Fifteen years ago, on this day, April 19th, 2010, activists from around the world gathered and… well…,
2010 The World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth Cochabamba
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_People%27s_Conference_on_Climate_Change
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 390ppm. As of 2024 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was there were the meetings of outfits like the World Economic Forum at Davos. There were the IPCC meetings and the UNFCCC meetings. There had been the World Social Forum meetings, largely run by elite NGOs. And so “let’s all meet in Bolivia and [redacted on advice of myself]… and achieve fuck all but we’ll feel good about ourselves in the meantime.”
What we learn is you can have a Rumble in the Jungle. You can feel good but ultimately if you don’t have strong movements in your home countries, the energy, excitement, enthusiasm, attention, whatever will just dissipate. And so it came to pass.
What happened next in the UK Climate Camp staggered on for another year before releasing laughable metamorphoses statement [link to February 2011 post]. And the emissions kept climbing.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
April 19, 1973 – first film to mention global warming released (Soylent Green)