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A flurry of public meetings followed the federal government’s green paper on carbon emissions trading. I attended two quite different information sessions in Sydney.
Below is an open letter from Naser Fayaz, a journalist for ATN TV channel, which has been sent to human rights organisations. It is reprinted from http://asia-pacific-action.org. The Revolutionary Women of Afghanistan, http://rawa.org, “requests all its supporters and well-wishers of Afghan people to defend the brave and freedom-loving journalist Naser Fayaz and register their protest to his harassment by sending letters to the following sources”: President Hamid Karzai, president@afghanistangov.org; United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, spokesperson-unama@un.org; Supreme Court of Afghanistan aquddus@supremecourt.gov.af.
Internationally, as in Australia, governments forced to promise climate change action have generally promoted market-based carbon abatement schemes, mostly of the “cap and trade” variety. But can we trade our way out of our climate difficulties? Can market mechanisms deal with a problem of such scale and urgency?
“At least 3,000 people mobilized by the Papuan Christian Communication Forum staged a rally in Jayapura” on August 4, a Jakarta Post article reported the following day.
With the impact of global warming already being felt, it can be hard to feel positive about the future. However, an August 2 “climate justice” seminar at Melbourne University provided some positive directions for the 140 people who attended.
Having raised a total of $129,040 for the 2008 Green Left Weekly Fighting Fund, we are now more than half-way to our $250,000 target. Our supporters raised $5440 over the last week through donations and several successful fundraising events around the country.
The following call for a national week of protest action, beginning September 21, was issued by the July 5 Climate Emergency Rally organising committee in Melbourne, and endorsed by the August 2 Climate Justice seminar.