Al Gore, in the bag !

It is Thursday of the second and last week at the climate negotiation in Lima. As always after a quick and minimalist breakfast in our hostel I walk the three blocks down to arrive to one of the special shuttle-bus stands, at which some of the ten thousand conference participants take the daily route to arrive at the conference's convergence space. On the bus, right before putting on my...

Escuchando sus voces: La Cumbre de los Pueblos

Poderes políticos en las negociaciones de la Conferencia de las Partes tienden a ignorar las demandas de la sociedad civil, la gente, el pueblo, y sus derechos sobre a lo que el cambio climático se refiere. La Cumbre de los Pueblos es un espacio en el que estos grupos marginalizados, que tienden a ser más susceptibles a los impactos climáticos, se juntan para hablar sobre su lucha. Granjeros,...

Listening to their voices! The People’s Summit

Some political powers in the COP negotiations tend to ignore the demands of civil society, the people, el pueblo, and their rights regarding the impacts of climate change. The Cumbre de los Pueblos, (in English People’s Summit) is a space in which these marginalized groups, that tend to be the most susceptible to climate change’s impacts, are brought together to voice their struggles....

Reform, Resistance, Resiliance

By Eric Accardi // “Distinguished ministers, honorable delegates and observers, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen” announced Gerda Verburg, CFS chair, as the commencement of the forty first Plenary Session of the Committee on World Food Security began at the FAO here in Rome, Italy 2014. I was sitting in the middle of an international meeting, and became overwhelmed with the representation...

Sustainability: A First World Problem

Due to my old-school version of note taking---by hand and chronologically, in a little notebook---I unfortunately cannot recall the full context in which session staffer Stephanie Hanson of the One Acre Fund talked about sustainability, but I’ll give it the good old college try.  Ms. Hanson stated that the question of sustainability – with regard to agricultural development in developing...