Just after the Copenhagen conference, Evo Morales from Bolivia announced the Peoples' World Conference on Climate Change to prepare for the upcoming COP 16 in Cancun (which originally was going to be hosted in Mexico City). The COP 16 is 2010's Copenhagen -- an international consortium comprised of delegates from governments, non-profits, and corporations to converge and discuss Climate Change and the soon-to-be-defunct Kyoto Protocols. Bolivia's People's Conference, which coincides with Earth Day in April, is an impressive undertaking. From their blog:
Jason told me recently that a friend of ours had offered to financially assist us going to Bolivia for this convergence, and that Lisa and Starhawk were going to go, as well. It's the Next Big Thing. And it IS amazing, undoubtedly. The "Universal Declaration of Mother Earth Rights" -- WOW. That makes it a religious event for me.
The Government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia calls on the peoples of the world, social movements and Mother Earth’s defenders, and invites scientists, academics, lawyers and governments that want to work with their citizens to thePeoples’ World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth’s Rightsto be held from 20th to 22nd April 2010 in Cochabamba, Bolivia.The Peoples’ World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth’s Rights has as objectives:1) To analyze the structural and systemic causes that drive climate change and to propose radical measures to ensure the well-being of all humanity in harmony with nature2) To discuss and agree on the project of a Universal Declaration of Mother Earth Rights3) To agree on proposals for new commitments to the Kyoto Protocol and projects for a COP Decision under the United Nations Framework for Climate Change that will guide future actions in those countries that are engaged with life during climate change negotiations and in all United Nations scenarios, related to:- Climate debt
- Climate change migrants-refugees
- Emission reductions
- Adaptation
- Technology transfer
- Finance
- Forest and Climate Change
- Shared Vision
- Indigenous Peoples, and
- Others4) To work on the organization of the Peoples’ World Referendum on Climate Change5) To analyze and develop an action plan to advance the establishment of a Climate Justice Tribunal6) To define strategies for action and mobilization to defend life from Climate Change and to defend Mother Earth’s Rights.
But I'm not so sure. Going to Copenhagen wore me out and decimated me financially. I'm still paying my plane ticket off. And, even if I fundraise to go to Bolivia, I'll still miss tons of work and have to pay my rent and everything else while I'm away. There's more than that, though. It's the energy of it all. When I came back from Copenhagen, I went into a very intensely deep and thankfully short depression. There was a lot of exhaustion, grief, anger, disappointment, physical and emotional imbalance. In that way, it was very much a Rite of Passage for me -- a time of intense transformative growth followed by returning home and having to reintegrate those changes. I started going to yoga 4-6 days a week, eating better, working with an Ayurvedic health practitioner, and resurrected my daily practice.
Earlier this week, my mother asked me why I hadn't blogged in so long. Well, there's the truth of it. At first, I was simply way to down. I tried to blog, but everything I wrote began depressing and just got worse from there. Then, my days started to get better, and then wonderful. I love taking care of myself the way that I have been since that horrible slump, and I feel really, really wonderful. So wonderful that I don't want to be around a computer at all if I can help it.
Anyway, I love the idea of going to Bolivia and bringing all of you back the tales from the frontlines that you love so much, but I worry about burn-out and more financial ruin. I can't stand the idea of going to Cancun. When I thought the COP was going to be in Mexico City and that I'd be able to finally see the Temple of Guadalupe, I was really excited, and I'm still feeling fairly certain that I will indeed go, because its just that important.
Maybe that just shows how wrong my priorities are. Maybe I should go to Bolivia, take our friend up on her offer of help, and blow of Cancun since I don't want to go anyway. After all, who gets to decide which ones are "the important ones" and which ones aren't. Perhaps the important ones are those that inspire us and help us envision a whole new paradigm to work from, and the ones that aren't important are the ones in tourist hell-holes with a bunch of old stuffies using the same broken system that created the mess and didn't do much for us last year, anyway.
I don't know. Right now, I'm sitting on my bed with my kitty cat, planning on playing my guitar for a couple of hours and then doing my herbology homework. Jason's at the climbing gym, and we'll have dinner soon. It's all so lovely. Too lovely for uprooting with travel decisions just yet.
