Quick Reads

Statement on the African Development Bank's Dakar 2 Summit

Submitted by Ronnie Hall on

“Climate smart agriculture” will worsen the climate crisis
Food Barons report cover art

As African heads of state travel to Dakar for the African Development Bank Group’s Dakar 2 African Food Summit, 83 African and international civil society organisations have signed a collective statement opposing the summit’s “climate smart agriculture” approach.

Mexico sets a global precautionary example by stopping solar geoengineering experiments

Submitted by Laura Dunn on

Further tests will not be permitted, say Mexican authorities

Mexico City, Mexico – On Friday January 13 the Mexican government announced that it will not allow solar geoengineering experiments in Mexico. This announcement came in response to Make Sunsets’ experiments over Baja California Sur, Mexico, where the two-man startup used weather balloons to spray sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. This took place without the Free Prior and Informed consent of the Indigenous peoples whose territories were used for the experiments and without any permits or even a license to operate a business in Mexico.

México establece un ejemplo global de precaución al frenar experimentos de geoingeniería solar

Submitted by Veronica Villa on

Autoridades aseguran que no se permitirán más experimentos

Ciudad de México, México - El viernes 13 de enero el gobierno mexicano anunció que no permitirá experimentos de geoingeniería solar en México, en respuesta a los experimentos de la empresa Make Sunsets en Baja California Sur, que utilizó globos meteorológicos para rociar dióxido de azufre en la atmósfera. Esto se llevó a cabo sin el consentimiento libre, previo e informado de los pueblos indígenas cuyos territorios se utilizaron para los experimentos y sin ningún permiso para operar un negocio en México.

Stop the U.S. start-up testing solar geoengineering in Mexico

Submitted by Laura Dunn on

Profit driven experiments reveal how quickly solar geoengineering research can lead to deployment

Photo credit: Marcus Woodbridge

Mexico City, Mexico – A longtime watchdog on geoengineering activities, ETC Group is sounding the alarm on two recent solar geoengineering tests that have released sulfur dioxide over Baja California Sur, Mexico as part of an experiment to block the sun’s warmth from reaching the earth.  A two-man start-up from the United States, calling itself Make Sunsets, is behind these tests and appears to be seeking to profit from the climate crisis.

A Bittersweet Bargain on Biodiversity

Submitted by Laura Dunn on

Despite some small victories, the critical principles of justice and precaution lost ground at COP 15 of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), as business, billionaires and biotech-backers brokered a deal for biodiversity that would work in their interest

Two years late – and supersized beyond any previous CBD meeting – COP 15 was always going to be a complex multidimensional chess battle. Once all sides met in Montreal’s enormous Palais des congrès, an army of corporate and philanthrocapitalist lobbyists and big delegations from biotech-friendly governments used their superior numbers to drown out (and often literally edit out) long-standing principles of precaution and justice.

PRESS RELEASE -- Banners to Bezos and Gates: Back Off of Biodiversity!

Submitted by Laura Dunn on

Activists drop 80-foot banners at COP15 warning of Billionaire takeover of biodiversity finance and policy

MONTREAL/TIOHTIÀ:KE/UNCEDED TERRITORY OF THE KANIEN’KEHÁ:KA NATION – Climber-activists today dropped 80-foot banners reading, “Biodiversity versus Billionaires,” visible from Montreal’s Palais des Congres where world leaders are meeting at the UN’s landmark Biodiversity COP15.

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