a celebration of business as usual and blah, blah, blah

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Rights Action
November 10, 2021
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COP26 is a Global North greenwash festival, a celebration of business as usual and blah, blah, blah
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Based on the idea that some people are worth more than others,
and have the right to exploit others
and steal their land and resources
(Greta Thunberg)

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Democracy Now, November 8, 2021
Watch: [link removed]

We turn now to 18-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. She spoke on Friday at the rally in Glasgow organized by Fridays for Future, an international movement of students which grew out of her climate strike outside the Swedish parliament that began in 2018.

GRETA THUNBERG
It is not a secret that COP26 is a failure. It should be obvious that we cannot solve a crisis with the same methods that got us into it in the first place.

And more and more people are starting to realize this. Many are starting to ask themselves, “What will it take for the people in power to wake up?”

But let’s be clear: [The people in power] are awake. They know exactly what they are doing. They know exactly what priceless values they are sacrificing to maintain business as usual.

The leaders are not doing nothing; they are actively creating loopholes and shaping frameworks to benefit themselves and to continue profiting from this destructive system. This is an active choice by the leaders to continue to let the exploitation of people and nature and the destruction of present and future living conditions to take place.

The COP has turned into a PR event where leaders are giving beautiful speeches and announcing fancy commitments and targets, while behind the curtains the governments of the Global North countries are still refusing to take any drastic climate action. It seems like their main goal is to continue to fight for the status quo.

COP26 has been named the most exclusionary COP ever. This is not a conference. This is now a Global North greenwash festival, a two-week-long celebration of business as usual and blah, blah, blah.

The most affected people in the most affected areas still remain unheard, and the voices of future generations are drowning in their greenwash and empty words and promises. But the facts do not lie, and we know that our emperors are naked.

To stay below the targets set in the Paris Agreement, and thereby minimizing the risks of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control. We need immediate, drastic, annual emission cuts unlike anything the world has ever seen.

As we don’t have the technological solutions that alone will do anything even close to that, that means we will have to fundamentally change our society. And this is the uncomfortable result of our leaders’ repeated failure to address this crisis.

At the current emissions rates, our remaining CO2 budgets to give us the best chances of staying below 1.5 degrees Celsius will be gone within the end of this decade.

And the climate and ecological crisis, of course, doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It is directly tied to other crises and injustices that date back to colonialism and beyond, crises based on the idea that some people are worth more than others, and therefore had the right to steal others — to exploit others and to steal their land and resources.

It is very naive of us to think that we could solve this crisis without addressing the root cause of it.

But this is not going to be spoken about inside the COP. It’s just too uncomfortable. It’s much easier for them to simply ignore the historical debt that the countries of the Global North have towards the most affected people and areas.

And the question we must now ask ourselves is: What is it that we are fighting for? Are we fighting to save ourselves and the living planet, or are we fighting to maintain business as usual?

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Since 1995, Rights Action funds land and environment defense struggles in Guatemala and Honduras. We fund justice and human rights defense struggles. We provide emergency and climate disaster relief funds (Covid19, hurricanes, victims of repression, etc.).

At the same time, Rights Action works to hold accountable the U.S. and Canadian governments, multi-national companies, investors and banks (World Bank, etc.) that help cause and profit from exploitation and poverty, repression and human rights violations, environmental harms, corruption and impunity in Honduras and Guatemala.

Why thousands of Hondurans & Guatemalans flee into exile year after year
The U.S. and Canadian governments, Spain and E.U., the World Bank and global businesses and investors (in the sectors of mining, dams, African palm, sugarcane, bananas, garment “sweatshop” factors, tourism, etc.) maintain full relations with anti-democratic, corrupt, repressive, ‘open-for-global-business’ governments in Honduras and Guatemala, contributing to and benefitting from exploitation and poverty, environmental harms, repression and human rights violations, corruption and impunity.

Act / Stir up the pot / Chip away
Keep sending copies of Rights Action information (and that of other solidarity groups/ NGOs) to family, friends, your networks, politicians and media, asking: ‘Why do our governments, companies and investment firms help cause, benefit from and turn a blind eye to poverty, repression and violence, environmental and health harms that cause the forced migrancy / refugee crisis in Guatemala and Honduras?’

Follow work of and get involved with other solidarity/NGO groups
* Alliance for Global Justice: www.afgj.org ([link removed])
* CODEPINK: www.codepink.org ([link removed])
* School of Americas Watch: www.soaw.org ([link removed])
* CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with People of El Salvador): www.cispes.org ([link removed])
* Honduras Now: [link removed]
* www.hondurassolidarity.org ([link removed])
* Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective: www.solidaritycollective.org ([link removed])
* Friendship Office of the Americas: [link removed] ([link removed])
* NISGUA (Network in Solidarity with People of Guatemala): www.nisgua.org ([link removed])
* GHRC (Guatemalan Human Rights Commission): www.ghrc-usa.org ([link removed])
* Breaking the Silence: www.breakingthesilenceblog.com ([link removed])
* Peace Brigades International: [link removed] ([link removed])
* Mining Watch Canada: www.miningwatch.ca ([link removed])
* Mining Injustice Solidarity Network: [link removed] ([link removed])
* Mining Justice Alliance: [link removed] ([link removed])
* Common Frontiers Canada: www.commonfrontiers.ca ([link removed])

Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)
To support land and environmental defender groups and human rights and justice struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, and to provide emergency (COVID, hurricanes, political repression, etc.) relief funds, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
* U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
* Canada: (Box 552) 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8

Credit-Card Donations: [link removed]
Donations of securities in Canada and the U.S.? Write to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

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