Fabricio Vanden Broeck

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO (IPS/TerraViva) – “In a year’s time, the Japanese archipelago will be completely under water.” This official announcement was made following a violent eruption of Mt. Fuji, as a series of devastating earthquakes shook the country, forcing the world to face the challenge of taking in 110 million refuges within a very short time.

After a brutal diplomatic battle, the Japanese government managed to secure frail support from its fellow nations and evacuate 65 million people. Twenty million sank with the islands, many of them voluntarily, out of love for their country or to give younger people a better chance of fleeing. The rest are believed to have died before the islands sank, victims of the quakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters. Continue Reading

Activists meeting at Klimaforum. Credit: Daniela Estrada/IPS

Daniela Estrada

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) Before the outcome of COP 15 has even emerged, Latin American social organisations are already discussing their strategies for the next climate summit, to be held in a year’s time in Mexico.

The primary challenge is to broaden and strengthen the links between the different civil society movements and networks in the region, the international coordinator of Jubilee South, Beverly Keene, told TerraViva. Continue Reading

By Mantoe Phakathi

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) -

Protesters from local Ogaden community. Credit: Mantoe Phakati

The Ogaden region is found in the southeastern part of Ethiopia, bordering on Somalia. It is a semi-arid region that has suffered increasingly frequent droughts, with harsh consequences for its pastoralist population. But the 100 or so members of the Ogaden Community Association of Sweden (OCAS) were not outside the Bella Center to make a point on climate change. Continue Reading

"It will take lot of us – probably in the streets" to make politicians face the truth, says climate scientist James Hansen. Credit: TerraViva/Stephen Leahy

No Real Deal, and No Exit

Analysis by Stephen Leahy

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) The roof of our house is on fire but our leaders, our economic system and we ourselves are ignoring the alarms and continuing to add more fuel. There are no exit doors in our house; there is nowhere else to go.

Dangerous climate change is already here.

The two-week climate summit in Copenhagen came to an end with disappointing results and details that are still vague. Continue Reading

Civil society's message to the leaders meeting in Copenhagen. Credit:Ana Libisch/IPS

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) Heads of state and government are working fervently to complete an agreement in Copenhagen, but texts coming out of their midst so far lack details on emissions cuts and long-term funding.

Negotiations – resumed after U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech failed to deliver any tangible targets – are likely to continue into tomorrow. Continue Reading

Tierramérica talks to Juan Carlos Soriano from IPS Inter Press Service on Vimeo.

President Barack Obama meets with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during a bilateral at the COP15 on Dec. 18. Credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza.

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) Tempers flared after U.S. President Barack Obama dropped a bombshell before making a quick exit from an informal meeting of heads of state and government at COP15 Friday.

“Obama said something very ridiculous this morning before going out through that small door,” fumed Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Continue Reading

Stephen Leahy, environmental journalist, gives his views on the climate conference from IPS Inter Press Service on Vimeo.

Members of Friends of the Earth not allowed into the Bella Center. Nasseem Ackbarally/IPS

By Claudia Ciobanu* COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) World leaders speaking in Copenhagen on Friday, the last day of negotiations for a deal on climate change, retreated into their national positions.

US President Barack Obama and his peers could not have been further from the call to “cooperate internationally to ensure respect for human rights everywhere in the world” contained in the People’s Declaration issued by NGOs working at the KlimaForum09 alternative summit. Continue Reading

Tierramérica talks to Frode Gjedrem from IPS Inter Press Service on Vimeo.

President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, Dec. 17, 2009. Credit: White House Photo/ Pete Souza

Analysis by Matthew Berger

SAN FRANCISCO (IPS/TerraViva) When then-U.S. Vice President Al Gore arrived in Kyoto in 1997, the climate – of both the planet and the climate change debate – was much different. The biggest sign of how this issue has evolved in the 12 years since is the presence of U.S. president and newly-anointed Nobel laureate Barack Obama at Copenhagen’s Bella Centre Friday.

Since 1997, the world has sweated through the hottest decade on record, starting in 1998, which the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organisation has said was the hottest year ever recorded. But the pressure against addressing these climatic changes – and their consequences – has been just as stifling as the weather. Continue Reading

Tierramérica talks to Tommy von Pein from IPS Inter Press Service on Vimeo.

By Athar Parvaiz

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva) – Unless the world comes to its aid, Bangladesh says the vulnerability of its agriculture sector to climate change could spell severe consequences for its millions of people, who stand to lose their main source of livelihood.

“As a poverty-stricken and densely populated country, we cannot cope with these challenges unless we have a proper financial and technological support from the developed world,” said Sabir Hassan Chowdhary, one of the delegates from Bangladesh to the Copenhagen climate talks, in an interview with TerraViva. Continue Reading

By Darryl D’Monte

COPENHAGEN  (IPS/TerraViva) – People living in the Himalayan region are increasingly confronted by rising temperatures and glaciers melting at an unprecedented rate, threatening their very survival. This much the world already knows.

Yet, experts say, there is still no accurate and reliable data on the Himalayan glaciers and many aspects of its ecosystem, which should facilitate determining mitigation measures addressing current and future impacts of climate change on the Himalayas.

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