Several weeks ago I received an email inviting me to be part of an international action on climate justice.

 

Climate Justice Fast! aims to send a powerful message to members of the public who are as yet unaware of the urgency of climate action, as well as to inspire those who are already aware of climate change to become more politically active. In addition, our act will serve as a powerful reminder to our leaders of the importance, and moral consequences, of their decisions on climate change. We believe that hunger striking could not be more appropriate for the issue of climate change. We desperately need to bring attention to the enormity of its injustice, and to alert the general public to the urgency of climate action.

 

On Friday, the Climate Justice Fast! got started with a news conference in Barcelona, Spain and with 80 people in 13 countries signed up to fast.  A core group began a water-only fast on November 6 and will continue on through the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen from December 7 to 18.  The fasters are prepared to go beyond that date.  Talk about commitment!  I signed on early, almost immediately upon hearing about it, actually.  But I knew I could not commit to the full fast because of familial and professional commitments.  I did decide to fast for at least one day per week over the six weeks.  Today is the first of what I’m calling my solidarity fast.  I want to show support for the long-term fasters, demonstrate my commitment to the issue and be part of a long tradition, a tradition which in the past century includes determined British suffragettes, the amazing Mahatma Gandhi and, more recently, a Canadian grandmother, Donna Dillman.

As a feminist activist, my concern on the climate change issue focuses on the lives of women and children — people already treated as second class citizens the world over.  Climate change is making their lives even worse.  From Save The Children UK:

Quick facts: climate change and children
– In the next decade, up to 175 million children are likely to be affected every year by the kinds of natural disasters brought about by climate change. 1
– The percentage of the world’s population exposed to malaria, one of the biggest killers of children under the age of five, is expected to increase from 45 per cent to 60 per cent in the next 100 years due to climate change. 2
– By 2010, there will be 50 million ‘environmentally displaced people’, most of whom will be women and children. 3

The year 2010 begins 50 sleeps from today in my part of the world.  It is imperative that our world leaders take immediate action!  Even though the mild chills and hunger pangs I am enduring today seem so very small I know that I am support those who are doing something very big — risking their lives — in order to get those leaders not only to listen but also to act.  CJF!’s call for justice:

We, the participants of Climate Justice Fast!, are undertaking our international
hunger strike in order to call upon world leaders – and all people, everywhere –
to act with courage and good faith for our common, global good, by implementing
the most rapid possible transition to stabilise atmospheric greenhouse gases
below 350ppm CO2-e, and by committing to deliver justice for the global poor
and future generations – who are the least responsible for causing
climate change, yet who suffer the most from its effects.

Climate Justice for the poor and for future generations can be delivered by
funding climate adaptation and mitigation activities in developing nations with
at least US$160 billion per year; by reducing and rejecting over-consumption,
wherever it exists, and by phasing out fossil fuels completely – starting with
the elimination of developed countries’ fossil fuel subsidies, shifting them wholly to
renewable energy and international climate finance.

We urge all people, everywhere, to make a commitment to
join the movement for climate justice,
and to not to give up until we succeed in these demands being met.

Feeling doubtful?  Well, let me leave you with Margaret Mead’s words:  “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

I am using today, Blog Action Day, to let readers know that in recent weeks I have become involved in an international action in regard to climate change and climate justice.  As part of the international group wanting to move our leaders to take climate change and climate justice seriously at the upcoming meetings in Copenhagen, I have decided to act in solidarity with those who will take on a 42-day Climate Justice Fast! in the spirit of Ghandi and others.  Though I am unable to commit to the full six-week fast for a variety of reasons, I am committing to 1 to 2 days per week.

Here is our statement:

We, the participants of Climate Justice Fast!, are undertaking our international hunger strike in order to call upon world leaders – and all people, everywhere – to act with courage and good faith for our common, global good, by implementing the most rapid possible transition to stabilise atmospheric greenhouse gases below 350ppm CO2-e, and by committing to deliver justice for the global poor and future generations – who are the least responsible for causing climate change, yet who suffer the most from its effects.

Climate Justice for the poor and for future generations can be delivered by funding climate adaptation and mitigation activities in developing nations with at least US$160 billion per year; by reducing and rejecting over-consumption, wherever it exists, and by phasing out fossil fuels completely – starting with the elimination of developed countries’ fossil fuel subsidies, shifting them wholly to renewable energy and international climate finance.

We urge all people, everywhere, to making a commitment to join the movement for climate justice, and to not to give up until we succeed in these demands being met.

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I invite you to join with us, be it for the full fast, a week or two, a day or two, or a meal or two or in spirit.

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You can read more about fasting on our website.

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Know that I do this out of a deep love for our planet and all its beings.

Word.

We have become so accustomed to living in a society saturated with misogyny that the barbaric treatment of women and girls has come to be more or less expected.

We profess to being shocked at one or another of these outlandish crimes, but the shock wears off quickly in an environment in which the rape, murder and humiliation of females is not only a staple of the news, but an important cornerstone of the nation’s entertainment.

The mainstream culture is filled with the most gruesome forms of misogyny, and pornography is now a multibillion-dollar industry — much of it controlled by mainstream U.S. corporations.

…

Life in the United States is mind-bogglingly violent. But we should take particular notice of the staggering amounts of violence brought down on the nation’s women and girls each and every day for no other reason than who they are. They are attacked because they are female.

A girl or woman somewhere in the U.S. is sexually assaulted every couple of minutes or so. The number of seriously battered wives and girlfriends is far beyond the ability of any agency to count.

There were so many sexual attacks against women in the armed forces that the Defense Department had to revise its entire approach to the problem.

We would become much more sane, much healthier, as a society if we could bring ourselves to acknowledge that misogyny is a serious and pervasive problem, and that the twisted way so many men feel about women, combined with the absurdly easy availability of guns, is a toxic mix of the most tragic proportions.

BOB HERBERT, “Women At Risk,” New York Times Op-Ed, August 7, 2009 <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/opinion/08herbert.html?_r=2>

Well, we know the Harper hates women. But Iggy, too?

Let’s see.  Iggy supported Harper’s budget which saw a continuation of Harper’s attack on women. And Iggy encouraged the Senate to push it through even though Senators had problems with it. And Iggy’s done nothing to appease women since taking the helm of the Liberal Party of Canada.

But now, this seems to ice the cake, so to speak.

Grit insiders say the federal Liberals are unlikely to nominate one-third female candidates in the next election and that the new Liberal leader’s main focus is finding winnable candidates rather than focusing on gender.

Oh, the backlash against feminism is strong, isn’t it?  And now we have two federal party leaders jumping on that bandwagon!

What’s a girl to do?  Sure, quotas are the only answer.  But hello?  Have you read any research about the impact on women’s and children’s lives when at least 1/3 of the movers and shakers are women?  It’s huge!  It’s as though women’s lives suddenly matter, as though women finally get taken seriously.  Does Iggy know anything about CEDAW?

It appears that, no, he does not.  He’s too busy cosying up to the big boys in the sandbox, those who don’t want to share their toys with half the population.  Like I say, Liberal, Tory, same old story.

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Thanks to Challenging the Commonplace for the pointer.

“The budget also contains no mention of childcare spaces and maintains the attack on women’s ability to pursue pay equity complaints.”

— New Democratic Party of Canada

There is little to say beyond that, right now.  There is much that needs to be done, but for now at least, we can breathe a sigh of relief and celebrate that there is some hope for a kinder, gentler world.  Well done, USA.  And thank you.  Very.  Much.

The USA's First Family To Be