[Dialogue] Finally: People power gets results. U.S. booed!

[Jim Rippey]

I haven’t paid a lot of attention to Avaaz but apparently I signed a climate
petition in August.  Today I got this message and I am astonished and most
gratified.  Maybe we the people can actually have an effect.  Here’s the
article I received:

 

Dear Friends, 

Wow - on Saturday, in desperate last-minute negotiations, the world faced
down an effort by the US, Canada and Japan to wreck the crucial Bali Climate
Change Summit. Over 600,000 Avaaz members mobilized to save the Bali talks,
including 320,000 in the final 72 hours! Click below to read the whole story
with photos and videos: 

HYPERLINK
"http://www.avaaz.org/en/bali_report_back/6.php?cl=47643289"http://www.avaaz
.org/en/bali_report_back/6.php 

Arriving in Bali, most countries wanted to work towards a new global treaty
on climate change as well as new targets for carbon emissions by rich
countries. But late last week, the US and Canada teamed up to undermine the
talks -- the US blocked the whole Bali summit consensus, and when a smaller
group of Kyoto treaty countries tried to move ahead without the US, they
were blocked by Canada. The summit was in danger of deadlock. 

The Avaaz community flew into action, signing and spreading petitions to
each of the governments, supporting ad campaigns in Bali and Canada, marches
around the world, and phoning and lobbying elected officials. At the summit,
Avaaz members brought the storm of public criticism inside the conference
walls with the only march allowed inside the venue, the largest climate
petition delivery in history, daily press conferences and "fossil awards"
for the worst countries in the negotiations, and constant lobbying of
officials. 

In the final hours of the summit, Canada backed down completely and allowed
Kyoto countries to agree to strong 2020 targets on carbon emissions, and the
US team, now entirely isolated and actually booed by the world's diplomats,
compromised and agreed to call for "deep cuts" and "reference" the 2020
targets. This paved the way for the summit to agree to sign a new global
climate change treaty by 2009. 

Usually these conferences are stuffy diplomatic affairs - but this time the
world was watching, and speaking, each day. Together, we brought
people-powered politics to the halls of power, and put our governments on
notice: in the fight to save our environment, we will not be spectators.
Click below to see a report on this campaign with videos and pictures: 

HYPERLINK
"http://www.avaaz.org/en/bali_report_back/6.php?cl=47643289"http://www.avaaz
.org/en/bali_report_back/6.php

This is just the beginning. Every nation of the world has now agreed that
they will enter into accelerated negotiations and, by 2009, sign a new
treaty to confront global warming. We need this treaty to set binding global
targets for carbon emissions, and a mechanism for meeting them, that keep
the earth's temperature from rising more than 2 degrees celsius - the amount
that scientists say would be 'catastrophic'. Such a treaty will change the
world's economy forever, weaning us off oil and fossil fuels to cleaner
sources of energy. Some leaders, in the pocket of the oil industry, will
fight it tooth and nail all the way. And we will too. A great struggle to
save our environment has begun, and this weekend, we showed together that
the people of the world aren't intending to sit this one out.

With much respect and appreciation for this amazing community of people, 

Ricken, Ben, Milena, Paul, Iain, Sarah, Galit, Pascal and the whole Avaaz
Team.


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2:13 PM
 
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