My new book is now published and available here in Paperback and Kindle
This book provides a fresh perspective on the exponential rise in depression and suicide in modern western society. It’s an alternative book for alternative people who have tried conventional medicine or who aren’t interested in treating depression with allopathic options, and who are open to trying other options. Scientists have studied depression is in fact a normal response to a global environmental destruction, with growing scientific peer reviewed papers that confirm our degrading environment affects our mental health. There is an urgent need for humanity to reconnect with nature and change society to become more environmentally friendly. The author offers advice on how to manage depression better with nutritional advice and controversial health hacks, recommended lifestyle changes including learning the art of living after surviving grief, deep trauma, and loss.
The aim is to help the reader see their depression as a calling to look within, connect with their truer inner being and begin to nurture themselves spiritually, mentally and emotionally. Furthermore, this book invites the reader to consider their own place in human evolution and redefine their lost purpose to one that is more aligned to Ecology than to Western Materialism, to become self-empowered, not a victim of depression. We look at talk therapies and radical new alternative therapies for managing depression in a challenging world.
Contents-
Introduction
Poem-Faithful Black Dog
Chapter One- I am Not my Story
Poem-The Exiled Dissidents
Chapter Two-Corporate devolution vs Ecology
Poem-My Friend, My Shadow
Chapter Three-A Brief History of Depression
Poem-The Thief
Chapter Four- The Art of Living
Poem-The Heart’s Compass
Chapter Five- Gluten Free Living, Health the Gut, Heal the Mind
Poem-Patented Flower in a Planet Sized Laboratory
Chapter Six- Health Hacks to Avoid Inflammation and Depression
Poem-Beat Your Drum
Chapter Seven- A Look at Different Talk Therapies
Poem-Illusions of Polarities
Chapter Eight- The Therapeutic Benefits of Entheogens and CBD oil
Poem–Merging Galaxies
Chapter Nine- The Noosphere, Consciousness and Biosphere
Carlita is an independent environmental journalist and project developer who provides information overlooked by mainstream journalism funded by political agendas, since Carlita has worked closely with indigenous groups in Latin America for the last fifteen years.
Poco sabía, que fui testigo involuntario del comienzo de una larga resistencia para las comunidades nacionales de la Amazonía Ecuatoriana. En 2012, en mi cuarto día de mi estadía de tres semanas, en las profundidades de la Amazonía Ecuatoriana, la tranquilidad del bosque fue interrumpida por un helicóptero militar no invitado que aterrizó en el territorio Shiwiar de Jusuintsa alrededor del 21 de agosto. Se suponía que debían pedir permiso a la comunidad de Shiwiar para hacer esto, pero no lo hicieron. Mi corazón comenzó a acelerarse mientras caminábamos hacia estos invitados no invitados. Solo había una cosa en la que podía pensar, “Petroleum”, por qué estaban entrometiéndose en el territorio de Shiwiar sin previo aviso. Compartí mis preocupaciones con la comunidad, fuimos a hablar con los oficiales que dijeron que simplemente estaban mapeando el área, ya que nunca había sido mapeado oficialmente. Les pregunté si era por el petróleo, negaron que lo fuera.
En Octubre de 2012, recibí algunas noticias de última hora desde uno de mis amigos de Shiwiar. Veronica Shiran, gerente de la estación de radio Shiwiar, para todo el norte de Ecuador en la región de Pastaza, me contó lo que se acaba de anunciar a su comunidad hace unas semanas, dijo, “qué significa esto para Shiwiar y para los demás. Las comunidades indígenas del Amazonas están más allá de sus peores pesadillas ‘‘.
El 23 de Octubre de 2018, en la conferencia de Hidrocarburos, en Ecuador, la compañía petrolera PetroAmazonias planea aumentar su producción y extracción de petróleo en la selva amazónica a 700,000 barriles por día hasta el año 2021. Este mes, los ministros del gobierno Ecuatoriano declararon que iban a ingresar a los bloques petroleros 85, 86 y 87. Durante la reunión del sector minero y petrolero se indicó que los bloques petroleros 85 y 86, Carlos Pérez, ministro de Energía y Recursos Naturales No Renovables, declararon ”que no habría problemas para ingresar y profundice en estos bloques porque no hay comunidades indígenas presentes allí y por lo tanto, el impacto sería mínimo”.
El Presidente ecuatoriano, Lenin Moreno, culpas a la situación económica que heredó del predecesor Rafael Correa ya que la deuda acumulada del país era de casi $42 mil millones, sin incluir otros pasivos por valor de $ 8 mil millones. Una herencia con préstamos Estado Unidenses sobre actividades petroleras que afectan la caída de los precios del petróleo, la corrupción en el sector financiero y petrolero del gobierno y las consecuencias devastadoras del terremoto de Abril de 2016.
Sin embargo, la declaración que Carlos Pérez hizo acerca de que los bloques 86 y 87 están desocupados, es una mentira inconveniente. Como está claro, hay tres territorios ancestrales indígenas con comunidades activas afectadas por esta propuesta.
Personalmente, he trabajado con el Shiwiar desde 2011 y envié muchos voluntarios al territorio de Shiwiar. También me quedé con el Shiwiar y tuve que volar en un pequeño avión apache durante una hora y media, solo para llegar a este increíble hotspot de biodiversidad en las profundidades del Amazonas.
Varios reclamos serios deben ser destacados aquí. En primer lugar, Carlos Pérez y el gobierno Ecuatoriano están ignorando el hecho obvio de que estos territorios están ocupados por tres comunidades importantes, Shiwiar, Sapora y Achuar.
En segundo lugar, no han podido consultar legalmente a las comunidades indígenas ante todo, antes de cualquier propuesta pública o conferencia de cualquier actividad industrial. Los grupos indígenas en Ecuador han sido reconocidos en las Naciones Unidas, donde existe un acuerdo, no vinculante, que brinda a los grupos indígenas la oportunidad de defender sus vidas, sus tierras y su cultura. A lo largo de la Declaración, se garantiza el derecho a un proceso de “Consentimiento libre, previo e informado” para los pueblos indígenas cuando se enfrentan a decisiones, proyectos o leyes de corporaciones o gobiernos que puedan afectar a su población y / o territorio. El Artículo 57, punto 7 de la Constitución de Ecuador de 2008 garantiza una consulta libre, previa e informada, dentro de un plazo razonable; sin embargo, esto no requiere consentimiento (y no es vinculante). El Artículo 82, se refiere explícitamente a la consulta ambiental, en el caso de una decisión estatal que podría afectar el medio ambiente, y especifica información amplia y oportuna para los afectados. Sin embargo, incluso si hay una mayoría que se opone al proyecto en cuestión, todavía puede llevarse a cabo con la condición de que se minimice el impacto en los afectados y en el ecosistema.
En cuarto lugar, Ecuador reescribió su Constitución en 2007-2008 y fue ratificado por referéndum por el pueblo de Ecuador en Septiembre de 2008. La nueva Constitución Ecuatoriana incluye un Capítulo de los Derechos para la Naturaleza. En lugar de tratar a la naturaleza como una propiedad bajo la ley, los artículos de Derechos para Naturaleza, reconocen que la naturaleza en todas sus formas de vida tiene el derecho de existir, persistir, mantener y regenerar sus ciclos vitales, y la gente: tiene la autoridad legal para hacer cumplir estos derechos y el nombre de los ecosistemas. El propio ecosistema puede ser nombrado como el victima.
Finalmente, el Acuerdo de Escazú fue adoptado el 4 de Marzo de 2018, en San José, Costa Rica, por representantes de 24 países, incluido Ecuador. El tratado implementa el Principio 10 de la Declaración de Río, adoptado en la Cumbre de la Tierra en 1992, al establecer salvaguardas para Derechos de acceso a la información, participación pública y acceso a la justicia en materia ambiental. El acuerdo también impone obligaciones específicas para proteger de las amenazas y ataques a las personas que defienden los derechos humanos relacionados con el medio ambiente, para investigar y castigar cualquier agresión contra estas personas y para garantizar sus derechos a la vida e integridad personal, así como los derechos a Libertad de reunión pacífica, movimiento, expresión y asociación.
“Todas las personas tienen derecho a un ambiente limpio y saludable, asegurándose de que todas las voces puedan escucharse cuando sea el momento de tomar decisiones importantes que nos afectan a todos”, Erika Guevara Rosas, Directora de Amnistía Internacional para las Américas.
El video anterior es una conferencia de prensa programada el 23 de octubre, 2018 para que las nacionalidades indígenas de los territorios Ecuatorianos del Amazonas rechacen la XI Ronda del petróleo y las declaraciones de Carlos Pérez del ministerio de hidrocarburos.
Los presidentes de 7 nacionalidades de Pastaza y Morona Santiago con los presidentes de Confeniae, Conaie, expresaron su rechazo rotundo de la licitación de bloques petroleros en la Amazonía sur-central.
Edison Gualinga portavoz de la comunidad Shiwiar
Nosotros, los Shiwiar, tenemos el deber de poder transponer esta manifestación de público de manera progresiva, estamos aquí con nuestros colegas y comunidades unidas, los Achuar, Confeniae, Conaie y los representantes Sapara. Hemos planeado presentar nuestra asamblea al gobierno Ecuatoriano. Entendemos que el gobierno está negociando para poder hacer lo que es la nueva compañía petrolera en los territorios del sudeste de las Amazonas. Entendemos que quieren hacerlo en los bloques de petróleo 86 y 87, lo que significa que el territorio Sapora y Shiwiar se verán afectados directamente. Por lo tanto, por este dolor, no somos un sacrificio y estamos profundamente preocupados. Hemos estado resistiendo esta explotación durante mucho tiempo, pero ahora ha llegado a un punto crítico. Al sur, en esta provincia de Pastaza, contamos con catorce comunidades y 4 asociaciones, las comunidades de los nacionales de Shiwiar y Sapara.
Nuestra demostración es clara, compañeros, nosotros, el Shiwiar de Ecuador, lucharemos cuando ingrese petróleo para evitar comunidades fragmentadas y sitios forestales después de que las compañías petroleras los hayan impactado. La nacionalidad Shiwiar de Ecuador nunca permitirá la entrada de petróleo, ¿por qué? Debido a que vivimos en la naturaleza, dependemos de la naturaleza, porque ningún ser humano es independiente de la naturaleza, lo sabemos muy bien porque cada vez que han estado perforando causaron la contaminación devastadora de siete compañías misioneras de algunos superestados extranjeros, lo que hace que sean irreversibles Contaminación ambiental.
La nacionalidad Shiwiar de Ecuador, cuenta con doscientas treinta y ocho mil hectáreas donde nunca podríamos permitir, enteria de estas petroleras. También trabajamos en programas de conservación para proteger y preservar el medio ambiente. Nos reunimos a principios de este año, del 20 al 21 de julio de 2018 para 14 comunidades y 4 asociados, y creamos soluciones.
Rechazamos ninguna consulta previa de nuestra nacionalidad y territorio en 2012 y cualquier otra consulta previa o solicitud de que esto se reconozca en el futuro.
Rechazamos rotundamente la nueva ronda de petróleo en el sureste que pretende registrarse en el gobierno nacional sobre nuestro territorio ancestral sin consulta previa con nosotros, el pueblo Shiwiar.
El Shiwiar de Ecuador no acepta y rechaza categóricamente que Petroamazonias no tiene una consulta previa con nuestro pueblo, porque toda la consulta fundamentada es transparente y suficiente. Hasta ahora todo refleja solo corrupción. ¿Dónde una vez fuimos consultados o informados antes de cualquier actividad y cuándo han recibido consultas nuestras comunidades o asociaciones? Rechazamos esta falta de respeto por nuestra comunidad y nuestra asociación, por no buscar una consulta previa con nosotros. Los hombres Shiwiar, las mujeres Shiwiar, los niños, las niñas Shiwiar, las personas Shiwiar quisieran que las compañías petroleras respeten nuestro territorio, porque sin este territorio no podemos vivir.
No permitimos que las compañías petroleras ingresen y le digo a Carlos Pérez del ministerio, no vamos a dar un paso atrás para que las compañías petroleras puedan ingresar, siempre continuaremos esta lucha porque tenemos los derechos para proteger nuestro territorio. No es un territorio que exista con el único propósito de explotaciones petroleras o minerales. Es una gran universidad de naturaleza y vida para esta comunidad, tenemos nuestros propios derechos en nuestros territorios, los mismos derechos para la educación y la salud y siete aspectos más, por lo tanto, con respecto a los derechos para elegir esta forma de vida.
El mapa anterior muestra claramente que los reclamos de Carlos Pérez están desocupados y, por lo tanto, causarían un impacto mínimo, de hecho, están ocupados por los Achuar, Shiwiar, Sapora y Kichwa.
Nema Grefa portavoz de la nacionalidad y asociación Sapora.
Soy el presidente y representante de la nacionalidad Sapora, y rechazamos la perforación del bloque 86, 87, porque este territorio nos pertenece, no pertenece al gobierno. Nos sentimos profundamente afectados si el territorio Saparo es ingresado por las compañías petroleras, y así el territorio Shiwiar se ve directamente afectado. Como resultado, hemos unificado todas las nacionalidades y rechazamos la explotación de estos territorios. Al igual que las nacionalidades de los nativos americanos en los Estados Unidos, estamos organizados para que nuestros territorios no se ingresen. En este caso, queremos recordar al gobierno que nuestra nacionalidad Sapora tiene un patrimonio, por lo tanto, el gobierno debe respetarlo.
Después de reconocer esto, también deben respetar todos los territorios indígenas.
Rechazamos como nacionalidad que si quieren entrar, o si nos abren fuego, nos levantamos aquí para decirles, la razón misma por la que ignoraron la consulta previa con nosotros o con el Shiwiar, para esto tenemos razón, una lanza, con esta lanza, continuaremos resistiendo. Nuestra nacionalidad Sapora quiere que el gobierno y el ministro señor Carlos Pérez respeten nuestro territorio porque vivimos con la naturaleza. El ministro dice que nadie vive en este territorio, pero hay cinco comunidades que viven en este territorio, es nuestro territorio y la biodiversidad tiene un valor de preservación para el futuro del planeta, no para que lo utilicen es como un mercado al que convertir. dinero. Por eso tengo una amenaza, que ellos la entiendan es nuestro territorio. Siempre piensan que pueden explotar nuestro territorio sin limitaciones, si permitimos que continúe, lo que sucede es que no habrá más biodiversidad o jungla para el futuro del planeta. Es nuestra responsabilidad protegerlo y proteger nuestro territorio.
Gracias a todos los periodistas que están aquí, en este momento es un trabajo fundamental que las personas de la región Amazónica y el mundo necesitan para conocer esta realidad. La Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador representa y apoya a nuestra gente, apoyando esta moción, apoyando esta voz que tienen estas personas y sus derechos humanos. Hasta que se respeten los derechos de nuestras nacionalidades. Nuestra historia ancestral nos dice que hemos muerto al ser ignorados y que hemos muerto al ser discriminados, esto es lo que soportaron nuestros padres y antepasados, ahora esta es la misma historia para nosotros, y más de 525 años de lucha continuamos con ella.
Hoy apoyamos la nacionalidad Sapara y las nacionalidades Shiwiar que hacen que estos bloques 86 y 87 se conozcan claramente como sus territorios. Cuando el ministro de Hidrocarburos, Carlos Pérez declaró que no hay indígenas en estos territorios, que no hay comunidades, ¿qué decepcion? Claramente, los territorios de nuestra gente comunal están en estos bloques y están profundamente afectados. La nacionalidad Shiwiar, si no también hasta la nacionalidad Kichwa en este caso, CONAIE está apoyando a estas comunidades. Estamos atentos a los derechos de nuestras nacionalidades y comunidades que crees que puedes comprarnos y quitarnos. Recuerde que nuestro trabajo es defender la cosmovisión y la visión del mundo de las personas de las nacionalidades. Somos los guardianes de CONAIE, por lo que estas solicitudes y nuestros territorios permanecen protegidos. No puedes simplemente entrar en ellos, debes respetar y reconocer los derechos de las nacionalidades de los pueblos. Muchas gracias.
Julián, Portavoz de la Nacionalidad Achuar del Ecuador.
Donde estamos está en Morona Santiago. Gracias a todas las nacionalidades que se han unido hoy aquí, Nema Grefa, Andrés Tapia, Edison Gualinga, Shiwiar y otros que nos apoyan. La nacionalidad Achuar quisiera rechazar el bloque 86 que está afectando a nuestros y amenazando con dañar los territorios de las comunidades Shiwiar y Saparo y también no solo está afectando a sus territorios, sino también a nuestro territorio Achuar. Esto se debe a que nuestras comunidades están contiguas a la nacionalidad Shiwiar. Por lo tanto, decimos no a las compañías petroleras, madereras y mineras que no pueden ingresar, por lo tanto, en aras de la preservación de nuestras nacionalidades y territorios unidos, los Achuar son bienvenidos si desean ayudarnos a preservar el bosque y a nosotros mismos, luego bienvenidos, Seamos amables con las anclas del bosque de nuestros antepasados, que viven en estos territorios. Las compañías petroleras no tienen ningún negocio para el desarrollo aquí en el Amazonas, simplemente han dejado la contaminación en la naturaleza en todas partes, esta es la razón por la que rechazamos su presencia. Entonces, por lo tanto, continuaremos apoyando estas nacionalidades, que son entendidas por las compañías petroleras. Por lo tanto, el presidente, Lenin Moreno, tiene que entender, tienen que respetar las decisiones de las nacionalidades, también el ministro Carlos Pérez, de hidrocarburos, tiene que entender esto, porque vivimos con nuestros propios planes de vida. Con nuestra propia cosmovisión en nuestros territorios, cumpliendo con nuestros planes de vida, que es el proyecto profundo de cada nacionalidad. Así ha sido siempre como estamos unidos aquí, unidos por las nacionalidades para defender este territorio. Gracias
Andrés Tapia portavoz de CONFENIAE
El ministro de hidrocarburos, Carlos Pérez, quien hizo una declaración sobre los bloques petroleros 86 y 87, dijo que el impacto en estos bloques sería mínimo porque no hay comunidades allí. Rechazamos esta afirmación, hecha sin fundamento, conocemos la dinámica de las comunidades. En este caso, ¿qué comunidades están presentes en estos bloques?
Bueno, para comenzar, el territorio Shiwiar está en el Bloque 86, que consta de cuatro comunidades, también Juinitsa, y el territorio Sapara, el territorio nacional Achuar en el bloque 85, y en el bloque 87, y la comunidad Jaco Jaco que es Kichwa. Por lo tanto, la declaración de Pérez es una declaración que no tiene fundamento y, lógicamente, solo se hace por el interés obvio de las empresas petroleras que buscan explotar estos bloques petroleros. El otro lado de nuestra falta de acuerdo, del estado de la realidad de la vida es de las nacionalidades, en nuestras comunidades, cada uno de nosotros tiene planes de vida y planes de manera fluida. Nuestras culturas nuestras existen, que consiste en personas, comunidades, familiares, familias, hombres y mujeres. Hay territorios de las áreas mejor conservadas de bosque lluvioso y puntos calientes de biodiversidad con nuestras nacionalidades que actúan como guardianes del bosque y las preservan, Achuar, Shiwiar, Sappora y Kichwa tienen nuestros propios planes para mantener la conservación. Esto es lo que deseamos expresar por la lucha de nuestras nacionalidades cuando enfrentamos la explotación.
En segundo lugar, queremos expresar nuestro total apoyo a las nacionalidades en Pastaza para estos tres nacionales especiales, Shiwiar, Sappara y Achuar, quienes en este momento están dando su rara aparición en la prensa para hacer este llamado. Las 7 nacionalidades de Pastaza y las 10 organizaciones de Pastaza y Morona Santiago, el 23 de Octubre en Quito, en las afueras del hotel Marriott, junto con los presidentes de Confeniae, Conaie expresaron su rechazo rotundo a la licitación de los bloques petroleros en el sureste Amazonas. Ahora los presidentes dicen, ¿cuáles son las soluciones que podemos construir para el congreso Kichwa y Pastaza? Apropiadamente, la nacionalidad Kichwa desea mantener su territorio libre de contaminación ambiental. La forma en que nuestras 7 nacionalidades están en Pastaza es muy enfática en que esta exploración no se realice.
–
– Finalmente, hablemos con el gobierno de Lenin Moreno, lo que sabemos que el ministro no va a rechazar en nuestra solicitación, nos dirigimos al presidente republicano y queremos saber qué tipo de actividad, prospector, socialización, es muy claro. No se nos dio un proceso de consulta previa, no se conoce ningún tipo de socialización con nuestras comunidades, o no se ha realizado una consulta previa con estas comunidades afectadas, en esta área, y como resultado de esto, están directamente indignados. Si continuamos con nuestra denuncia nacional e internacional, como la semana pasada cuando presentamos esta carta abierta al público. Entonces, hagámoslo y tomemos medidas a nivel internacional y nacional. No más concesiones para empresas petroleras y mineras en el Amazonas. Continuaremos defendiendo nuestros territorios. Gracias
El valor ecológico de la Selva Amazónica.
La dependencia global del petróleo nos hace a todos responsables de hacer algo para proteger el Amazonas, ya que la dependencia mundial del petróleo es una de las principales causas de su rápida destrucción, lo que significa que las decisiones para sus medidas de conservación recaen en la comunidad internacional. No solo con el gobierno ecuatoriano o con los otros países que ocupa el Amazonas. Las selvas tropicales son la base de más de 5,000 productos de hierbas medicinales, curas para el cáncer y fuentes populares de alimentos, muebles y ropa.
En términos de tiempo, la selva tropical del Amazonas tardó 3.500 millones de años en evolucionar y convertirse en la maravilla del mundo de la biodiversidad rica en especies. Si se destruye, entonces desaparece para siempre, nada puede replicar o reemplazar eso, menos otros 3,500 millones de años libres de humanos. La parte occidental de la cuenca del Amazonas es uno de los puntos calientes de biodiversidad más ricos del mundo; El nivel de biodiversidad en la Amazonía Ecuatoriana es especialmente sorprendente. Para ponerlo en perspectiva, el parque nacional Yasuní contiene alrededor de 600 especies de aves y 170 especies de mamíferos, 1,100 especies de árboles en un área de un cuarto de kilómetro cuadrado, y eso es más especies que en todos los EE. UU. Y Canadá combinados. La mayoría de las personas no se dan cuenta de que gran parte del carbono liberado cuando se destruye una selva tropical se encuentra en el suelo de turba debajo de los árboles, no solo en los árboles sino en la mayor parte de los suelos de turba debajo de los cuales se almacenan miles de toneladas de carbono. Por eso, son invaluables sumideros de carbono, debajo de los árboles, y esto es clave para ayudar a regular el clima. Esto significa que cuando se produce la deforestación, todo el carbono que previamente estaba encerrado en el suelo de turba debajo de la selva tropical se libera a la atmósfera.
El Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica establece que la Amazonia contiene más del 50 por ciento de las especies de plantas y animales del mundo. No debemos descontar el valor de sus secretos no descubiertos para la ciencia médica y para la humanidad, ya que las personas están descubriendo curas a base de plantas para el cáncer que provienen de las plantas de la selva, hay más de 60,000 especies de plantas en la Amazonía y solo el 3 por ciento ha Estudiado para propiedades medicinales. Muchos de nuestros alimentos provienen de la selva tropical junto con otros materiales importantes. Existen miles de especies de plantas y animales aún por descubrir, pero los estamos destruyendo a un ritmo que es más rápido de lo que los estamos descubriendo. Por lo tanto, la opinión y las acciones de todos son relevantes y juegan un papel importante en la defensa de este ecosistema clave, ya que su devastación será la devastación de todos nosotros si no intervenimos para defender lo que queda de la selva amazónica.
Si desea publicar partes de este artículo en otro lugar donde haga referencia al enlace de la fuente a esta página y a este artículo, también puedo proporcionar Transcripciones en español. Gracias
Little did I know, that I was an involuntary witness to the beginning of a long resistance for the national communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon. In 2012, on my fourth day of my three week stay, deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, the tranquillity of the forest was interrupted by an uninvited military helicopter that landed in the Shiwiar territory of Jusuintsa around the 21st of August. They were supposed to ask the Shiwiar community permission to do this, but neglected to do so. My heart began racing as we walked towards these uninvited guests. There was only one thing I could think of as to why they were intruding upon the Shiwiar territory unannounced, ‘Petroleum’. I shared my concerns with the community, we went to talk to the officers whom claimed they were simply mapping the area, as it had never officially been mapped before. I asked them if it was for oil, they denied it was.
In October, 2012 I received some breaking news from one of my Shiwiar friends. Veronica Shiran, manager of the Shiwiar radio station for the whole of northern Ecuador in the Pastaza region, relayed to me, what was just announced to her community a few weeks ago, she said, “what this means for the Shiwiar and for the other indigenous communities of the Amazon is beyond their worst nightmares”.
On October 23, 2018, at the Hydrocarbons conference,Ecuador, Petroleum Company PetroAmazonias plans to increase its crude production and extraction of oil in the Amazon rain forest to 700,000 barrels per day until the year 2021. This month, the Ecuadorian government ministers declared they were going to enter oil blocks 85, 86, and 87. During the meeting of the mining and oil sector stated that Oil Blocks 85 and 86, Carlos Pérez, minister of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources declared there would be no problems to enter and drill in these blocks because there are no indigenous communities present there and therefore the impact would be minimal.
Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno blames that the economic situation he inherited from predecessor Rafael Correa and that the country’s accumulating debt stood at nearly $42 billion, without including other liabilities worth $8 billion. An inheritance with US loans on oil activities affecting the fall in oil prices, corruption in the government financial and oil sector and the devastating consequences of the April, 2016 earthquake.
However, the declaration Carlos Pérez made about blocks 86 and 87 being unoccupied is an inconvenient lie. Since, it is quite clear there are three indigenous ancestral territories with active communities on them affected by this proposal.
Personally, I have worked with the Shiwiar since 2011 and I sent many volunteers to the Shiwiar territory. I also stayed with the Shiwiar and had to fly in a small apache plane for an hour and a half, just to get to this amazing biodiversity hotspot deep in the Amazon.
Several serious grievances need to be highlighted here. Firstly, Carlos Pérez and the Ecuadorian Government are ignoring the obvious fact that these territories are occupied bv three important communities, the Shiwiar, the Sapora and Achuar.
Secondly, they have failed to legally consult the indigenous communities first and foremost, prior to any public proposals or conferences of any industrial activities. Indigenous groups in Ecuador have been recognised under the United Nations to which there exists a non-binding agreement, which gives indigenous groups the chance to defend their lives, land, and culture. Guaranteed throughout the Declaration is the right to a process of “Free, Prior and Informed Consent” for indigenous peoples when faced with decisions, projects, or legislation by corporations or government that may affect their people and/or territory. Article 57, point 7 of the 2008 Constitution of Ecuador guarantees free, prior and informed consultation, within a reasonable period; however, this does not require consent (and is not binding). Article 82 refers explicitly to environmental consultation, in the case of a state decision which might affect the environment, and specifies broad and timely information for those affected. However, even if there is a majority opposing the project in question, it may still be carried out on the condition that the impact on those affected and the ecosystem is minimised.
Thirdly, Ecuador rewrote its Constitution in 2007-2008 and it was ratified by referendum by the people of Ecuador in September 2008. The new Ecuadorian Constitution includes a Chapter for the Rights for Nature. Rather than treating nature as property under the law, Rights for Nature articles acknowledge that nature in all its life forms has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles. And the people – have the legal authority to enforce these rights on behalf of ecosystems. The ecosystem itself can be named as the defendant.
Finally, The Escazu Agreement was adopted on March 4, 2018, in San Jose, Costa Rica, by representatives of 24 countries including Ecuador, the treaty implements Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration, adopted at the Earth Summit in 1992, by establishing safeguards for access rights to the information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters. The agreement also imposes specific obligations to protect from threats and attacks to people who defend human rights related to the environment, to investigate and punish any aggression against these people, and to guarantee their rights to life and personal integrity, as well as the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, movement, expression and association.
“All people have a right to a clean and healthy environment, making sure that all voices can be heard when it is time to take important decisions that affect us all,”-Erika Guevara Rosas, Americas Director of Amnesty International.
The above video is a press conference set on the 23rd of October for the Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon Territories to Reject The XI Oil Round and the Declarations of Carlos Perez of the hydrocarbon ministry-
The presidents of 7 nationalities of Pastaza and Morona Santiago with the presidents of Confeniae, Conaie, expressed their resounding rejection of the bidding of oil blocks in the south central Amazon.
Edison Gualinga spokesperson for the Shiwiar Community
We the Shiwiar, have a duty to be able to transpose this manifestation of public in a progressive manner, we are here with our colleagues and united communities, the Achuar, and Confeniae, Conaie and representatives Sapara. We have planned to present our assembly to the Ecuadorian government. We understand that the government is negotiating to be able to make what is the new oil company in the South eastern territories of the Amazonias. We understand they want to do it in oil blocks 86 and 87, This means that the territorial Sapora, and Shiwiar, will be affected directly. Therefore, for this pain, we are not a sacrifice and we are deeply concerned. We have been resisting this exploitation for a long time but now it has come to a head. To the South in this province of Pastaza, we count fourteen communities and 4 associations, the communities of the Shiwiar and Sapora nationals.
Our demonstration is clear, companions, we, the Shiwiar of Ecuador, will fight when you enter petroleum to avoid fragmented communities and forest sites after the oil companies have impacted them. The Shiwiar nationality of Ecuador will never allow the entry of oil, why? Because we live in nature, we are dependent on nature, because no human being is independent of nature, we know it very well because every time they have been drilling they caused devastating contamination of seven mission companies of some foreign super states, thus making irreversible environment pollution.
The Nationality Shiwiar Ecuador, have two hundred and thirty eight thousand hectares where we could never allow, entry of these oil companies. We also work in conservation programs to protect and preserve the environment. We assembled earlier this year in July 20-21, 2018 for 14 communities and 4 associates and we made solutions.
We reject no prior consultation of our nationality and territory in 2012 and what other prior consultation or request that this is acknowledged in the future.
We strongly rejects the new round of oil in the south-east that pretends to register in the national government over our ancestral territory without prior consultation to us, the Shiwiar people.
–
The Shiwiar of Ecuador do not accept and categorically rejects that Petroamazonias has no prior consultation with our people, because all the prior informed consultation is transparent and sufficient. Everything so far reflects only corruption. where once were we consulted or informed prior to any activities? And when have our our communities or associations received consultations? We reject this lack of respect for our community and our association, for not seeking prior consultation with us. Shiwiar men, Shiwiar women, children, Shiwiar girls, the Shiwiar people would like to see oil companies respect our territory, because without this territory we can not live.
We do not allow oil companies to enter and I tell Carlos Perez of the ministry, we are not going to step back so that the oil companies can enter, we will always continue this fight because we have the rights to protect our territory. It is not a territory that exists for the sole purpose of oil or mineral exploits. It is a great university of nature and life for this community, we have our own rights in our territories, the same rights for education and health and seven more aspects, therefore regarding the rights to choose this way of life.
The above map clearly shows that blocks Carlos Perez claims are unoccupied and therefore would cause minimal impact are in fact occupied by the Achuar, Shiwiar, Sapora and Kichwa.
Nema Grefa spokesperson for the Sapora nationality and association
I am the president and representative the Sapora nationality, and we reject the drilling of block 86, 87, because this territory belongs to us, it does not belong to the government. We will be profoundly affected if the territory Saparo is entered by oil companies, and so the Shiwiar territory be directly affected. As a result we have unified all the nationalities and reject exploitation of these territories. Similar to as nationalities of Native Americans in the United States, we are organized so that our territories are not entered. In this case, we want to remind the government that our Sapora nationality has a patrimony, therefore the government must respect this. After recognizing this, they also need to respect all indigenous territories.
We reject as a nationality that if they want to enter, or if they open fire upon us, we get up here to say, the very reason they have ignored prior consulting with us or with the Shiwiar, we have a spear, with this spear we will continue to resist. Our nationality Sapora want the government and the Minister Senor Carlos Perez to respect our territory because we live with nature. The minister say’s nobody lives in this territory, but there are, five communities living in this territory, it is our territory and the biodiversity has a preservation value for the future of the planet, not for them to use is like a market to convert to money. That is why I have a threat, for them to understand is our territory. They always think they can exploit our territory without limitations, if we allowed that to continue, what happens is there will be no more biodiversity or jungle for the future of the planet. It is our responsibility to protect it and protect our territory.
Thanks for all the journalists who are here, right now it is a fundamental job that people of the Amazon region and the world need to know this reality. The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador represents and supports our people, supporting this motion, supporting this voice that these people have and their human rights. Until the rights of our nationalities are respected. Our ancestral history tells that we have died while being ignored and we have died while being discriminated, this is what our parents and ancestors endured, now this is the same story for us, and more than 525 years of struggle we continue with it.
Today we support the Sapara nationality and the Shiwiar nationalities that are making these block 86 and 87 clearly known as their territories. When the minister of hydrocarbons, Carlos Perez declared that there are no indigenous people in these territories, that there are no communities, what a deception? Clearly, the territories of our communal people are on these blocks and are deeply affected. The Shiwiar nationality, if not also up to Kichwa nationality in this case, CONAIE are supporting these communities. We are vigilant, of rights of our nationalities and communities that you think you can buy and take from us. Remember, that our work is to defend the cosmovision and world view of the people’s of the nationalities. We are the guardians of CONAIE, so that these requests, and our territories remain protected. You cannot just walk into them, you need to respect and acknowledge the rights of the peoples nationalities. Thank you so much.
Julian, Spokesperson for the Achuar Nationality of Ecuador-
Where we are is in Morona Santiago, Thanks to all of the nationalities united here today, Nema Grefa, Andrés Tapia, Edison Gualinga, the Shiwiar, and others who are supporting us. The Achuar nationality would like to reject block 86 which are affecting our and threatening to damage the territories of the Shiwiar and Saparo communities and also it is not only affecting their territories, but also our Achuar territory. This is because our communities are adjoining the Shiwiar nationality. Therefore we say no to oil, wood and mining companies who cannot enter, therefore in the interest of the preservation of our united nationalities and territories, the Achuar’s is you are welcome if you want to help us preserve the forest and ourselves, then welcome, let us be gentle with the forest of our ancestors anchors, who are living in these territories. The oil companies do not have any business for development here in the Amazon, they have simply left contamination in nature every where they have been, this is the reason we reject their presence. So, therefore, we will continue to support these nationalities, which are understood by oil companies. Therefore, the president, Lenin Moreno, has to understand, they have to respect the decisions of the nationalities, also the minister Carlos Perez, of hydrocarbons, has to understand this, because we live with our own plans for life. With our own cosmovision in our territories, fulfilling our life plans, which is the profound project of each nationality. That has always been how we are united here, united by the nationalities to defend this territory. Thank you
The minister of hydrocarbons, Carlos Perez who made a declaration regarding the oil blocks 86 and 87, said there would be minimal impact in these blocks because there are no communities there. We reject this statement, made without foundation, we know the dynamics of the communities. In this case, what communities are present in these blocks?
Well, to start with the Shiwiar territory is in Block 86, consisting of four communities, also Juinitsa, and the Sapara territory, the Achuar national territory in block 85, and in block 87, and Jaco Jaco community that is Kichwa. Therefore, the declaration of Perez is a statement that has no fundementality and logically is only made for the obvious interest of the oil companies that seek to exploit these oil blocks. The other side of our lack of agreement, of the state of the reality of the life is of the nationalities, in our communities, each one of us have plans for life and plans in a fluent manner. Our our cultures exist, consisting of people, communities, relatives, families, men and women. There are territories of the best preserved areas of rainforest and biodiversity hotspots with our nationalities acting as guardians of the forest and preserving them, Achuar, Shiwiar, Sappora and Kichwa have our own plans to maintain conservation. This is what we wish to express for the struggle of our nationalities when we face exploitation.
Secondly, we want to express our total support to the nationalities in Pastaza for these special three nationals, Shiwiar, Sappara and Achuar who at this moment are giving their rare press appearance, to make this appeal. The 7 nationalities of Pastaza and the 10 organizations of Pastaza and in Morona Santiago, on the 23 of October in Quito outside the Marriott hotel, with the presidents of Confeniae, Conaie expressed their resounding rejection of the bidding of oil blocks in the south-eastern Amazon. Now the presidents say, what are the solution we can build for the Kichwa and Pastaza congress. Fittingly,the Kichwa nationality wish to keep their territory free of environmental pollution. The way our 7 nationalities are in Pastaza is very emphatic that this exploration is not realized.
–
– Finally, let us address Lenin Moreno’s government, what we know the minister is not going to repel back at our appeal, we address the Republican president and we want to know what kind of activity, prospector, socialization, to be very clear of the we were not given a prior consultation process, there is no knowledge of any type of socialization with our communities, or have there been no prior consultation with these affected communities, in this area, and as a result of this they are directly outraged. If we continue our national and international denunciation, like last week when we presented this, open letter to the public. So let’s do it and take action internationally as well as nationally. No more concession for oil and mining companies in the Amazon. We will continue to defend our territories. Thank you
The Ecological Value of the Amazon Rainforest.
The global reliance on oil makes all of us responsible for doing something to protect the Amazon, since the world’s dependence on petroleum is one of the major causes of its rapid destruction, which again means the decisions for its conservation measures lay with the international community, not just with the Ecuadorian government or with the other countries that the Amazon occupies. Rainforests are the basis for more than 5,000 internationally consumed products from herbal medicines, cures for cancer and popular food sources, furniture and clothing.
In terms of time, it took 3,500 million years for the Amazon rainforest to evolve and grow into the species-rich biodiversity hotspot wonder of the world. If it is destroyed, then it is gone forever, nothing can replicate or replace that, short of another 3,500 million human-free years. The western part of the Amazon Basin is one of the richest biodiversity hotspots in the world; the level of biodiversity in the Ecuadorian Amazon is especially astounding. Just to put it into perspective, Yasuni national park contains around 600 species of birds and 170 species of mammals, 1,100 species of trees all in one quarter square kilometre area, and that is more species than in all of the U.S. and Canada, combined. Most people do not realise that much of the carbon released when a rainforest is destroyed is in the peat soil below the trees, it is not just in the trees but most of it is in the peat soils below which store thousands of tons of carbon, so they are invaluable carbon sinks, below the trees and this is key to help to regulating the climate. This means when deforestation occurs, all the carbon that was previously locked up in the peat soil below the rainforest is released into the atmosphere.
The Convention on Biological Diversity states that the Amazon contains more than 50 percent of the world’s plant and animal species. We must not discount the value of its undiscovered secrets for medical science and for humankind, as already, people are discovering plant-based cures for cancer that come from rainforest plants, there are over 60,000 plant species in the Amazon and only 3 percent have been studied for medicinal properties. Many of our foods come from the rainforest along with other important materials. There are thousands of undiscovered species of plants and animals still in existence, but we are destroying them at a pace which is faster than we are discovering them. Therefore, everyone’s opinion and actions are relevant and play on important role in defending this key ecosystem, as its devastation will be the devastation of all of us if we do not step in to defend what remains of the Amazon Rainforest.
If you wish to publish parts of this article else where please reference the source link to this page and to this article, I also can provide Spanish Transcripts. Thank you.
It is definitely a fundamental truth that ‘needing and having’ are the current basis of what drives Capitalism and Globalization. While we are in November between Halloween and Black Friday, the Westernised human being takes on the role of the dark predatory zombie programmed consumer, a creature that consumes material things and spews out plastic garbage and pollutants into the environment. In one year, Americans produced 255 million tons of waste per year, filling landfill sites and oceans with islands of plastic the size of Texas. Out of that, only 87 million tons of the waste gets recycled, that’s about 34 percent.
U.S. crude oil extraction reached over 10 million barrels a day this year, 2018. Globally, oil production is at 3.5 billion barrels per day with politicians and their media puppets placing emphasis conveniently on emissions from vehicles and industries, rather than focusing on reducing the consumption of oil which is at a record breaking high. There is no excuse now to keep ignoring the Water Fuel cell car which Honda, Hyunda, Toyota and Genopax have already made available on the market. The problem is that the governments and corporations conveniently ignore clean fuel alternatives by either not giving people patents for the new technology or not financially supporting the infrastructure of new rechargeable stations for Waterfuel cell cars and other clean energy cars.
This is one reason why the Amazon rainforest will be non-existent in less than 20 years, as it disappears at a rate of 32 million acres per year, as the oil and gas under the soil is extracted, this year Ecuador just announced they want to double their extraction of oil from the Amazon, because of the huge debt that President Correa overspent and the April 2016 Earthquake set the country back into further debt. While we could be using water fuel cell cars, solar, electric or compressed air cars as alternatives. Governments pretend to be concerned, focused on carbon credits and carbon tax, which makes them and their banks trillions of dollars out of taxing hot air. While, it’s oil extraction that we really need to be reducing, ideally we need to stop using oil immediately, so that the rainforests, which contain over fifty percent of the world’s biodiversity, have a slim chance to survive, which contributes to keeping the Planet’s biosphere in balance.
Photo copyright of author. Amazon, Ecuador 2012
The world conception of this materialistic age is anthropocentric just where it should not be and not anthropocentric just where it should be. That is, it orientates the world by reference to man in matters where such orientation is nonsense, a nonsense deriving partly from vanity-and it does not orientate the world by reference to being of man in matters where being of man is, beyond all doubt, decisive and characteristic for the whole combined process of cosmic evolution.– Dr. Gunther Wachsmuth.
Governments have built values around material wealth, no value is placed on nature, aside from compartmentalization of blocks of greenery for aesthetics, nature is not valued for its necessary preservation of ecological wealth. Ecosystems are presently in collapse as a result of the way corporations and governments undervalue and exploit nature, while we are at a critical point where we must preserve nature and its life giving properties.
A few ecological entrepreneurs are beginning to open up plastic free food stores around the globe, to address the plastic waste problem, plastic is also a bi-product of the oil industry. Some environmentally conscious people are campaigning to bring new energy alternatives to the market to move away from fossil fuels, we now have the water fuel cell car and other cutting edge technologies available on the market, all that is required is for environmentalists to campaign for the infrastructure to evolve country to country to support these alternatives.
Another way to save the planet from ourselves is by putting financial value on ecological wealth, yet to some, this is an abstract concept in terms of human understanding of how much work and production goes on in the mechanisms of goods and services produced by ecosystems in nature, we take it for granted or are simply ecologically illiterate and encouraged to be removed from nature. We pay no attention to it because we are so disconnected from observing nature closely. We don’t think about the consequences of how much rubbish we generate each week or where that goes. If you take time to think about how insane a concept it is to constantly generate rubbish instead of eco-friendly ways to package things, let alone invest in nature and be more sustainable in our living choices. If we treat the Earth like one big garbage disposal, it’s going to come back to us with severe consequences on ecosystem health and the future of our health as well as causing habitat decimation and species extinction.
What we do, affects the mechanisms of nature or ecosystems. Our anthropogenic impact, the ramifications of how we choose to live has immediate effect on nature. The problem now is the ramifications have accumulated to a momentous scale, so that environmental scientists or ecologists have no time to measure anthropogenic pollutants efficiently on each ecosystem or species, though all the warning signals of ecological collapse are here for all to see. Just take a look at the ocean of the world, a sea of plastic, a disappearing Amazon and ecocide in all the last wildernesses, more than half amphibians have become extinct, the insect biomass falling to less than half, Bees and Birds disappearing, doomed future for all species, where both plant and animal species are going extinct at a rate of 200 species per day, disappearing forever from this unique planet.
The environmental crisis is a crisis of human consciousness, the outer manifestation of this destruction is an indication that we need to change. We are living in a time where we need to re-establish our lost connection with the Earth and having a caring empathic consciousness is the only thing that will save us.
The disappearing Amazon rain forest
“At a deep psychological level, convincing young people that they will get the respect, admiration, and love that they are looking for, through consumerism, is a manipulation of a deep human instinct to want to belong. Advertising and the media reinforce this message, in the process, destroying the community structures that provided people with the affirmation that they need. We have evolved in groups – deeply interdependent and connected – the separation and competition of the modern world is antithetical to our deepest needs.” – Helena Norberg Hodge
Helena Norberg Hodge is an ecological pioneer and author of Ancient Futures, she studied with Noam Chomsky, Founder of the Society for Ecology and Culture and she believes that those running the global economy are imposing structural violence on our world.
Over the last 60 years, an ecological imbalance has emerged due to Corporate Globalization and the monopolization of natural resources and energy. A monopoly that overlooks a need to create a more sustainably based economy within the bounds of the Earth’s natural carrying capacity. Centralised control of natural resources in the ‘free market’ causes imbalances such as socio-economic problems in the countries where these valuable natural resources are based. The result is deforestation, famine, privatized and inaccessible clean water, debt, homelessness and problems for local food growers and indigenous producers to access ancestral seeds.
How is it justifiable that a wealthier country has helped itself to local resources of developing countries, leaving the natives with nothing? We need to focus on localised sustainability, basically going back to the traditional ways of farming and managing local agricultural practices with holistic chemical free methods of cultivation.
People in the Western world produce the most waste and continue to oppress third world countries to be the ones to halt their development, when western capitalism is built on slave labour of third world nations. Westernised populations have choice and hold a lot of personal power by choosing ethically the products they buy, if people were more aware that their consumerism perpetuates injustices around the world in profound ways, then everyone would be more conscious about what they buy and who they buy it from. However, most people that live in privileged countries, rest on the poverty and injustice of slave nations and continents such as Africa, parts of Central and South America and Asia for minerals, raw materials, fuel, cheap clothes and electrical goods.
Our over-reliance on technology is also driving this unfolding ecocide, the consumerism of electrical goods such as ipads, tablets and android phones all rely on a highly unethical mining industry that uses slave labour to mine and assemble electrical products in inhumane conditions; in addition to driving the destruction of the last cloud forests home of the highly endangered Silverback Gorilla populations in Africa. This is well illustrated by the story of the Silverback Gorillas in the African Congo. The mining of Gold, Diamonds and Coltan, (geological name – Columbite Tantalite), a mineral used in the microchips of every single new electronic device, cell phone or tablet and laptop, comes from the African Congo, in the Virungas National Park which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A biodiverse ecosystem where a small group of the world’s last pocket of remaining Silverback Gorillas which lend thanks to the work of Dian Fossey who was murdered on December the 26th 1985, because she was defending these primates which are critically threatened with extinction from poaching and a continually eroded habitat due to these existing ‘Conflict Minerals’ being extracted in the area, that the world is responsible for plundering.
The mineral Coltan can only be found in a few places in the world, one of which is in Australia, which was the world’s largest producer at Wodinga Tantalum mine in Western Australia, however they closed their mine in 2012 because it is cheaper to mine Coltan using slave labour in inhumane conditions in Africa’s Democratic Republic of Congo. To make matters worse for the Silverback Gorillas, the SOCO International energy company are pushing to extract gas and oil reserves from under Lake Edward in the National Park. All this, at the cost of one of the last greatest African forests and majestic Gorillas which have only been given an estimated 15 years of survival amidst the adversities they face through our lack of global responsibility to better manage conservation of critically endangered species, because minerals, gold, diamonds and oil are far more important to the world than saving the Silverback Gorillas and their forest home.
The fact that global mining companies can cut corners to make a bigger profit at the expense of an entire endangered species such as the Mountain Gorilla and at the expense of hard working African miners, who are slave labourers. This
shows that international environmental and human rights laws are far too flimsy and ineffective when the Western world conveniently lacks ethics in business which in turn perpetuates slavery, species extinction and ecocide. This is just one of many stories that illustrate the heavy price for the destructive consumer paradise of Capitalism in so called ‘First World Nations’.
The current psychology behind what drives capitalism, cultivates a certain emptiness and spiritual deficit that leads to severe depression and lack of self-worth, when people feel that they have failed society and in society’s view, have not achieved a desirable status. There’s an element of not feeling useful to society or the community in the Western world if one is not successful financially. Last year in the UK at least 12 men under the age of 45 committed suicide in the UK per day, perhaps the numbers of those suffering from depression could be reduced if we shift our values from status, financial worth and material wealth to values that focus on connecting with each other in our local communities and with nature. Those that are waking up to this are choosing to adopt lifestyles that have a lower ecological footprint and allow having access to nature or creating community services and communal areas that include tending to nature and growing food, which provide a healthier sense of self worth and value, as human beings we need to feel a sense of belonging in our local communities, connecting with nature helps fill this void.
Depression is an indication that human consciousness needs to change, the current social environment does nothing to remedy depression, it does everything to cause mental illness and dysfunction. We need to change our psychological and status values in Western society to values that have more depth and meaning for the human spirit. An ecological economy would influence and cultivate healthier values for individuals as well as stronger communities, people could cultivate a self-worth that can be attributed to feeling part of a community and caring for the environment, values not based on status, power or on consumerist needs and wants that are never deeply fulfilling.
We are not robots, and we are not machines, we are human beings that have lost our humanity in the distraction of false value systems and a false world. Being in nature is being the closest to the truth of being, being creative, growing food, living and walking with nature, painting, writing, singing, and making things; developing projects that could contribute to a better and more harmonious world, playing music or getting involved in a community project or doing something that aids deep relaxation, meditation or trance, all of these things can help bring feelings of deeper fulfilment and bring us more into the moment, reconnecting us with the joy that comes from just being and connecting with others on a deeper level. Reaching out as much as possible to friends and family, without feeling humiliated or the stigma that is carried with the label ‘depression’ and the negative stigma that go with it such as the words ‘mental illness or mental disease’. Inner work is really important for all of us, not just those of us suffering from depression, but those of us suffering from denial which seems to be the greater problem in human society.
William Manson explains that in 1968, Erich Fromm prophesied “The year 2000, might be the beginning of a period in which man ceases to be human and becomes transformed into an unthinking and unfeeling machine”. -In the context of a prevailing dehuman syndrome, spontaneous human expression becomes pathologised: Being open in speech; being unashamed of one’s body; relating to nature; hugging, touching, feeling and making love with other people; refusing to serve in the army and kill; and becoming less dependent on machines are generally considered ‘disturbed behaviour’ by a society of robopaths”. Of course, behavioural modification is facilitated through ideological training, expanding law enforcement, and emotional anaesthesia (psychopharmacology). In my view, revitalisation of one’s desiccated human-ness first and foremost requires a renewed contact with the web of evolved life, with Walt Whitman’s ‘primal sanity of nature’. Transcending the blinkered, bourgeois-utilitarian (mechanistic-industrial) world-view, one can embark on a purification of consciousness, a purging of the detritus of cultural pollution (and a recovery of emotional innocence). Withdrawing from the world of urban commerce (and its mind-numbing “messages”), one severs the flow of media propaganda and ceaseless “information” (relating to the ubiquitous ‘buying and selling’). Compulsive ‘having’ is the pathology of deficient ‘being.’ Aesthetic simplicity means disconnecting from repulsive superfluity. Seeking sanctuary in wilderness surroundings, one rediscovers the gentler rhythms of low-cost rural living: walking instead of driving, and prevention of disease through a style of living consonant with ecological wisdom.’’.
Chinese Mineral Extractions are of ongoing concern causing gross infringements of Human Rights & the Rights of Nature violations in Ecuador. Campesinos and Indigenous regularly hold rallies and protests in the southern city of Cuenca, Ecuador, speaking out at a Public Tribunal to tell of the violations and concerns of indigenous people for contamination of the rivers, air and soil in the affected communities by Chinese owned Mining Company ‘ExplorCobres-Ecuacorriente,’ (Tongling).
Among the speakers who organized one of these events were Lina Solana and Georgina Gutama who represent the Women’s Front & Defenders of Pacha Mama (Freunte de Mujeres Defensoras de Pachamama),
Other speakers who participated, represented The Coordinadora Campesina Popular, Asociacionde Campeinos de Limon Indanza and Bloque Peoltario Ecuador, the motive of the tribunal was to publicly request the government to suspend mining activities in Río Blanco and Panantza-San Carlos.
The Tribunal was also motivated to raise awareness of the brutal eviction of the Shuar community of Nankints, San Carlos Panantza, who three weeks ago were violently evicted by several groups of armed military soldiers for Chinese Mining interests to have access to their land. Gross violations against Indigenous Rights and the Rights of Nature are being ignored by International laws and the continued exploitation of imperialist Chinese mining companies in the Andean and Rain forest biomes of Ecuador continue to be exploited.
The above map is courtesy of Ecuacorriente, showing the industrialization and mining takeover of the Ecuadorian countryside, you can see over eight mining areas in San Juan Bosco, Limón and Gaulaquiza and more are being proposed.
Speakers in the People’s Tribunal examined the current unfolding invasion of Imperialist commercialism and how it is affecting the local campesino economies, destroying the lives of indigenous people in the rain forests and rural agricultural areas of Ecuador at such a large scale and rapid pace.
Indigenous groups in Ecuador have been recognized under the United Nations to which there exists a non-binding agreement, which gives indigenous groups the chance to defend their lives, land, and culture. Guaranteed throughout the Declaration is the right to a process of “Free, Prior and Informed Consent” for indigenous peoples when faced with decisions, projects, or legislation by corporations or government that may affect their people and/or territory. Article 57. 7 of the 2008 Constitution of Ecuador guarantees free, prior and informed consultation, within a reasonable period; however, this does not require consent (and is not binding). Article 82 refers explicitly to environmental consultation, in the case of a state decision which might affect the environment, and specifies broad and timely information for those affected. However, even if there is a majority opposing the project in question, it may still be carried out on the condition that the impact on those affected and the ecosystem is minimized.
On the morning of Thursday, August 11 2016, a military operation of 2000 soldiers proceeded to evict the residents of the Shuar community of Nankints, in the south of Ecuador, so mining could go ahead. This is just one incident among many in the area where soldiers and Caterpillar diggers were deployed to destroy people’s houses in the area. The Chinese Mineral Company heading this project has violated the right to consultation, enshrined in Article 57.7 of the Ecuadorian Constitution, in Articles 6 and 15.2 of Convention 169 of the ILO, and Article 19 of the Declaration UN Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
This occurred because the Ecuadorian State gave consent to Corriente Resources, now owned by Chinese transnational corporations and Tonglin CRCC to extract a deposit of 3,200 hectares of copper, gold and molybdenum. The company plans to build two open pit mines in which it will process 90,000 tons of copper per day, generating large amounts of waste, using thousands of liters of water every day. The project has a lifespan of 21 years, which will extract a total of 678 million tons of ore. Upon completion of operations, the company proposes that the two opencast mines will be filled with fresh water.
Previously, the Mirador project which is less than half the size of the Panantza-San Carlos project was estimated that only 54,000 tons were extracted, the amount of waste after 17 years will reach 325 000,000 tonnes, about 4 times the volume of Cerro Panecillo Quito. Prior to this, military operation, harassment, threats of eviction were made by the police along with the mining company and government officials against the Shuar Indians, who were eventually evicted on the 11th of August without ever having received any notification or prior consultation with respect to the Declaration under Article 57 .
The People’s Tribunal said that there were 10,000 AK47 riffles provided to the Ecuadorian Military and Police courtesy of the Corriente Explore Corbres, Chinese Mining company Tongling. The Ecuadorian army is facilitating the mining invasion by attacking and forcibly removing the indigenous campesinos from their land
The list of violations continue to pile up each year that betray the Ecuadorian Constitution for the Rights of Nature, Indigenous People’s Rights and the Right to Resistance, Human Rights to clean water among other violations continually ignored by the Ecuadorian government. While the use of armed forces with the aim of displacing indigenous people from their communities are international violations, so that Transnational mining projects can continue to exploit the unique biomes and ecosystems of Ecuador.
This mining project is under control of Explorcobres S.A (EXSA), a subsidiary mining company Ecuacorriente, Chinese-funded and affiliated with Canadian interests under “Project Panantza-San Carlos” the mining projects cover an area of 14,000 hectares located in the areas of Limón Indanza (San Miguel de Conchay) and San Juan Bosco (Santiago de Panantza and San Carlos de Limón ) in the province of Morona Santiago which is an area of tropical forest being systematically destroyed by mining and oil companies. These same companies control the Mirador project and are known by the abuses committed against residents of Zamora Chinchipe, where there have also been systematic violent displacements of indigenous people forcibly removed from their land, an all too common theme with Trans National Corporations in South America.
In November 2015, the Ministry of Environment granted the renewal of the environmental license number. 986 for the exploitation phase metal ore mining in Rio Blanco. In the same month the National Water Secretariat issued the resolution authorizing the use and exploitation of water to the Rio Blanco mining project. The Secretary of State added that these investigations are the basis of environmental impact studies and environmental management plan for the project and “where it is determined that there is no affectation water sources on the mining project that might harm communities. ”
The above map courtesy of Ecuacorriente, shows the affected areas, as you can see they are along many important river systems that indigenous people rely on for farming and fishing, they also use the water for domestic purposes, use the rivers as part of their daily lives.
Most of these mines are along rivers that support thousands of indigenous communities. The Panantza-San Carlos project affects multiple communities of at least 10 Indigenous Shuar Centers of Tariamiat Associations, Arutam and Churuwia, as well as numerous peasant campesino families. In the area of influence of the project are the Shuar Kupiamais, Waakis, Ayantás, Piunts centers, which belong to the Shuar Associations and Arutam Bomboiza. In this area there are farms affected at: Rocafuerte, Santa Rosa, La Delicia, San Miguel, 27 and other localities. The Panantza-San Carlos project is located in south-east province of Morona Santiago, which is the territory of the Shuar people, historically known as “the people of the sacred waterfalls”.
These Mafia mining projects are the largest threat to the life of indigenous Ecuadorians and their local economies and ecosystems that are vital source of Ecuadorian farmers and indigenous peoples. As we are seeing a global movement of mining giants operate via several conditions to take over:
Neo-colonial and semi-colonial parasitic states are criminalizing legal systems with the assistance of armed police and military and puppet media services;
Imperialist government strategies are implemented to help facilitate weaponization and assault of mining companies on local indigenous people and to help remove indigenous people from their ancestral territories by using the military and police as Corporate soldiers, this is an echoed story and sad reality of hundreds of thousands of communities throughout Latin America and the world over, where transnational mining companies are present with government support to exploit, threaten, harass and kill local peasant and indigenous communities defending their ancestral territories, rivers and ecosystems from being contaminated. Transnational mining is rapidly destroying ecosystems, polluting water, soil, air, and destroying the self sustainable way of life for indigenous people and farmers as well as destroying the small family economies, which in turn generates violence and breeds crime.
The People’s Tribunal Stated–
We reject the project Pananza- San Carlos and the militarization of the area:
The Coordinadora Campesina Popular CCP, the Association of Campesinos in Limon Indanza ACLI, the Women’s Front & Guardians of the Amazon and the Proletarian Block Ecuador united to create a people’s tribunal to protest against these violations against Indigenous Peoples Rights and against the Rights of Nature.
Those that are directly affected by the mining activities reject, once again, the mining invasion of Explorcobres-Ecuacorrientes (transnational China, Tongling) south of Morona Santiago, (an area of uniquely biodiverse rain forest, Savanas and rivers continuously being contaminated by mining activity and forest being destroyed).
Human rights violations need to be addressed by international human rights tribunal for the forced and violent eviction by the military and police (for Explorcobres Ecuacorrientes) which occurred last Friday, August 11, 2016 to the Shuar community in Nankints, Ecuador.
We adamantly reject the militarization and occupation by Jose Serrano, by deploying hundreds of soldiers and police to repress and intimidate the rural indigenous community of Pananza, San Miguel de Conchay, the area of which has been invaded by the Chinese Corporation, Tongling.
Human rights violations using arms of 10,000 AK47 riffles deployed and provided to the Ecuadorian Military and Police courtesy of the Corriente ExplorCorbres Chinese Mining company Tongling, during the assault on local indigenous people in Pananza. The Ecuadorian army is facilitating the mining invasion by attacking its own people the campesinos and indigenous of the forest.
The struggle endured by the people
In these times of such battles between the people and corporate transnational imperialism, the invasion of mining companies in Ecuador and the run up to next year’s presidential election of 2017, is of great concern to the Ecuadorian people most affected by these violations. There is a great deal of exploitation against human rights and the rights of nature due to political corruption and propaganda that the West is unaware of as international corporations enjoy protection privileges provided under the Trans Pacific Partnership. The campesinos and indigenous people of Ecuador are aware that some who claim to represent the people and fight against the mining companies are only using this as an excuse to gain support with no real plans to defend the cause when they are in for a cut of the mining profits and sadly some non profit organizations and politicians have stakes in the destruction yet they pretend to be resistant. With this, we hope the message of today’s People’s tribunal will encourage awareness and to strengthening grassroots organizations who have true motives to protect Nature and people to stand strong against the imperialistic deception and raise awareness to human rights violations and the environment to the global communities.
All in the name of development for the people:
The mining companies use a public campaign to deceive and coerce local communities and workers by saying that they mine responsibly, without using chemicals and with advanced technology that will not harm wildlife or rivers, that the mining companies will benefit the locals communities by creating jobs, however, most of what they promise are empty dreams and after they have raped the land of minerals and gold, they leave a trail of ecocide and irreversible damage, killing the fish in the river and irreversible damage of chemicals in the soil, causing cancer in local communities, destroying local waterways, polluting the rivers as they have in Peru with toxic chemicals, so that people can no longer live off of their land.
ExplorCobres- Ecuacorriente use misleading slogans in their advertising campaigns in order to attempt to gain support and workers from the local indigenous communities. As a consequence developing countries globally have opened doors to the Trans national mining industry and have been converted into becoming even more dependent as slave countries to Western domination; so that nature can be raped of raw materials to supply Western and Asian governments with all their needs at the cost of ecocide and destruction of the livelihoods of poor farmers and indigenous people having their ancestral lands decimated in the process, bypassing international laws under the United Nations for the Rights of Nature and Indigenous people to be consulted before forcefully taking their land away. We need to strengthen international laws to stop ecocide, or most South American countries like Ecuador will be turned into an open industrial wasteland at the consequence and livelihoods of rural indigenous people and the loss of over 50 percent of the world’s biodiversity that resides in parts of the Ecuadorian Amazon.
This documentary is a window into the lives of these amazing Indigenous Women Warriors, They call themselves Defenders of Pacha Mama, this is their side of the story
The photos and tribunal videos in this article.
The maps in this article are courtesy of Ecuacorriente.
The posters courtesy of Bloque Proletario and Coordinar Campesina Popular
There has been a long history in fight for the protection of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest and hundreds of indigenous environmental protectors are increasingly losing their lives in this escalating bloody conflict for the protection of their ancestral lands and land rights. Brazil has the highest number of land activists killed in the world, in 2017, 33 indigenous activists were killed, 49 murders declared in 2016, and 32 in 2013, according to Global Witness.
This year, a great loss was sufffered in the Guajajara indigenous community, Jorginho Guajajara, a leader chief, was found dead near a river in the city of Arame, Maranhão state, in early August this year. His death was the result of critical conflict escalated by the invasion of loggers into their land. Over 80 Guajajaras have been killed in their territories since 2000.
Jorginho’s body was found by a stream, a place where many Guajajaras are found after being murdered by loggers or people connected to them. Vice-presidential candidate for the Socialism and Freedom party, Sônia Guajajara, is an indigenous activist from the Araribóia reserve, said:
“Our people are dying on their land. This was not an isolated case, but part of an ongoing genocide. Maranhão is a state with a high rate of indigenous conflicts. The loggers enter our territories to exploit our natural resources, and the violence escalates. Many leaders are being threatened by these invaders and we urgently need to end this situation; we do not want to lose any more relatives who fight and protect our Mother Earth.”
Since indigenous tribes who are victims of this type of conflict do not receive government protection, Jorginho Guajajara worked with a group called the Guardians of the Amazon, who use direct action to reduce illegal logging in the Araeibóia reserve in Maranhão state: tying up loggers, burning their trucks and tractors, and kicking them off the reserves. The Guardians say they defend the forest for their families and for the uncontacted Awá people who live in the same territory.
The Brazilian government has not yet taken any legal action to protect or investigate these crimes against the persecution of the Guajajara and they need to take action as soon as possible as the situation has become critical and the small community of uncontacted Awá people face imminent danger not only of being attacked by hostile loggers but also of being wiped out as a result if they came into contact with loggers gold miners or oil companies that were interested in exploiting their area, since they have no immunity resistance to viruses like measles or flu and diseases, which is why they are extremely vulnerable and in need of better legal protection. The government of Brazil however continue to ignore constant persecution of 900,000 indigenous forest people and their ancestral territories in the Amazon.
In 2017 there was a massacre of up to 10 people from an isolated tribe in the Amazon by illegal gold miners. The killings, took place in the Javari Valley, carried out by men working for gold prospectors who were illegally prospecting for gold in the region’s rivers. The Brazilian indigenous organization called Funai has been campaigning for the government to increase the protection of 103 tribes of non-contacted indigenous people across the country, as well as recently contacted groups. According to Funai around 20 isolated groups are believed to live in the Javari Valley, where around 80 recently contacted indigenous people also live.
This area is subject to intense deforestation, and according to government data, 70% of the biome in the state has already been cleared. During the past 100 years almost all indigenous territories have been invaded by loggers, oil companies, mining companies and have had their land stolen from them and turned into vast, oil drilling fields or soya fields, sugar cane plantations or deforested areas for cattle ranches. Many communities are crammed into overcrowded reserves, and others live under tarpaulins by the side of highways.
According to Survival International, Brazil is where the most uncontacted people live than anywhere else in the Amazon. It is now thought that approximately 80 such groups live in the Rainforest. Some number several hundred and live in remote border areas in Acre state and in protected territories such as the Vale do Javari, on the border with Peru. Others are scattered fragments, the survivors of tribes virtually wiped out by the impacts of the rubber boom and expanding agriculture in the last century. Many, such as the nomadic Kawahiva, who number a few dozen, are constantly fleeing loggers and ranchers invading their land.
Since 1988, an area larger than Germany has been deforested in Brazil’s Amazon, according to government data. In a study published in the journal Conservation Biology showed that between the years 1981 and 2012 , 93 changes in Protected Areas ( PAs ) in 16 Brazilian states, resulted in the reduction and the loss of legal protection of 5.2 million acres. According to a researcher at the Institute of Man and Environment (Imazon ), Elis Araújo , coauthor of the study, Araújo says that these data reflect a change in the reduction of Protected Areas policy in Brazilian Government in recent years because of generation capacity or transmission of energy.
After decades of land grabbing mineral and oil drillers, illegal loggers, soy plantations and cattle ranching, the rate of deforestation has reached more than 29 percent in 2016 compared to 2015, according to Brazil’s National Space Research Institute (INPE).
At this rate, environmentalists say the government will not be able to meet its goal of net zero deforestation in the Amazon by 2030.
In contrast, Luciano Evaristo, a senior official of environmental enforcement agency (IBAMA) says that Forests controlled by indigenous people, are among the best protected in Brazil.
The alternative energy industry, especially the solar industry has grown exponentially since 2010 into being worth £170 billion pounds globally. This industry is now contributing to economic development. Utility companies have been threatened by the growth of the alternative energy industry and this has escalated into trade and policy conflicts in countless examples globally, with serious economic and political consequences. Countries have been developing the use of protectionist policies to encourage domestic manufacturing for alternative energy opening opportunities for foreign entry into domestic markets. However, not all countries are well positioned to become competitive exporters or importers of the same green technologies due to high taxes, but if industrial policies can help create competitive domestic manufacturers, there may be direct domestic economic benefits. Opening the global market entrants can lead to more competition in the sector, and encourage further technological innovation. (Lewis, 2014).
The Renaissance of Alternative Technologies
While most people think of Solar and Wind as the main alternative technologies, we are living in an exciting time with regards to alternative energy systems, yet we have not seen these technologies being delivered onto the public market as quickly as we would like to see considering the environmental problems that many are concerned about and part of the reason is because fossil fuel markets are very powerful with a great deal of financial and political power to impede the development of other alternative energy infrastructures. The original Water Fuel Cell was invented by Stanley Meyers back in the 1980s, he was poisoned in 1998 at a restaurant, probably by oil barons. A few years before Stanley was murdered he gave a presentation on his water fuel cells, in the presentation, Meyer describes a molecular, chemical and electrical level of how water can be used as fuel — not just as a gas, but for domestic and industrial electrical generation. Meyers was also the holder of 40 patents. This year Honda have launched their first water fuel cell car to be available on the public market in March 2016 The water fuel cell car will be made available to the public, and there are pilot studies of solar powered roads being tested and solar cars that are powerful enough to travel over 3000 kms on solar energy that will be available on the public market in the near future.
Honda have launched the water fuel cell car in March, 2016 and this system has been demonstrated to also be able to support a domestic household with all the power it needs. However, the current lack of infrastructure worldwide to support Hydrogen fuel cell technology will need to be worked on by alternative energy supporters. What this actually means is the politicians and oil company CEOs and shareholders will not take kindly to the water fuel cell car, that can also provide domestic power to the home to finally become available to the public market, therefore they will make it difficult for hydrogen processing plants and water fuel cell stations to emerge as part of this supportive infrastructure while those that hold the oil monopoly cards also hold places of political decision making that stop the emergence of alternative emission free solutions that are also solutions as alternatives to consuming oil, stopping ecocide and the current mechanisms behind war. (O’Callaghan, 2014) Think about the economical implications this would have on the current oligarchy monopoly on grid electricity power companies and oil stakeholders, when oil companies presently rake in 100,000 dollars per hour in profits. An astronomical amount of fortune that the world powers will defend with severe vehemence to protect a lucrative income, even if it will cost us the destructive to the Planet.
Justin Hall-Tipping’s innovation, nanotechnology will put an end to nuclear and coal power stations, turning a window into a power station to produce all your power needs or send others energy if they need it.
Other technological breakthroughs include developments in Nanotechnology. The entrepreneur, Justin Hall-Tipping, sought out the world’s leading nanotechnology scientists to harness the electron and create energy through nanotechnology, now they have a company called Nanoholdings, which consists of team of scientists, investors and innovators working at the cutting-edge of nanotechnology to develop solutions to the world’s growing energy problems. Working in partnership with the world’s best universities, they have developed products and companies that will revolutionize the way we use and generate energy. The days of the coal or nuclear power stations are numbered as nanotechnologies are developing. Imagine you live in a building that has very large windows, you can use each window much like a solar panel, simply by using a thin plastic film with energy harnessing systems, embedded inside the film as fine or finer than a human hair, the plastic sheet can be stuck onto the window panes of a house or office building to use the light and heat energy beaming in through the window. This becomes a powerhouse using nanotechnology to convert light energy from the sun to power up the building for heat or to cool or generate electricity and if it is not required there, it can then be sent to someone else who needs it more. (Hall-Tipping, 2011).
Photo: Courtesy of Solar Pulse 2
This year, a Solar powered plane flew from Hawaii across the Pacific Ocean to California after flying around the world (Associated Press, 2016) The Plane called Solar Impulse 2 completed its world circumnavigated with 17,000 solar cells in the wing and tail; during the day the cells on the wing supply the motors with energy and charge lithium batteries, which power the plane at night (Ingber, 2015).
In Santiago, Chile is opening the world’s first Solar and Wind powered train, in 2018, (Holder, 2016). Such innovations will have a large impact on societies and are perceived as major threats to the utility industries which are part of a politically powerful global monopoly, usually investor owned utilities that politicians and lobby agencies have stakeholds in, these are the political and financial constraints that hold back humanity becoming 100 per cent sustainable, it’s not because we lack technologies or are hindered by technological developments, on the contrary, we have plenty of options, the obstacles are political and usually protect well established corporate interests. (Sierra Club, 2014).
More and more Free Energy devices are emerging all over the world, Countries like India and China are not going along with the repression of Free Energy. While, in America, the privately owned Patent Office is reported to have already managed to suppress some 44,000 American free-energy patents.
Meanwhile, since Tesla’s work was repressed, scientists and inventors have been creating alternative energy systems for 180 years. Inventions that defy the theories of physics that humanity adopted as laws, Paramahamsa Tewari is Chief Project Engineer of the Kaiga Project, Karwar, India, he and many other alternative energy scientists have already disproved the mainstream beliefs of the laws of physics.
He states “It has been hitherto believed in physics that the total electric charge in the Universe is a constant quantity, and if additional charge appears in some region, it is only at the expense of the charge deficit in some other regions. It is a basic law that electric charge is conserved and cannot be destroyed or created. Precise experiments on a Space Power Generator (SPG) which has been now further developed to demonstrate the commercial viability of the newly discovered phenomenon of space power generation however, totally violate the existing law of conservation of charge, by generating output electrical power much in excess of the input electrical power. Since electric charge is a form of basic energy, the law of conservation of energy will need to be enlarged to incorporate in it the dynamics of absolute vacuum which in a state of rotationgenerates a fundamental field to produce electrical charge and energy” -Paramahamsa Tewari, (Naik, 2002).
Conflicts with Solar vs Utilities (Fossil Fuels & the Oil-garch)
We will focus mainly on the conflicts between utilities and solar power which are being slowed down by political and corporate conflict of interests. Despite this, there is a positive outlook for the booming Solar Photovoltaics industry which in 2015, exceeded the nuclear power energy production. In the UK almost 90% of our energy comes from fossil fuels. Together, projects to cut Carbon Emissions such as Power Down and Power Up with the goal to eliminate all emissions from our energy system. Renewable energy provides a primary energy supply before conversion losses of around 1,160 TWh per year, allowing us to meet 100% of a final energy demand of 770 TWh per year (665 TWh per year, not including ambient heat for use in heat pumps) using only ‘zero carbon’ energy sources. Wind energy plays a central role, providing around half of the primary energy supply (581 TWh per year). (Center for Alternative Energy, 2014). The rest is generated using various renewable sources of energy, the UK could step up and follow Germany’s and China’s example, by installing more solar and wind, it would also benefit greatly from utilizing wave power. Despite the above project initiatives no one wants to take note of the fact that Governments and banks gain around 33 trillion in profit, a year from trading carbon and taxing emissions. Pushing the Global Warming Agenda is a profitable business and an excuse to keep using geoengineering which is poisoning ecosystems globally and unnecessarily blocking out the sun, is this really to cool the planet or is it another excuse to discourage solar energy?
The system of taxing and trading carbon does not remedy the root of the problem, while the emphasis is on carbon emissions in the public arena instead of consumption of Oil, the root cause to these critical environmental problems are blatantly ignored, it is the consumption of oil which is causing ecocide and influencing ecocide and ecosystem collapse of the planet.
Global oil consumption is the highest it has ever been in human history, in 2010 the world oil consumption was at a rate of 87 million barrels of oil per day,(Rapier, 2014), in six years of profitable wars for the global elite this has currently increased to 97 million barrels of oil a day, this year 2016. (EIA 2015), That is almost a 100 million barrels per day drained from the Earth. Despite this, we already have exciting fossil fuel alternatives appearing in vehicles, so there really is no need for us to rely so heavily on oil anymore. In the U.S. utilities have attempted to slow the growth of distributed generation (DG) solar by reversing policy support, and they have greater financial and political resources than the fledging solar industry. Energy companies with power and resources have attempted various strategies to slow the growth of DG solar, the result vary by strategy type and also depends on the policies in various US States.
Niche organizations can somewhat overcome the political power of regime organizations through various options, to form coalitions with political parties that support the niche technologies, or gain support from countervailing industrial organizations, and form coalitions with social movements to mobilize political protests and petitions. The political opportunity structure (in this case the party in control of the state government), affects the pattern of niche-regime strategies and interactions. Utility industries such as electricity exercise a strong influence on the development of Solar Technology.
Motivation for support for Solar Technology is in the policy arena reflecting the need to find solutions to environmental sustainability issues in ways that create jobs and enhance competitiveness. When powerful industrial regimes attempt to defend their business-as-usual models, political consensus for this justification for Solar can break down. What are the political strategies available to niche organizations and their coalitions? Some strategies implemented by the fossil industries are that the utilities continue to create obstacles for the Solar Technology market favored by consumers, who have the right to choose to support the transition of technologies for the environment. The utilities are conveniently ignoring the environmental benefits of Solar technologies and the avoided costs in new non-solar generation and transmission.
Despite this attempts to gain monopoly control over solar energy, such as the legislative effort in the Washington State and Iowa, have been unsuccessful. (Hess, 2015). However, there are some specific dimensions to the issue that make the analysis of the U.S. cases interesting. For example in the USA, the Koch-brothers-funded front groups like American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) make it hard for home owners to convert to solar because of the punishing rates they endorse when people attempt to do so, which make the possibility of Solar powered states like Nevada and Arizona lag behind many others, the same situation with Florida, one of the warmest state in the USA, because the Solar market again has been hemmed out with similar techniques by Investor owned fossil fuel companies that have wealth and substantial political power as a result.
Key policies that have spurred a rooftop solar revolution elsewhere in America are absent or actually illegal in Florida. Another example where utilities have the power to prevent a mandate in Florida for electricity from renewable power. Worse, the state’s restrictive monopoly utility law forbids anyone but the power companies from buying and selling electricity. Landlords cannot sell power from solar panels to tenants. Popular solar leasing programs like those offered by SolarCity and Sunrun are outlawed. Rooftop solar is limited to those who can afford the upfront expense; as a result, fewer than 9,000 Florida homes have panels installed. (Dickenson, 2016). The USA produces around 25 gigawatts of solar energy and is concern with China and Germany becoming leaders in alternative energy produced by wind and solar, China this year has overtaken Germany as the world’s leading solar energy producer with an installed capacity of over 43.2 gigawatts (GW) according to the latest statistics from the National Energy Administration (NEA).
Germany produces about 38.4 gigawatts. (Lindon, 2016). The phenomenon with Solar technology is that nanotechnology is developing rapidly that it has elevated the Solar industry so fast as new ways to trap more of the sun’s energy into more powerful cells and convert it into more electricity per cell.
Lobbying should be illegal since it erodes democracy, but Lobbying is a legal form of bribery where corporations can funnel millions to politicians, to influence their decisions and make them rewrite environmental laws to suit the access needs of fossil fuel companies. The utilities companies funnel millions or billions of dollars though lobbying agencies, a lobbying agency serves as a legal way to bribe or influence the decisions of politicians, so basically a corporation with enough power and money can buy one politician or a whole party to help the company get the outcome they want, (Sierra Club, 2014). Arizona Public Service disclosed to the PUC that its parent corporation had spent $3.7 million on the solar battle that year. (Hess, 2015) They spent $3.5 billion lobbying in the USA . A group of 167 organizations with almost $3.5 billion of disclosed lobbying spend in the USA, are also engaged in lobbying and public affairs activity in the UK.
Research by Who’s Lobbying in the UK has identified at least 167 organizations with disclosed lobbying activity in both the UK and USA. In the U.S. the utility industry spent over $21 million in lobbying campaign donations in 2014 in comparison with the roughly $2 million spent by the entire sector of renewable energy industries (Center for Responsive Politics, 2015). Yet, even with these Goliath advantages, the utilities have not always ended policy support for DG solar and contained its rapid growth (Hess, 2015)
When Tony Blair was in power, he was deeply involved with Egypt and Israel’s gas industry as an energy advisor, it was recently revealed that they are involved with plundering Gaza’s gas ocean-based reserves, which Israel is planning on selling to Egypt. The Labour Party, received up to 2.5 million pounds in lobbying donations in less than a year, from energy giants. (Ahmed, 2015) In the USA these 167 organizations have a combined disclosure of $3,499,731,804 total amount spent on lobbying and lobbying firms hired. (Sierra Club, 2014). The UK lobbying system is less transparent and will not disclose the amount of money spent by corporations on politicians (Whose Lobbying, 2012). In the UK almost 90% of our energy comes from fossil fuels. Together, projects to cut Carbon Emissions such as Power Down and Power Up with the goal to eliminate all emissions from our energy system. (CAE, 2014)
While the governments focus on cutting carbon emissions, the focus needs to be on cutting oil consumption in order to cut emissions. Global oil consumption is the highest it has ever been in human history, in 2010 the world oil consumption was at a rate of 87 million barrels of oil per day, (Rapier, 2014) which has currently increased to 97 million barrels of oil a day this year 2016. (EIA 2015), That is almost a 100 million barrels per day drained from the Earth. Despite this, we already have exciting fossil fuel alternatives appearing in vehicles, so there really is no need for us to rely so heavily on oil anymore. British Shell Petroleum, which is just one of dozens of different oil companies, makes a net profit of about one hundred million pounds an hour. (Mann, 2015). This is one of the reasons why there is so much resistance to developing infrastructures for water fuel cell and solar vehicles.
Summary
It is not surprising that geopolitical-economic conflicts have emerged when the foundation of wealth was built on the fossil fuel industry. While the Oil-garchy will continue different strategies to try to keep things as they are and in some cases, the incentives for conflict may overpower the incentives for cooperation, efforts for continuing to take a collaborative approach to work with major trading partners or coalitions may defuse tensions that lead to feuds before the World Trade Organization or other controlled institutions, (Lewis, 2015).
This battle has been paralleled with the famous story of David and Golliath, instead this battle is between fledgling alternative energy technologies and the Oil-garch giants. Where there is a will, there is a way. There are more of us than there are of the global elite despite the power they claim to yield and as increasing demand for Solar innovations spreads and as technology is rapidly accelerating along with other nanotechnological innovations for Free Energy, the build up may be to the explosive variety of alternatives flooding the market which will have the effect of collapsing the current system because it already cannot control the diversity of new technologies. During global collapse of ecosystems and the unfolding environmental crisis, we must embrace a change from the current energy monopoly which is causing ecocide for a transition to an ecologically sustainable and transparent economy, we are witnessing this transition albeit a warlike one, the diversity of innovations, in response to the environmental crisis is overwhelming, alternative energy will prevail with persistence, demand and growing awareness.
Hess, D. (September, 2015). The politics of niche-regime conflicts: Distributed solar energy in the United States . Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions .Elsevier. 19 (2016) 42–50
El mapa anterior muestra claramente que los reclamos de Carlos Pérez están desocupados y, por lo tanto, causarían un impacto mínimo, de hecho, están ocupados por los Achuar, Shiwiar, Sapora y Kichwa.
