Blogs
Share the deliberation process as adapted by the bilateral town-hall
Our bilateral group is Costa Rica. Their climate change case was gold mining in Crucitas, San Carlos. A foreign mine company wanted to extract gold from Crucitas, and received consent from the president Oscar Arias to do so. The reason government permitted their extraction was so that more jobs will be available in the following region. However, the company soon went bankrupt, and the mine has to close down. Not to mention there were environmental consequences as the surroundings of the mining site underwent deforestation. Costa Rica also added that gold theft were occurring inside the closed mine. Recently, mercury has been flowing out from there, contaminating water and health of the residents. The government of Costa Rica is against mining, and the police ensures no one enters the mining site.
Share the case study done of REDD+. Refine findings based on discussion with other regions
Ayn Saleh, Algeria's fracking movement is suspended thanks to mass contributions of environmental organizations. It started from 2012 and ended in June 2015. Basically, the Algerian government wanted to extract shale gas in order to sell to Europe to earn money. However, a man called Mohad Gasmi saw this action to continue colonization patterns and leading to climate change. Residents of Ayn Saleh and provinces surrounding it held a demonstration for about 5 months, and their works were successful.
Share the individual case studies of your other selected climate change organization
Our case was the Albertan Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada. Foreign companies, along with domestic companies makes profit from it by extracting oil. However, they don't seem to realize that the development is contaminating water downstream. Especially in that area the Indigenous resides there. Due to exposure to dangerous chemicals, the Indigenous are suffering from diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and etc. Unlike Costa Rica's case, the Albertan government is actually supporting the extraction of resource. About 150,000 people are being affected by the development of Tar Sands.
Compare and contrast how the local organizations understand, conceptualize and work towards climate change. Discuss the contradictions and tensions. What can the local organization learn from REDD+? What can REDD+ learn from the local organizations?
One thing special about the REDD+ is that it makes sure the voices of Indigenous peoples are heard loud and clear. Local organizations can come up with a better solution to climate change if they included their discussion regarding climate change. REDD+ in return can learn from the local organizations about climate change issues ongoing in that area. They receive detailed information about the place and why its development is causing a problem, and REDD+ can inform the Indigenous about the issue. In short, the local organization helps REDD+ to gather information about climate change, and REDD+ can connect Indigenous and local organizations together to come up with a solution.
Colonialism is founded on power - the power of certain groups to make decisions on behalf of others. Oftentimes, these decisions benefit one group at the expense of others. In your two case studies, who decides how climate change is addressed? Who benefits and how?
When looking at cases that relate to climate change, always the governments/companies that leads the extraction of a resource are the ones to benefit. Often times when they extract the resource, they use a quick and cheap method to do so. Mostly these methods extract them by using another resource. For example, fracking in Ayn Saleh, Algeria uses water to extract shale gas- the water that is used here is contaminated, making it wasteful. Because the resource itself is valuable and could be extracted in cheap and easy way, of course governments/companies are the ones to benefit. For both cases, environmental organizations who detect the wasteful extraction addresses the issue as a climate change, especially if it has relations to health issues of the residents of the area.
How do Indigenous peoples’ perspectives and actions impact these organizations and the work they do?
The Indigenous peoples are the ones who lived in the land much before the age of exploration and colonial settlements. As they lived in a certain territory for a long time, they would know very well of their geography and resource, and how to utilize them in a correct way to benefit both humanity and nature. We need the Indigenous peoples' consent and knowledge so that we can gain and use the resource in a rightful way, and must return it back to nature in some way. The Indigenous peoples' perspectives and actions impact organizations by stating their opinions, so that a solution can include diverse perspectives.
How do you see colonial power relations either being reinforced or being challenged in your two case studies?
Colonial powers still remain influential even after they retreated from these regions. Fracking in Algeria case is considered as a remnant of French colonization by the environmental activists. When Algeria gained their independence, they continued on to use the reckless methods used by the French to gain the resources. In Algeria case, the resource is shale gas. These valuable resources are not even given to the Algerians- they are sold to European countries for European consumption.
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Anna Wilson COP 23 Mentor
RE: Canada: 4a. Tri-Regional (Continental) Collaboration (INCOMPLETE)
To Chung, Julia
Perron, B., Durand, C., & Vaillancourt, J. (2001). A global problem for a global movement? an exploratory study of climate change perception by green groups' leaders from Quebec (Canada) and Costa Rica. Society & Natural Resources, 14(10), 837-855. Retrieved From http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/089419201753242760?needAccess=true.
This article examines the possible unifying effect of climate change on leaders ofgreen groups. The main goal is to identify ideological or North=South differencesin attitudes on key aspects of climate change among them. Attitudinal dataobtained with a standardized questionnaire administered to leaders from Quebec and Costa Rica are used to generate a typology. Three types of green orientations emerge: ``ecologism,’’ ``mainstream environmentalism,’’ and ``market environmentalism. ’ ’ General perceptions toward climate change and specifc opinions about policy options related to global warming are compared on the basis of these orientations and of national origin. Results show that green leaders are divided onall measured attitudes concerning climate change. Most differences are explainedby diversity in ideological orientation, mainly by divergent viewpoints held byecologists. The differences based on national origin are mainly explained bycontrasted contextual features between Quebec and Costa Rica. The results do notprovide convincing evidence of cognitive solidarity in the green movement concerning climate change.
In sum, three climate change attitudinal differences revealed by respondents’ national origin may be specific to contextual contrasts between the two countries, while only one could be generalized to other northern and southern countries. To conclude, the ``international’ ’ green movement, as represented by its leaders, does not seem to lose internal diversity when confronted with a global environmentalproblem like climate change. Perceptions of climate change differ mainly on the basisof the affiliation to one of the three types of ideological orientation. Clearly, thegreen movement does not seem to gain in solidarity as global problems increase. However, since attitudes toward the proposed policy options are generally positive, moderate national measures will probably be supported by the majority of green leaders, and more so by the mainstream environmentalists. Still, there will always be critical voices, those of ecologists, arguing that not enough is being done to fightglobal warming. In the case of green taxes, market environmentalists will tend to saythat too much is being done too fast. Differences were also found to depend, but to alesser degree, on the respondents’ nationality. This may reveal a North=Southdivision on some international policy outcomes, especially for those solutions thatare structurally unadapted to southern national realities.
Bates, B.C., Z.W. Kundzewicz, S. Wu and J.P. Palutikof, Eds., 2008: Climate Change and Water. TechnicalPaper of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC Secretariat, Geneva, 210 pp.
Kasandra Springford
Oct 19, 2017