Nestlé wants you to have a break by having a Kit Kat – but Kit Kats contain palm oil from companies that are trashing Indonesian rainforests, speeding up climate change, threatening the livelihoods of local people and pushing orang-utans towards extinction.
The outcome of the Copenhagen summit was deeply disappointing. It failed to deliver the legally binding and fair global climate deal sought by civil society organisations and individuals, and promised by many governments. The process lacked transparency, and restrictions on freedom of expression were widespread.
As Copenhagen exposes how the world is being destroyed by its longtime rulers (under the reign of greed reaching the limits of life in the planet), it might be that those outside (and some within) the walls of the summit herald the global conscience of humanity that climate change requires for life to survive. The obvious might finally be recognized as truth and lead us, all of us, to action: the system has to be changed, the rulers must be removed, for life to be preserved. The time is here and now for history to become harmonized with nature, with mother earth. It is harmony and justice or death. Naomi Klein has been reporting from Copenhagen. We share one of her notes, while we join those mobilized already and must prepare for action everywhere until the change that stops the climate change happens through our own awareness leading to action.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION (ITUC)
Brussels, 16 December (ITUC OnLine):
Governments must finally step up to their responsibilities and reach a serious agreement at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen before it is too late, the International Trade Union Confederation has stated.
