Maude Barlow: ‘Hands Off Mother Earth!’
The ETC Group reports that, “In a landmark consensus decision, the 193-member UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will close its tenth biennial meeting with a de facto moratorium on geoengineering projects and experiments.”
“The agreement, reached during the ministerial portion of the two-week meeting which included 110 environment ministers, asks governments to ensure that no geoengineering activities take place until risks to the environmental and biodiversity and associated social, cultural and economic impacts risks have been appropriately considered as well as the socio-economic impacts.”
This past April the Council of Canadians endorsed the ‘Hands Off Mother Earth!’ campaign launched in Cochabamba by the ETC Group to counter the threat of geoengineering.
What is geoengineering? In short, it is the intentional manipulation of eco-systems, as opposed to our governments recognizing that we need to adjust to the limits of nature.
For example, geoengineering includes large-scale proposals to ‘fix’ climate change by “changing the chemistry of the oceans to polluting the upper atmosphere with sulphur particles.”
“To cite just one example, shooting sulfates into the stratosphere could perhaps cool the earth, but it could also severely disrupt Asian and African monsoons threatening the sources of water and food for 2 billion people.”
Silvia Ribeiro, Latin American Director of ETC Group, stated today that with this win, “Any private or public experimentation or adventurism intended to manipulate the planetary thermostat will be in violation of this carefully crafted UN consensus.”
Congratulations to the ETC Group and to all who supported their efforts. More information on this campaign is available at www.handsoffmotherearth.org and at www.etcgroup.org.
