The Cancun Climate Change Conference ended last week with no binding agreement which could have held overdeveloped countries and multi-national corporations to newer and stricter laws concerning capping their levels of pollution and hyper-exploitation of forest lands. The meeting at the plush resort hotel, Moon Palace, was supposed to help hammer out a solution to the world’s growing concern over global warming, but it seems to have failed miserably in the hands of the delegates from across the world.
Developing countries are asking for the major polluters in highly industrialized countries in the world to respect the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, cutting emissions back to levels that, when looked at objectively, are truly impossible to attain given the current levels of Western consumption.
As the recession in the United States and Western Europe continues to deepen for the poor, multi-national-corporations–led by wealthy CEO’s loyal to even wealthier families–will continue to use their politic henchmen to push for even less restrictions and a public shift in the conversation about climate change throughout the various major new outlets.
One important shift in discourse is the absence of how huge corporations and some of the most vocal advocates against deforestation came out in solidarity and support of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or REDD.
Clearly understanding the lack of time we have as humans to help mitigate the fall out that will surely come because of our lack of respect for ecosystems, famed primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall spoke to supporters of REDD via video message, delivering hope to the concerned. (see video below)
We cannot possibly be as hopeful as Dr. Goodall, when most corporations run on the principle of “profit over sanity.” REDD+–which is the newer, leaner, and meaner version of the REDD program–plans to relocate huge logging projects to special zoned areas where the hope is that, REDD will satisfy demand and help rebuild deforested lands.
No one can or should believe that this will not become a disaster for indigenous populations who depend on the forest for survival. Not only will this program spell doom for forest communities, but it will put intense pressures on underdeveloped cities to provide sanitary living conditions amongst denser populations.
We seems to be in a time where hope is useless and action must take precedent. We cannot allow corporations, in collusion with the World Bank and puppet politicians, to lead the discourse on climate change.