From December 3 to 14, 2007, international representatives and heads of states will meet in Bali, Indonesia to address the challenge of setting new parameters of human activity in preparation for the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. The mandate is to limit and prevent further unbridled greenhouse gas emissions into the planet's atmosphere to prevent the unimaginable from becoming the inevitable.
The international environmental movement, in more than 39 countries, will mobilize at the time of the conference, on December 8th, to support, build for and demand a new era of human caring and commitment from world leaders. The planetary community is calling for courageous and unprecedented decisions from governments, from institutions, from all of us. We must develop binding and effective limits on carbon emissions and a global strategy for conversion to renewable energy sources, such as the sun, the wind and the sea, along with appropriate rewards and deterrents.
In the United States, we have the opportunity -- and the responsibility as one of the major contributors to the crisis -- to make December 8th an overwhelming manifestation of hope and determination. The Climate Crisis Coalition will lead the U.S. mobilizing. It will be a day of decentralized activities throughout the country, in concert with international mobilizations.The CCC was founded in 2004 by Pulitzer Prize winning editor, journalist and author of the book on global warming Boiling Point, Ross Gelbspan, and a group of leading environmental, human rights, peace and justice activists..
Professors Roberto Unger and Cornel West have written: “It is not enough to rebel against the lack of justice but we must also rebel against the lack of imagination.” And as Eleanor Roosevelt said: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
This is where we come in.
The beauty of our dream is to re-imagine the possible, to make art, music, poetry, theater, dance -- all our creations and imaginings -- integral to this historic event. To replace the footprint of despair with our imprint of hope. Our vision for December 8th, is the blossoming of activities throughout the country creating an overwhelming manifestation of individual and collective determination to become informed and effective. Our mission is to develop and support policies that will reduce the carbon footprint, while creating millions of jobs throughout the world, and offering economic independence for developing countries. We will address how to change habits in our homes, neighborhoods, schools, jobs, communities, cities, states and on a federal level conscious that the crisis has already had severe implications for those living in the poorest, most vulnerable communities and countries, and that the ice is melting as we write. We need our work as artists to be integrated on all levels into the work of the many community and national organizations taking part in this campaign.
We’ve done it before. In 1982 Dancers for Disarmament and Poets Against the End of the World moved, shook and inspired us as we pushed the world leaders for a sane arms policy, backed up by a massive mobilization during the UN Second Special Session on Disarmament. Artists Call Against US Intervention in Central America, Art Against Apartheid, and more recently Billionaires for Bush, the National Political Hip Hop Convention and so many others, have all moved us to imagine the possible, expanding the dimensions of our movements for peace and justice.
Let us make December 8th a day which our children and grandchildren and their children will look back on as a time when we stopped and started again, to join in unity to take care of our precious resources and this natural world. What choice do we have?
Please sign on as an endorser and let us know how you will be involved. Join with artists in your area, call on your favorite arts or community organization. We call on all to put aside business as usual on December 8th to replace the footprint of greed and despair with an imprint of imagination and hope.
Because We Love This Earth…
Please respond to let me know your interest and we can work together to connect to other artists.
Best,
Kathy Engel
Creative Consultant
Because We Love This Earth, a project of the Climate Crisis Coalition
www.climatecrisiscoalition.org and www.kyotoandbeyond.org
Please send to me Kathy Engel at ellajaja@aol.com
(631 537 5792)
And thanks!