Life or death

Rosie Rogers, used to be at WDM

Last night, a host of NGO’s, members of the global climate movement and the intrigued met at Bolivar hall to evoke the spirit of the first World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Chaired by Deborah Doane from WDM, there were passionate speeches and inspiring stories about the importance of the up coming negotiations in Cancun after the abysmal failure of Copenhagen, grass roots movements and the essence of what Cochabamba was all about.

One of the stories that particularly struck the audience was John Vidal’s tale about how the developing countries learnt how to use the Western media to their advantage at Copenhagen with luring Vidal into secret corridors to give him the coveted Copenhagen Accord which was made by a handful of powerful countries at 2am unbeknown to the developing countries at the conference.

Another comment provided by a woman from the Andes highlighted the gravity of what has been termed climate refugees- those who are forced from their home and often countries due to the impacts of climate change. The woman spoke of how her home land was butchered by multinationals on the hunt for minerals, droughts, glacier melts and a whole host of problems caused by climate change. Her plight was followed by a large round of applause from the audience which seemed misplaced, cheering for her loss, for mother earth’s loss. But the clap was for her courage and a sound of solidarity that rippled through the room. Solidarity with the people for whom the impacts of climate change are life or death, for the spirit of Mother Earth, the importance of Cancun and the importance of the ongoing fight of grassroots movements all over the world.