Ralph Nader: Snowden ceremony ignored by mainstream media

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Report: Drug-Resistant Bacteria Pose Major Threat to…

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Welcome to Children in a Changing Climate

Securing children’s and young people a voice in preventing and adapting to climate change – from their communities to the UN

Children in a Changing Climate brings together leading child-focused research, development and humanitarian organisations, each with a commitment to share knowledge, co-ordinate their actions and to work with children as agents of change. We are committed to effective protection and meaningful participation of children and young people in our changing climate.

The Children in a Changing Climate coalition has its foundations in an action research project which studied children as communicators of risk in El Salvador and the Philippines.

The Coalition was conceived at the 13th Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC in Bali in 2007 (COP13), and officially launched at climate change talks in Bonn the following year. Our original mandate was to ensure that children’s rights to protection and participation were respected in global negotiations at COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009.

We have gone from strength to strength and continue to host events and disseminate research, through film, print and online media, highlighting the importance of child-centred disaster risk reduction and climate change prevention and adaptation.

Acknowledging Children’s Rights
Increasingly children’s rights are being acknowledged by key stakeholders, including World Leaders, and UN agencies in discussions on climate change and adaptation. However we continue to call for the inclusion of children and children’s rights, in all decision-making and action on climate change and disaster risk reduction, at every level; from their families and communities to global climate change negotiations.

The coalition is guided by two principles:

1. Urgent attention, support and action is needed to address the issues faced by children worldwide as a result of increasing climate shocks and stresses.
2. Children are effective and important agents of change. Opportunities for their learning, action and influence on climate change policy, planning and action should be maximised.

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics

Climate Change and Children: A Call for Action

Courtenay Cabot Venton
This post was co-authored with the Children in a Changing Climate coalition

 

The UN recently issued their latest report on climate change, and the findings are grim, suggesting that “climate change risks destabilizing human society“. US Secretary of State John Kerry commented: “Unless we act dramatically and quickly, science tells us our climate and our way of life are literally in jeopardy. Denial of the science is malpractice.”

A changing climate leads to changes in the intensity and frequency of extreme weather and climate events, and can result in unprecedented extreme weather. Climate change and related disasters undermine poverty reduction efforts; for example, the Climate Vulnerability Monitor estimates the cost of not acting on climate change at 8.5 percent of GDP for developing countries, wiping out valuable investment in development gains.

Children are among the most likely to suffer from the impacts of these events. By the end of the decade, up to 175 million children are likely to be affected every year by the kinds of disasters brought about by climate change. This is an increase from an estimated 66.5 million children per year in the late 1990s. Children face heightened protection risks during disasters, including psychological distress, physical harm, trafficking, exploitation, child labour and gender-based violence.

And yet, many of the interventions that can reduce the vulnerability of children to climate change and disasters are some of the lowest cost options and are already well established, such as insecticide treated mosquito nets, and water, sanitation and hygiene training. A range of simple measures can help to reduce children’s vulnerability in the midst of a disaster, saving lives and reducing injuries, such as school safety drills, and access to basic health services in hazard prone areas.

Are we really still having these conversations? Surely it is time for all nations to commit to concerted action to combat climate change — our world depends on it.

The next year marks an important moment in international policy decisions, with several relevant frameworks being negotiated for adoption. In 2015, UN negotiations on climate change are anticipated to conclude with a new global framework. Parallel processes are taking place to negotiate a new framework to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as well as a successor framework to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), the international agreement to reduce disaster risk.

…(read more).

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics

News Wrap: Slow-moving Southern storm produces record rain

PBS NewsHour

Published on Apr 30, 2014

In our news wrap Wednesday, torrents of rain caused severe flooding in parts of the Florida panhandle and coastal Alabama. Some parts of Alabama saw up to 26 inches of rain in 24 hours, and powerful thunder and lightning storms overnight knocked out power to thousands. Also, a train carrying crude oil derailed and caught fire in in downtown Lynchburg, Virginia.

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics

Food for the City

National Geographic

Published on Apr 30, 2014

The local-food movement is blossoming, with farmers markets springing up all over the United States. Demand for fresh produce and a desire to invest in local economies are driving this growth. Consumers show increased interest in “food transparency”—what the USDA’s Arthur Neal defines as the “full story behind how our food is produced.” Improved marketing, he says, using tools like social media and electronic forms of payment, is also contributing to the boom.

In a special eight-month series, National Geographic investigates the future of food:
http://food.nationalgeographic.com

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics
Food-Matters

Fukushima: Ongoing Lessons for New York – Ralph Nader

Samuel Lawrence Foundation

Published on Oct 28, 2013

Ralph Nader, renowned public advocate, attorney and author, provides a detailed history of the inception of nuclear power in the United States as well as the dark, unsustainable legacy created by this energy generation gamble. He explains why nuclear power is “unnecessary, uneconomic, unsafe, uninsurable, unevacuable, unfinanceable, unaccountable and undemocratic” with tax payers subsidizing an industry that privatizes gains and publicizes losses.
—
“Fukushima: Ongoing Lessons for New York & Boston” symposium series took place on October 7 & 8, 2013 at the 92nd Street Y in New York, NY and Massachusetts State House in Boston, MA.

Citizen-organized and hosted, it was created in order to provide a public dialogue independent of the nuclear industry and allow distinguished individuals from government, regulatory agencies, industry, public oversight and environmental action to speak on the issue of nuclear safety and the future of nuclear power globally.

Key speaker:

Naoto Kan
Former Prime Minister of Japan during the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster
www.n-kan.jp

Additional speakers:

Dr. Gregory Jaczko
Former Chairman of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission during the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster
www.jaczkolegalfund.com

Ralph Nader
Public advocate, lawyer & author, Public Citizen
www.nader.org
www.citizen.org

Arnie Gundersen
Nuclear engineer & analyst, Fairewinds Associates & expert witness following the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear disaster
www.fairewinds.org

Peter Bradford
Former Commissioner of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission during the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear disaster & former Chair of the New York and Maine utility regulatory commissions

Introduction by Jean-Michel Cousteau
Ocean Futures Society
www.oceanfutures.org

Moderation by Paul Gallay
Riverkeeper
www.riverkeeper.org

Conference organized by The Samuel Lawrence Foundation www.samuellawrencefoundation.org

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics
Nuclear

Fukushima: The Beginning of The End Of Nuclear Power | Resistance Report #12

Dennis Trainor

Published on Nov 9, 2013

Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/AcronymTV

The hear no evil see no evil attitude of mainstream media outlets here in the United States about the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan does not obscure the fact that, in the attempt mitigate future catastrophic damage, the global community is faced with challenges unique in the history of humankind. Members of the Green Shadow Cabinet traveled to the UN on Thursday to deliver a petition signed by 150,000 citizens of the world demanding that the government of Japan transfer responsibility for the Fukushima reactor site to an international engineering firm overseen by a civil society panel and an international group of nuclear experts. Additionally, the petition demanded that the global media be permitted around-the-clock access to accurate information throughout the entire process of removal of the spent fuel rods so that the international community can be informed of any risks to its health.

Also covered this week’s episode of the Resistance Report:
Abortion Providers Are Heroes (segment starts at 8:01) – An Interview with Sunsara Taylor of StopPatriarchy.org, who just returned from Jackson, Mississippi where the last abortion clinic in that state was under siege from the anti-choice group Operation Save America, described by StopPatriarchy.org as a “extreme, violence inciting, women-hating Christian fascist organization.”

Lessons From Occupying Hurricane Sandy (segment starts at 17:05) Pamela Brown’s report on those who had spent time occupying Zuccotti park as part of the Occupy wall street and then turned their energy towards providing mutual aid to those affected by Hurricane Sandy.

A Grassroots Effort to Make Grass Legal in Maine (segment starts at 23:05) Asher Platts, known to many of you through his work as the Punk Patriot, joins the Resistance Report team to give us the story behind the story of how grassroots — no pun- organizing help bring legalized Marijuana to Maine.

What Is The Main Obstacle To Change? (segment starts at 26:19) Lee Camp, inspired by Tarak Kauff, breaks down what is perhaps the largest obstacle to systemic change.

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics

Lessons of Nuclear History – Harvey Wasserman

eon3

Published on Apr 30, 2014

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Investigative journalist, life-long nuclear free campaigner, and solartopian thinker Harvey Wasserman had this to say at an event marking the 3rd anniversary of the still-on-going Fukushima nuclear disaster, held at the BC Space Gallery in Laguna Beach, CA. For more info: http://www.nukefree.org/ http://www.sanclementegreen.org/ http://sanonofresafety.org/ http://bcspace.com/

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics

Geoengineering Our Way Out of a Global Catastrophe

ForaTv

Published on Apr 22, 2014

Full video from The Berkeley Cybersalon available at: http://fora.tv/2009/08/18/A_REALLY_In…

Dan Miller, trained by Al Gore to give the Inconvenient Truth presentation, lists some promising ideas for combating climate change with geoengineering. Though most methods seem far-fetched, research shows they could be effective. He stresses geoengineering will do no good without also drastically reducing carbon emissions.

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics