(This is more or less a criminal racket with the fate of the planet in its hands. People need to pay attention to this and the Democrats are chomping at the bit to make cap-and-trade-and-offset the next stock market bubble.   – promoted by eli_beckerman)

I want to share some of my thoughts on this recent phenomenon.  I had the pleasure of joining a protest against a Carbon Trading Summit in NYC this past week.  The Reverend Billy Talen (recent Green Party mayoral candidate for New York City) was on hand to speak the good word as well as a motley crew of activists, scientists, youth, and engaged bystanders.  The protest did not make a big splash, as far as I know, but just participating in these kinds of events can be an empowering and educative experience.  Now on to those jerks we were protesting…

Inside the summit Wall Street bankers, top corporate executives, corporate-tied environmental groups, and other people who generally paid not to care about their fellow human beings were discussing how to make money from a non-solution to climate change.  These are the same corporations that have received trillions of dollars in public money and guarantees for their deliberate failures, while those suffering their incompetence and greed continue to lose their homes, jobs, and dignity.  

The same people whose “innovations” over the last twenty years have consisted in better ways to lie, cheat, bribe, defraud, and con people, rather than finding ways to empower communities and strengthen the prosperity of all.  I could say more, but its no wonder that there might be reason to protest giving these folks the power over the future of the Earth and its inhabitants.  

Opposite of giving those most responsible the most power in the debate, a climate justice perspective demands that those who are and will be most affected by climate change, the poor and downtrodden of both the Global South and Global North, are given not only a voice but effective power to set the terms of the debate and a means to empowerment.  

Its very simple really, a black teenager in Dorchester is not as responsible for climate change as the Board of Exxon-Mobil.  A laid off worker in Greenfield or Springfield does not have the equivalent guilt as the bureaucrats who think subsidizing burning a lot of wood for electricity will lower carbon emissions and not increase rates of asthma. A young woman working in a sweatshop in Bangladesh is no culprit when we look at the industries that champion low environmental and labor standards to pollute her community and chain her to the destructive consumption of others.

Fighting for justice of any sort is neither easy nor simple.  Governments tend to be controlled by those with power, unearned and undeserved power  (when money translates to power the whole argument for democracy is conceded) and the various organizations that make up civil society may at times parrot the views of those with power or simply remain silent.  And in the United States there is the compound problem of the continuing existence of a climate “debate”, where people disagree with the basic facts and truth of the matter.  My hope is that all who realize the stakes of this “debate” are ready and willing to do the kind of outreach and education necessary to create and sustain a sincere discussion and evaluation of real solutions.

For more info on the event see: ( http://www.actforclimatejustic… )  

More on Climate Justice:  ( http://www.climate-justice-now… )