SURVIVAL IS NON-NEGOTIABLE
Youth action frames the conversation at the UNFCCC in Poznan, Poland
Young people from around the world made their voice heard today at the UN Framework Convention on Climate change in Poznan, Poland. After an inspiring speech from Al Gore, over 200 young people from India to the U.S. to the Congo held a spontaneous action inside, with banners that read “SURVIVAL IS NON-NEGOTIABLE.”
The demonstration was the next step in our “project survival” – inspired by a speech earlier this week by a representative from the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), stating that current emissions targets set by powerful countries condemn their nations to extinction. In the last two days youth have mobilized to get over 80 country delegations to sign a pledge to “safeguard the survival of all peoples and nations.” Youth organized actions, tracked down delegates in the halls, lined the entrance to the plenaries, and knocked on meeting room doors to push their countries to sign the Survival Pledge. This morning our text has been adopted in the official UN Ministerial declaration document emerging from COP14, the COP President’s text on long-term vision. Heads of state referenced our call in major speeches. “It’s been an amazing success,” said Amanda McKenzie, of the Australian Youth Climate Network. “Hearing Australia’s Climate Minister Penny Wong commit to ’survival’ yesterday had me cheering in the halls. Now, it’s time to make sure she delivers.”
Actions like the one that happened 15 minutes ago aim to create the pressure to do just that. At the end of our action (after engaging with some angry UN people) several delegates and dignitaries came to thank the Youth for their action. A woman said “I am in a very high position in my government in Norway. Youth doing actions like this makes my work easier. Thank you.”
We’ve had an exciting victory, but we know we must continue to organize to make the implications of that statement meaningful – we know that any targets less than 350ppm will not insure the survival of all peoples and nations, and we know that any solution that is not equitable and just, is no solution at all.
Click below for many more photos and reflections.
While our demonstration today was not permitted by the United Nations, young people felt compelled to step outside the boundaries of rules and etiquette to ensure that the main message emerging from COP14 is one of SURVIVAL. We will continue to work year round, taking on this generational challenge.
the media reacting to us:
Photos by Shadia Fayne Wood, Ben Powless, Robert VanWaarden, and Joshua Kahn Russell
for more photos see: http://pa.photoshelter.com/gallery-show/G0000SIp4.f3wK2U
7 Responses to “SURVIVAL IS NON-NEGOTIABLE”
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December 12th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Great action y’all! Thanks so much for this dedicated, creative, bold action, from those of us that can’t be there.
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:59 pm
AWESOME………and thank you for speaking out for the billions who cannot be there due to global warming, the economic crisis, civil war, starvation, poverty or another of the many man made catastrophes……….
December 23rd, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Congratulations!
Thank you for speaking for the majority of us who really care about our sustainable future in these days of industrial scale everything.
December 23rd, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Some facts about meat and its contribution to global warming
“Researchers at the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan have carried out a life-cycle analysis of beef production which shows that ‘a kilogram of beef leads to the emission of greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent of 36.4 kilograms of CO2′ (New Scientist, 21.7.07). To help you get your head around this, that’s equivalent to the amount of CO2 emitted by the average car over a distance of 250 kilometres.”
“Researchers at the University of Chicago have calculated the relative carbon intensity of a standard vegan diet in comparison to a US-style carnivorous diet, all the way through from production to processing to distribution to cooking and consumption. An average burger man (that is, not the outsize variety) emits the equivalent of 1.5 tonnes more CO2 every year than the standard vegan. By comparison, were you to trade in your conventional gas-guzzler for a state of the art Prius hybrid, your CO2 savings would amount to little more than one tonne per year.”
Check out these vids:
You can’t be a meat eating environmentalist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWWNLvgU4MI
World Food Crisis: Is Meat Consumption a Major Cause
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcGFjo62LdI
World Food Crisis: Another Major Cause
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJCK7AKjaoM
whats the best action to take on Earth Day?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-T0RDZMJgM
Some facts
* To produce 1 lb of meat, an average of 40 lbs of vegetation is used.
* 12 lbs of wheat produce 12 loaves of bread and only 1hamburger.
* It takes 3.25 acres of land to produce food for a meat eater on a continuing basis, while it takes 1/3 of an acre for someone eating a diet of plants and dairy and 1/6 of an acre for a person eating totally plant based diet (vegan).
* A University of California Study shows that to produce 1 lb of meat it takes an average of 2,500 gallons of water, it takes 966 gallons of water to produce one gallon of cow’s milk and on the other hand plant foods such as wheat, corn, apples etc. take 20 to 50 gallons of water to produce one pound of food.
* Eating food crops first hand produces a tremendous energy savings. To produce one pound of protein derived from beef requires 20 times as much fossil fuel energy as the same one pound of protein derived from corn or wheat. Protein from beef requires 40 times more fossil fuel energy than the same amount of protein derived from soybeans.
* The waste released in the atmosphere by the U.S. Meat and Dairy Industry is 230,000 pounds per second, thus polluting earth, air and water systems.
* It is estimated that it takes 75,000 trees to print a Sunday edition of The New York Times for the readers.
These staggering numbers are a wake up-call for us to make a difference now.
Dr Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, an economist and environmental scientist who has served as the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 2002 recently said
“ Worldwide, livestock-farming is responsible for no less then 18% of total
greenhouse gas emissions (Source: FAO, Livestock’s long shadow, 2007).
Greenhouse gas emissions through meat production and associated land-use
changes are one of the most important causes of climate change/warming. Yet
people, especially in high-income societies, continue to eat large amounts
of meat. This high meat intake not only has negative effects on the climate
and biodiversity; it is also harmful for our health because it increases the
risk of cardio-vascular disease, obesity, diabetes and other diseases of
affluence. Hence, it is very important to limit our meat consumption. Eating
less meat means less greenhouse gases will be emitted.
Because our food, and especially meat consumption is such a significant
cause of greenhouse gas emissions, an essential means we have in the fight
against climate change may very well be our fork. Each time you eat a
vegetarian meal instead of a meat-based meal, you contribute to mitigation
of emissions of greenhouse gases which cause climate change. Even if you
only skip meat once a week, you would still save 170 kilograms of CO2
every year. That is about the amount you emit by driving your car 1100 km.
So skipping meat now and then is a good recipe against climate change.
But of course one person can only do so much. It is also the responsibility
of governments and industries to ensure that sustainable alternatives like
vegetarian food are widely available and affordable. Several alternative
policies and options could lead to lower consumption of meat and
climate-friendly lifestyles, which a society may decide on with its own
wisdom. EVA has provided a menu of actions that could be adopted as provided
below, and it is for communities and governments to decide how to consider
them.”
Human Benefits
* Twenty vegetarians can be fed on the amount of land needed to feed one person consuming a meat-based diet.
* If America reduced their intake of meat by 10 percent, 60 million people can be adequately fed by grain saved.
* A cow has to eat 7 lbs of grain and soy bean protein to produce 1 lb of meat protein. If the same land were to produce food for humans directly, 7 times more people could eat.
* More than half of all the water used in the United States is used in live stock production that can be used where there is water shortage.
When we become aware of these facts and change our lifestyle and go vegan we can increase the amount of grain available to feed people elsewhere, reduce pollution, save water and energy, cease contributing to the clearing of forests and the most important we can save billions of sentient beings from torture and pain.
If one gives up all animal products eg dairy products, and adopts a plant based diet, then one is Vegan — (excluding flesh, fish, fowl, dairy products such as animal milk, butter, cheese, yogurt (curd), eggs, honey, animal gelatin and all other items of animal origin.) Going vegan is much easier than you think.
http://www.whyvegan.com
http://www.veganoutreach.org
December 24th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Way to go! Thank you!
December 24th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Thank You! The emotions flowed when i read this, and tears came to my eyes. DONT STOP!!!
February 17th, 2009 at 3:47 am
I’ve been thinking about it for a while but this was the next step. Reading this made me go vegetarian. I was slightly disturbed by the first picture of the young boy in Ethiopia in the first video “You can’t be a meat eating environmentalist”