Toban Black

(A Grist photo)

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UK Climate Campers have said this on Twitter (in their “bio” statement) -
“It’s time to show our ‘leaders’ how we’re going to take action to reduce emissions ourselves. Because it’s business as usual at Copenhagen.”

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Cascadia Brian (of Rising Tide North America)
on the It’s Getting Hot in Here blog -
“Copenhagen and the end of naïveté”

A post from “tanuki” (of Rising Tide North America, and other networks)
on the It’s Getting Hot in Here blog -
“Out of the frying pan and into the streets!, or ‘How I stopped lobbying and put up my dukes!‘”
(I’m not re-posting that link to reject any and all lobbying — particularly at the municipal level, where lobbying impacts are more feasible.)

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Common people are going to have to sort these problems out;
and to accomplish that, we’re going to have to rise up — to take power.

We need to collectively re-make this world; and to do that, we’ll need to motivate and mobilize a lot more people — including ourselves, in some cases.

What are we waiting for? Let’s do this.
A lot more of us will have to be a lot more engaged in making this change happen.

Obama is not a radical superhero; and no one else out there is either.  There are no hero-saviours out there who are going to turn around these crises on, their own.

Join us in the climate justice movement
AND/OR
Join us in the pursuit of practical, community-level solutions.

[Read more →]

[via Bouphonia]
(Click to enlarge)

That image…
is a metaphor for the divisions that separate the ‘First’ ‘World’ from the ‘Third’ ‘World’
and
it captures the ultimate dream of people who seek to profit without accountability for the consequences of their enterprises

Surbordination and exploitation are the lowest common denominators there.

[Read more →]

Christopher Weber in ColorLines - “Toxic Pesticides Threaten Urban Communities of Color”

Selected exerpts -

“As scientists refocus on pesticides in urban areas, they’re discovering that the effects of these poisons are particularly marked in communities of color. While this may be news to scientific researchers, it is no surprise for activists, who for years have been laboring to raise awareness of the swath of allergy, illness, and risk created by pesticides.”

“Scientists have yet to fully document such race-based patterns of exposure, and they are split on a key point: whether race or income level plays a greater role in determining a person’s exposure. Researchers contacted for this story, most with prestigious academic appointments, often referred to activists as better sources on this subject. Several acknowledged, however, that they believe that people of color do suffer a greater toll from pesticides than whites.

There’s little doubt that people of color are being exposed to toxic chemicals via insecticides, fungicides, and rodenticides.”

“‘There are still some researchers out there who argue that people of color are inherently inferior — for example, James Watson’s controversial comments about Blacks” explained Janean Dilworth-Bart, an assistant professor of human development and family studies …. ‘But pollutants like pesticides are pervasive, especially among low-income and ethnic minority kids. Therefore, group differences in test scores…may actually be due, in part, to exposure to toxic substances in the environment.’”

—

The original article is a lot longer.  I don’t think that it covers those injustices well, but the writer does offer more information about pesticides and related issues.

Here’s a Wikipedia page where you can start to read more about the injustice issues discussed in the experts I’ve posted above -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_justice