opened to the public mid-way through the second week.
(snip)
... citizen engagement kept hidden, behind the scenes and isolated. Unlike in Copenhagen where the Danish government has a tradition of paying to support and enable citizen engagement on important public issues, this year the Mexican government gave less than 1/10th the finance towards housing and assisting the Peoples. The Peoples were divided up into different sites spanning a distance of 32 kilometers between them without transport being made available. Klimaforum 10, where I was speaking, and the global eco-village camp was an hour's travel south and two buses away; La Via Campesina, the caravan of peasants who marched to Cancun in protest, were housed in the inner city stadium where people were given a diet of beans three times a day and sleeping was on the ground under the glare of stadium lights all night. High gates hid what lay behind them; 4,000+ people who came because they cared were held in a place that was more akin to a refugee camp, in stark contrast to the plush 5 star beach hotels. The people marched and protested but heavily armed militia ensured that they stayed at more than arm's distance, some 7 kilometers away from the Moon Palace. The march happened out-with the sight of those they wanted to communicate with and as one negotiator admitted to me, their protests were unknown of or ignored. Only one leader went to speak with the Peoples - and that was Evo Morales.
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Indigenous Perspectives - Impacts of Climate Change
by Bing Gong
Cancun "Real". Locals participate in an evening of prayer and song downtown Cancun to bless the COP talks.
Indigenous people on the impacts of climate change on their communities, and their NGO supporters during the UNFCCC COP16 that took place in Cancun, Mexico, November 29 to December 10, 2010. All of the interviews took place at the Radisson Hacienda Hotel in Cancun Centro, where many in the Indigenous Caucus were staying
Indigenous peoples make up 5% of the planet’s population, but occupy approximately 22 % of the world’s land, and that land contains 80% of the remaining biological diversity on the planet - the most biologically valuable land on the planet. They have to be allowed to play a much more important role in the decision-making process concerning their lands which have forests, mineral resources, and fossil fuels that are coveted by transnational corporations and governments. Their traditional knowledge and skills should be honored and respected, as they have been good stewards of their lands and territories, having lived sustainably for generations, if not for hundreds of years.
Read and view their stories
Lunacy at the Moon Palace: Aka: The Cancun Mess(e)
By Anne Petermann, Global Justice Ecology Project Executive Director
Adopt a Negotiator does the Welcoming Ceremony of the Cancun Climate Change Conference / COP16. Photo credit: Anna Collins
Global Justice Ecology Project Co-Director/strategist Orin Langelle (on assignment for Z Magazine) and I arrived in Cancun for the UN Climate Conference the day after U.S. Thanksgiving to a hotel infested with Mexican federales. "You've GOT to be kidding me," was our immediate reaction. We dodged their chaotically parked armored vehicles and jeeps to enter the hotel, where we found hoardes of uniformed officers armed with automatic weapons everywhere we went. The breakfast room, the poolside, the beach, the bar. Walking out of our room (which was surrounded on both sides federales) I literally bumped into one.
Most of them were mere youths who, judging by the way they carelessly swung their weapons around, had not had sufficient gun safety coursesŠ Orin nearly collided with the barrel of one at breakfast one morning-its owner had it lying casually across his lap as he ate as though the deadly weapon was a sleeping cat. When we were walking around that first day, we happened upon the bizarre scene above. A photo shoot of fully armed robocops posing in front of a giant fake Christmas tree.
Absurd? Yes. But not nearly as absurd as the events that unfolded at the Moon Palace-home to the UN Climate Conference (COP16)-over the next two weeks.
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Running to Catch a Bus to the Apocalypse
by Orin Langelle Global Justice Ecology Project Co-Director and Strategist
Delegates boarding the bus for the long ride to the other venue, Cancun Messe. Photo credit: Anna Collins
Not just once but twice. Two times I had to run to catch the bus that was going from the Hotel Zone in Cancún to the Cancún Messe. From the Messe one had to take a shuttle to get into the main buildings of the Moon Palace where the UN climate talks were being held or to get to the media center. The UN made it quite hard to get to the Moon Palace from the Hotel Zone or downtown, so missing a bus was a big deal time-wise.
Why to the apocalypse? Because it's the end of the world as we know it and the UN climate negotiations are about the comodification of life. To quote Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network on the UN climate talks, "It's the World Trade Organization of the sky."
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