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Daniel LeBlanc, OMI Gives Briefing on Climate Change Conference at UN June 4th, 2010

Daniel LeBlanc, OMI gave a June 3rd briefing at the International Catholic Organizations Network (ICON) on the people’s climate change conference held last month in Bolivia . Titled the “World’s People Conference on Climate Change and The Rights of Mother Earth,” the gathering of some 35,000 civil society representatives was designed to send a strong message to governments that action is needed now to prevent a global climate disaster.

Later the same day he gave a report on the conference to the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development, of which he is an active member.

Daniel LeBlanc, OMI was representing VIVAT International at the conference. He is a newly elected Board Member of ICON.

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Zimbabwe Transition to Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2010 Introduced in the US Senate May 14th, 2010

The Zimbabwe Transition to Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2010 (S.3297) has been introduced in the US Senate by a bi-partisan group: Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), and John Kerry (D-MA). The bill seeks to create new United States policy towards Zimbabwe.

Current U.S. policy towards Zimbabwe is characterized by the Zimbabwe Economic and Democracy Recovery Act of 2001 (ZEDERA) and an Executive Order declared by President Bush in 2003. Extended by President Obama until March 2011, this lists more than 200 individuals and business entities subject to a travel ban and whose assets have been frozen.

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Alberta Tar Sands: Dirty Oil May 9th, 2010

The recent oil-related ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico raises questions about the sources of the energy on which we are so dependent.  An increasingly important source of oil for the United States is the tar sands of Alberta, Canada.

The Alberta Tar sands, an extremely dense and viscous form of petroleum called bitumen, have been referred to as the most damaging project on the planet. According to Greenpeace, emissions from tar sands extraction could grow to between 127 and 140m tonnes by 2020, exceeding the current emissions of Austria, Portugal, Ireland and Denmark. If proposed expansion proceeds,it will result in the loss of vast tracts of boreal forest and peat bogs of a territory the size of England.

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Chilean Bishop at Enel’s Annual General Meeting to Argue Against Big Dams in Patagonia April 28th, 2010

“No to new big dams in Patagonia;  Water should be public again”

Luis Infanti De La Mora, Bishop of Aysén region (Chile), will attend Enel’s Annual General Meeting today to say “no” to a project for the construction of five big dams on the rivers Baker and Pascua, and to get Chilean water back in public hands. The Bishop will be delegated to attend the meeting by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, by initiative of Fondazione Culturale Responsabilità Etica. The Oblates are shareholders in Etica.

“We wanted to involve the international network of religious investors”, explains Ugo Biggeri, the Foundation’s Chairman. “The Oblates are part of Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), a coalition of more than 275 religious orders, based in New York, that submit over 200 shareholders resolutions each year to the AGM’s of US most important companies and they are founding members of the International Interfaith Investment Group (3iG).”

Enel has inherited the big dams projects in Patagonia by Spanish utility Endesa, acquired by Enel in 2009. It’s a project with devastating impacts on a real natural paradise that poses serious risks on the security of dams, since Aysén is a seismic region.

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Earth Day 2010! April 22nd, 2010

April 22nd marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Forty years after the first Earth Day, the world is in greater peril than ever. While climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, it also presents the greatest opportunity – an unprecedented opportunity to build a healthy, prosperous, clean energy economy now and for the future. Consumption patterns also pose a threat. Today’s consumption is undermining the environmental resource base and exacerbating inequalities.

Daniel LeBlanc, OMI – now in Bolivia for the Alternative Climate Summit sent the following for our contemplation and action on Earth Day:

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World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth April 20th, 2010

This week, Bolivian President Evo Morales is convening the People’s World Conference on Climate Change, an alternative to the unwieldy and U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change that fell so far short of expectations last December. NGOs, scientists, activists, indigenous leaders, and representatives of 60 to 70 national governments are coming together for this alternative conference – in all, about 7,500 attendees from 110 countries.

Daniel LeBlanc, OMI – Oblate representative to the UN – is attending the conference and sent this update yesterday:

Cochabamba, Bolivia, 19 April 2010

The Conference officially begins Tuesday morning with President Evo Morales doing the honors.

However, today there were already several events and huge crowds. Fr. Gregorio Iriarte OMI was to give a talk at 4:30, along with 3 other panelists, and so I accompanied him to the stadium where credentials were given to those who had registered through the internet, as well as to those who had neglected to do so. I had already picked up my pass, and Fr. Gregorio is over around 80 years old and had to give a talk, so they let him through. Once they gave him his credentials, he was told that apart from the credentials for those who had already registered and those who had come later, 20,000 credentials had been distributed. There were still long line-ups out on the sidewalks – I estimate between 7 and 8 blocks long – and they had to send to the printer to get more passes printed – so attendance will be good, better than expected.

Please see on-line for much more information in Spanish and in English (choose language) at http://pwccc.wordpress.com/

Read a summary of the positions being advocated by Bolivian President Morales during the conference.

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