Power Of People On Global March

Features

Last September, all major world cities hosted the same, massive, global event: the first Global People’s Climate March https://secure.avaaz.org/it/climate_march_reportback/?slideshow). Millions of people, from New York to Tokyo, from Togo to the Hawaii Islands, march edsimoultaneously in order to emphasize their greatest hopes: tackling the challenge of global warming and pushing for the adoption of fair, sustainable and long-term environmental policies  all over the world. The march was organized by Avaaz.org, perhaps the largest global web movement aged only 5 years, that has the specific mission of “organizing citizens of all nations in order to bring people-powered politics to decision-making every where, in order to fill the gap between the world we want and the world most people every where want”. 

“We all know that concrete decisions on climate change are influenced by short-term political cycles and narrow assessments of national interest. But the consequences still lie for the mostpart in the future – beyond the time horizon of current decision makers. And nobody considers the inter generation alin justice that arises from that”- says a young participant to the march, interviewed in Rio de Janeiro.

Inter generational justice is one of the key issues: today’s adult generation will determine, on anun precedent ed scale, the world that later generations will inherit. Are young people conscious of that?… Are they involved in the discussion or do they thinking’s their destiny to passively accept any consequences?…

Many young people were marching in Rio and many of the signed the Avaaz campaign demanding urgent action to safeguard our planet.

We also were there: the march left from I panema Beach, place 8, in a windy and rainy Sunday morning. Many of us have been depicted a green heart on our cheeks. “A chuva marcha conosco”, someone said, “The rainis marching with us”. Although the bad weather made march in conditions, though, more than 2,000 people reached the final point in Place 10 of Ipanema, a clear sign that Brasilian people care about raising their voices on that.

The sustainable use of environmental resources is for Brasil a crucial and very complex issue much more than for other countries of the world: not only because of its growing economy, but also because of the variety of its natural resources, its huge dimensions, the massive presence of ethnic minorities, its energy reserves and many other factors of interest.

Certainly, it is not easy to cope with different interests and lobbying activities.

The country is also very close to the political elections,which

Will take place at the beginning of October: “Last year the Parliament passed a law which reduces the percentage of preserved land for natural purposes” – told us a candidate from the Green Party – “One more measure clearly in favour of food and agricultural multinationals” headed “Let’s hope that from now on it will be better”.

Another major problem is water provision, which should be in theory be guaranteed to everyone: it is still lacking in some regions, including some favelas in Rio where houses should be provided with water purifiers on the roof.

The good news are that some other faves have been the objectives of development programs that aim rattans forming them in models of urban sustainability, as in  Vale Encantado (http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=17816) throughthe use ofbothinnovativeLEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) methodology and of very ancient and low-costtechnology as well, such as the so-called biodigesters: nothing more than concrete containers, which can process food and human waste into gas and rich liquid fertilizer in a similar manner to human digestion but producing gas immediately available for cooking.

Another important initiative aimed at preserving our planet for future generations is Bolsa Verde, a government program aimed to fight at the same time extreme poverty and natural áreas preservation. Launched in 2011, it provide extremely poor families living in areas of special natural interest, with a public benefit in exchange for activities of protection and safeguard of their territories(http://www.mds.gov.br/falemds/perguntas-frequentes/bolsa-familia/bolsa-verde/beneficiarios/bolsa-verde).Will allthesemeasuresbeenough?…