Bolivian "People's Climate Conference" Underway

Jake de Grazia
Posted on Tuesday 20th April 2010

The World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth began on Monday night in a small town outside Cochabamba, Bolivia. The conference organizers consider their event an alternative to the big, fancy, UN-organized meetings - like the one last December in Copenhagen - which have thus far failed to create meaningful cultural or legislative change.

According to Pablo Solón, Bolivia's delegate to the UN, "the only way to get negotiations back on track not just for Bolivia or other countries, but for all of life, biodiversity, our Mother Earth, is to put civil society back into the process."

The conference will run through Thursday, April 22. About 7500 people will attend, representing over 100 countries. The best-known participants include James Hansen, Bill McKibben, Vandana Shiva, Danny Glover, and Naomi Klein, and it's also possible that James Cameron and Noam Chomsky, among others, stop by.

Thank you Grist.

test image for this block