Protected: UN Climate Negotiation History 101

by Katie O'Brien As Earth in Brackets prepares its delegation for Warsaw we have been reviewing and learning more about the history of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). So I thought it’d be good to share our notes and knowledge with our audience so maybe you can better understand what we’re talking about in COP19. 1992 The Rio Earth Summit happens – you may have seen...

Industrial agriculture ought to move away: agroecology is the only safe option

by Maria It is pretty clear that the planet is increasingly warming up as we keep emitting carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and extracting natural gas from the ground. Or at least it is pretty clear to more than half the world’s population who in recent decades have been dealing with periods of abnormal rainfall, intense floods and droughts, heat waves, and loss of biodiversity. While...

Holding a tension: grassroots and global activism

by nathan thanki In my previous post I alluded to some exchanges of ideas in Lofoten at the Young Friends of the Earth Europe camp. All of last week, including during both 25 hour train, bus, and boat journeys, we’ve been attempting to initiate and contribute to frank discussions on the perceived divide between "international" and "grassroots" activism.   Now it is clear that those of us...

Enbridge’s Northern Gateway to Destruction

By Nimisha Bastedo The rally in Portland last Saturday does not and cannot stand alone. While we try to prevent Tar Sands oil from entering the Northeast, and the battle against the Keystone XL continues, the Alberta Tar Sands still show no signs of defeat. Over a million barrels of the world’s dirtiest oil continue to be extracted every day. Even if Canada can’t send its oil South, there’s...

On the way to the Rally

By Katie O'Brien I'm currently writing this post from my phone in a van on the way to the rally against the flow-reversal of the Portland-Montreal Pipeline. Thirty COA students are heading down, quite a few of whom are involved with Earth in Brackets. In the weeks since Doha, I have been trying to think of how to bring international climate justice issues into the dialogues and campaigns of...