dear Graham, et al,

please desist from ad hominem remarks. If you want to engage in this sort of
comment the place to do so is outside Crisis Forum.

As one of the moderators of the Forum  I want to make this very clear. If
people disagree, as we would expect on this JISC-list that's as it should
be.   Some of the remarks made here  however are very far from courteous. On
behalf of the moderators I would like to gently remind all correspondents to
keep  within the bounds of decency and good will, whatever you may think of
other people's  (usually very carefully expressed) views and opinions.

thank you,
mark   



on 26/11/11 5:52 pm, Omega Institute at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> Well, Tessa of  the juden people's liberation Front, it seems it's not just
> me that objects to your scientificly inaccurate policies.
> Graham Ennis
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Barker, Tom" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, November 26, 2011 12:44 PM
> Subject: Re: Via Campesina, Biochar, UN Durban Climate Change Conference -
> November 2011 and more
> 
> 
> It reminds me of the Judean People's Front Crack Suicide Squad in Monty
> Python's 'Life of Brian', only sadder.
> 
> The agro-industrial model is indeed one of the key drivers of climate
> change, and much else, but to encourage much-needed grass roots activists to
> reject technologies that can help them is probably as bad as the
> multinational groups stealing their land and livelihoods in the first place.
> 
> Remember that the people who apply scientific principles to help them
> increase profits at whatever expense for others  are not scientists. They
> are governments and corporations. Rejecting the science that can achieve
> sustainability because the wrong people have all the power is shooting
> yourself in both feet with both barrels.
> 
> Tom
> ________________________________________
> From: Discussion list for the Crisis Forum [[log in to unmask]] on
> behalf of Tessa Burrington [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 26 November 2011 00:15
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Via Campesina, Biochar, UN Durban Climate Change Conference -
> November 2011 and more
> 
> SOME PERSPECTIVES ON BIOCHAR AND MORE
> 
> 
> VIA CAMPESINA
> "Vía Campesina is an international movement of peasants, small- and
> medium-sized producers, landless, rural women, indigenous people, rural
> youth and agricultural workers. It is a coalition of around 150
> organisations, with an estimated 300 million members. Vía Campesina recently
> put out a statement about COP-16 in Cancún.
> 
> The statement rejects REDD, geoengineering (including biochar and
> genetically modified plants), all carbon trading mechanisms and rejects any
> participation of the World Bank in the management of funds and policies
> related to climate change. Here¹s Vía Campesina¹s position on REDD:...."
> 
> http://www.redd-monitor.org/2010/09/02/via-campesina-rejects-redd-and-carbon-t
> rading/
> 
> "(Maputo, 21st November, 2011) - The International Peasant's Movement La Via
> Campesina will be at the 17th Conference of Parties, the UN summit on
> Climate Change, that will take place in Durban, South Africa, from the 28th
> of November to the 9th of December 2011. More than two hundred peasants,
> women and men, from Africa, Europe, Latin America and Caribe will represent
> millions of small-scale producers from around the world, practicing
> agroecology to cool down the Earth.
> 
> In Durban, members of La Via Campesina will denounce the industrial
> agriculture model as one of the main drivers of climate change. We will also
> expose agribussiness' aggressive land grabbing tactics globally, causing
> mass displacement of people for monoculture production.
> 
> Peasants globally oppose false solutions to climate change, such as
> monoculture plantations, REDD mechanisms, soil carbon markets, and the so
> called ³Climate Smart Agriculture², which instead of solving the climate
> crisis, are heating up the planet.
> 
> In Durban, LVC will participate on the Global Day of Action on the 3rd of
> December, to demand social and climate justice. On the 5th of December, all
> African peasants movements will celebrate the Agroecology and Food
> Sovereignty day to Cool Down the Earth, a symbolic manifestation to demand
> respect for the cause of peasants globally..."
> 
> 
> http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1153:v
> ia-campesina-at-cop17-in-durban-industrial-agriculture-heats-up-the-planet-far
> mers-are-cooling-it-down&catid=48:-climate-change-and-agrofuels&Itemid=75
> 
> 
> PAMBAZUKA NEWS
> "...Biochar is without a doubt the geoengineering technology that already
> sees Africa as its preferred testing ground. Unused agricultural Œwaste¹, or
> crops and wood from trees grown for this purpose, are burnt under low-oxygen
> conditions in a process known as pyrolisis (a type of gasification) and then
> added to the soil where they remain stored allegedly for Œhundreds to
> thousands of years¹.[11] In addition to supposedly safely sequestering
> carbon, the process delivers bioenergy as a by-product that can replace some
> fossil fuel uses. Already, biochar projects are underway in Burkina Faso,
> Cameroon, Côte d¹Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana,
> Kenya, Mali, Namibia, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and
> Zambia.[12]
> 
> There is a huge amount of hype about biochar, and people who are desperate
> for solutions can be surprisingly credulous. Consider this interview with
> Laurens Rademaker from the Biochar Fund, a Œsocial profit¹ that is
> Œcash-flow positive¹ offering Œinvestment opportunities¹:...."
> 
> http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/67522
> 
> 
> CARBON TRADE WATCH
> "...Turning soils into a commodity is profitable to industry but disastrous
> for the poor.
> Several patent applications have been made for charcoal use in soil and for
> pyrolysis with charcoal production.  If granted, those will ensure that any
> future profits from the technology will go to companies, not communities.
> Given that successful strategies for combining charcoal with diverse biomass
> in soils were developed by indigenous peoples, Œbiochar¹ patenting raises
> serious concerns over biopiracy. The inclusion of soils in carbon markets,
> just like the inclusion forests in carbon trading will increase corporate
> control over vital resources and the exclusion of smallholder farmers, rural
> communities and indigenous peoples...."
> 
> ttp://www.carbontradewatch.org/take-action-archive/biochar-a-new-big-threat-to
> -people-land-and-ecosystems.html
> 
> 
> TRANSNATIONAL INSTITUTE
> "...A lobby group (the International Biochar Initiative) made up largely of
> startup 'biochar' and agrofuel companies and academics, many of them with
> related commercial interests, are behind the push for 'biochar'. Their
> extremely bold claims are not founded in scientific understanding..."
> 
> http://www.tni.org/archives/act/19389
> 
> 
> GRAIN
> "....Until now, agriculture has been largely excluded from global carbon
> markets, but this is set to change in December 2009 at the Copenhagen
> conference. Agribusiness companies are lobbying hard to make a range of
> farming activities eligible for future funding under the Clean Development
> Mechanism (CDM). As a result, billions of dollars will almost certainly be
> invested in agriculture, mainly livestock production and plantations. What
> makes this prospect so alarming is that this huge investment, carried out in
> the name of mitigating the climate crisis, will be channelled largely to big
> agribusiness. And it is precisely their approach to farming and food
> production that has created so many of the problems we face today..."
> 
> http://www.grain.org/article/entries/773-the-agribusiness-lobby-arrives-in-cop
> enhagen
> 
> "...Real solutions require that we properly identify the causes of climate
> change, and that we challenge the industrial model, particularly
> agribusiness and the corporate food system, since they are responsible for
> half or more of global greenhouse gas emissions. Above all, real solutions
> require a defence of peasant agriculture, which produces food according to
> local need outside the global corporate food system. Cochabamba has made all
> of this much clearer than ever before, and has helped to open a horizon for
> long-term mobilisations and action..."
> 
> http://www.grain.org/article/entries/4045-from-cochabamba-to-cancun-the-urgenc
> y-of-real-solutions-to-the-climate-crisis
> 
> 
> CLIMATE AND CAPITALISM
> "...Overall, new pressures for Africa to engage further with the CDM, and
> particularly for landuse projects, could be highly damaging to the continent¹s
> land rights, forests, communities, water and food security. Developed
> countries¹ efforts to mitigate climate change through the CDM would in fact
> threaten the resources of land, seeds and water that Africa needs in order
> to ensure its climate change resilience.
> 
> African governments should take careful note of the problems inherent in the
> CDM and carbon offset system, learn from the problems experienced with CDM
> projects in Africa so far, and prevent new methodologies which exacerbate
> land grabbing from gaining UNFCCC approval..."
> 
> http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=4061
> 
> ECONEXUS
> "Biochar is biomass burned in the near absence of oxygen and it is basically
> identical to charcoal, but used for different purposes. It is being widely
> promoted by various interests as a soil amendment and to sequester carbon,
> often with little detailed argument or evidence in support of the claims
> made.
> The book "Biochar for Environmental Management" provides of a large
> collection of articles about biochar by a total of some 50 researchers and
> specialists from a wide range of universities, government departments and
> companies. It demonstrates clearly that there are major gaps in knowledge.
> However, at the same time, some writers speak of biochar as a means to
> address climate change and propose it for carbon markets, in spite of these
> knowledge gaps."
> " This article reviews and discusses biochar with particular reference to
> the book Biochar for Environmental Management - Science and Technology,
> edited by Johannes Lehmann and Stephen Joseph, Earthscan 2009.
> For further information see Agriculture and Climate Change - Real
> Problems, False Solutions EcoNexus et al., December 2009, especially chapter
> 5: Biochar: what can we expect from adding charcoal to the soil? and
> Biochar: A critical review of science and policy by Biofuel Watch. "
> http://www.econexus.info/topic/biochar
> 
> 
> 
> WORLD PEOPLE'S CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE RIGHTS OF MOTHER EARTH
> 
> "Climate Change negotiations are often deliberately made very complex, so
> normal people cannot understand what it is all about, even less be able to
> react, and ultimately can¹t demand climate justice.
> 
> I will make a series of posts during the Durban climate change negotiations
> to make them understandable.
> A first difficulty is understanding the UNFCCC webpage, and the documents on
> it. Everything is available, but finding them is like searching for a needle
> in the haystack..."
> 
> http://pwccc.wordpress.com/
> 
> Occupy COP 17
> 
> November 25, 2011 in UN climate change negotiations
> 
> The Occupy COP 17 Movement proposes the ŒPeoples Agreement¹ of Tiquipaya as
> an alternative to start thinking from, in their opposition to the
> non-solutions being proposed by the official fora.
> 
> http://occupycop17.org/
> 
> "From 28 November to 9 December the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17)
> to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will
> be taking place in Durban, South Africa. This is where decisions on how to
> avert catastrophic climate change and protect our environment are meant to
> take place.
> 
> Instead the very same people responsible for the global financial crisis are
> poised to seize control of our atmosphere, land, forests, mountains and
> waterways. They want to institute carbon markets that will make billions of
> dollars for the elite few, whilst stealing land and resources from the many.
> We need to organise to protect the planet and safeguard those who depend on
> and defend our ecosystems.
> 
> Occupy COP17 can be a forum for those who wish to discuss and implement real
> and equitable solutions to climate change, with climate justice at the
> heart. It is open to all, operating on the principles of inclusiveness,
> openness, non-hierarchical organizing and consensus decision making."
> 
> http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/occupy-cop-17/
> 
> Final Conclusions working group 17: Agriculture and Food Sovereignty:
> 
> April 29, 2010 in 17. Agriculture and food sovereignty, Working Groups
> 
> "The social movements and popular organizations gathered at the CMPCC
> communicate that despite our constant protests and numerous mobilizations,
> the capitalist governments, international agencies and financial
> institutions continue on the path of exacerbating the destruction of the
> planet. Climate change is one of the most serious threats to food
> sovereignty of all peoples of the world.Once again we state that:..."
> 
> http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/final-conclusions-working-group-17-agric
> ulture-and-food-sovereignty/#more-1722
> 
> 
> CAMPAIGN AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
> The funders of climate disinformation:
> http://www.campaigncc.org/denialfunders
> 
> "This year the UN Climate talks ("COP 17") are in Durban South Africa. The
> location of the talks in Africa brings into sharp focus the issue of climate
> justice - the fate of poorer more vulnerable countries in a destabilising
> climate, for which the richer countries are largely responsible. In South
> Africa itself there are issues around a big dirty fossil fuel industry from
> which the poor suffer and the rich benefit - as this country which has borne
> witness to stupendous struggles for social justice now mobilises around the
> issue of 'climate justice'.  Rehad Desai is a  film-maker and activist from
> South Africa, who will talk about theclimate justice issues there and the
> South African mobilisation for COP 17."
> http://www.campaigncc.org/rehaddesai
> 
> -----
> No virus found in this message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 2012.0.1873 / Virus Database: 2101/4639 - Release Date: 11/25/11
>