December 08, 2009

Last chance to save the world says Naomi Klein

Speaking at Klimaforum’s opening ceremony in Copenhagen Naomi Klein expressed her doubt whether an ambitious deal would be made at the Bella Centre.

 “The Bella Center is the biggest case of disaster capitalism. The deal we really need is not even on the table,” she said.

The Canadian author emphasized the importance of civil society to come together to take action on the climate crisis. “There is a difference between a deal and success and Klimaforum09 needs to be the lie detector when the politicians come out with a deal,” she added.

Naomi also had critical words to say about Hopenhagen and its branding extravaganza. “The globe has Siemens logo on the bottom and the whole event is sponsored by Coke. That is a capitalization of hope but Klimaforum09 is where the real hope lies,” she said.

"We have to be the lie detectors here. Let's not restrict ourselves to polite marches and formulaic panel discussions. If Seattle was the coming out party, this should be the coming of age party. And, as a friend of mine called John Jordan says, I hope that we have grown up to be even more disobedient. Why are thousands of us burning fossil fuels to get here? Because we have to build a global mass movement that will not allow leaders to get away with what they are trying to get away with. Think of it as the mother of all carbon offsets."

"Klimaforum is not about giving charity to the developing world its about taking responsibility and the industrialized countries cleaning up our own mess,” she concluded.

Henry Saragih, general coordinator of the global pesants movement Via Campesina, also speaking at the opening cermony said, "We would like to tell you that climate change is already seriously impacting us. It brings floods, droughts and the outbreak of pests that are all causing harvest failures,".

Nnimmo Bassy, Head of Friends of Earth International, stressed the importance of people getting together to take action.

"At Klimaforum09 we find the real people taking real action. Polluters must be hold accountable and policy makers must start listening to the people," he said.

Klimaforum09 the peoples conference is open from Tuesday 8th till Friday 18th December. The programme features close to 200 workshops, 70 exhibitions and a comprehensive film, theatre and musical events.

The Danish organizers expect up to 10,000 daily visitors and guest speakers include Vandana Shiva, George Monbiot, Bill McKibben, Tim Jackson and Wangari Maathai.

For info and full programme see: http://www.klimaforum09.org

See youtube video of Naomi Klein

Article quoted from -- and see for daily news direct from Copenhagen: Indymedia Denmark