Climate Injustice - reports from Lima

Amy Goodman reports from Lima.

Up until 2009 I still had hope that we had time and will to do something about the warming climate.

Two things shocked me out of this. One was seeing the BBC documentary "Global Dimming" which alerted me to the possibility of runaway global warming and the release of methane.

The other were the reports from Copenhagen by Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! when we saw activist hunted down and arrested by police, NGO representatives left queuing outside in the snow while the rich of the world decided to throw us under the bus.

--SMR

Peru's Deadly Environment: 

Host Nation of UN Summit is 

Among Most Dangerous for 

Land Defenders

The United Nations Climate Conference is being held in Peru, which is now the world's fourth most dangerous country for environmental defenders. 

Four were killed in September alone. In a brutal incident in a remote region of Peru’s Amazon rainforest, leading indigenous activist Edwin Chota was ambushed as he traveled to neighboring Brazil for a meeting on how to address the region’s illegal logging crisis. 

Illegal loggers allegedly killed and dismembered Chota along with his colleagues Jorge Ríos, Francisco Pinedo and Leoncio Quinticima. Chota is among at least 57 environmental activists who have been assassinated in Peru since 2002. 

The Peruvian government has recently passed legislation that rolls back forest protections, which has increased the pace of such murders. We are joined by Chris Moye, the environmental governance campaigner for Global Witness and author of their new report, "Peru's Deadly Environment."

Peruvian Protester: My 

Brother Was Disappeared in 

1993 at El Pentagonito, the 

Site of Climate Summit

The U.N. climate summit in Lima is being held at the Peruvian army headquarters, known as "El Pentagonito." 

It is a site with a dark history, built in 1975 by the dictator Juan Velasco Alvarado. The army, under President Alberto Fujimori, later used the base to torture and interrogate political prisoners. 

We speak with Marly Anzualdo Castro, whose brother, Kenneth Anzualdo Castro, was disappeared in 1993 during Fujimori's reign. 

Last year, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights determined the state was responsible for Kenneth's forced disappearance. To this date, his whereabouts remain unknown. 

Anzualdo Castro joined Wednesday's climate march in Lima holding a sign reading "No Olvidamos," which means "We don't forget." Anzualdo Castro says her brother was committed to student activism. "I join young people today [at the climate protest] because my brother had that spirit," Anzualdo Castro says. "So for me it is a way to see him alive now."

"We Are Like the Walking 
Dead": Latin American 
Indigenous Groups Dхcry 
Corporate Destruction of 
Land

As the United Nations Climate Conference in Peru enters its final phase, thousands of people marched in downtown Lima on Wednesday to call for action on global warming. We hear from some of the voices who took to the streets: frontline indigenous and rural communities from across Latin America who are among the most impacted by both the industrial practices that fuel climate change and the impacts of global warming.

Putting People Before Profit: Thousands March in Peruvian People's Climate March in Lima

On Wednesday, climate justice activists from around world marched in Lima at the people’s climate march. We hear voices from Uganda, Mozambique, Australia, Canada, Peru, Nigeria and more. “We the people have come together to stand up against injustice. We are saying enough is enough,” says Godwin Uyi Ojo, executive director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth

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