Gifts from Africa

Last week I returned from the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, where I participated with other international NGO representatives dedicated to creating global climate justice. In addition to attending the actual climate negotiations, I attended sessions addressing the various financial and mitigation mechanisms being considered to absorb carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions. The overall framework for addressing climate change is becoming more and more a model of increased commodification of Nature, whereby the global market can profit from using the forests, soil, and eco-systems of the least developed nations in order to offset emissions.

There was very little official discussion on actually reducing the amount of carbon emissions.  While the U.N. representatives negotiated elements of a potential new framework to be adopted by 2015 and implemented by 2020, many of the NGO and civil society members advocated for action now. The official voices of the small island nations and Pan-African networks pleaded that mandatory reduction of carbon emissions not be tabled until 2020, as they are already experiencing dislocation due to rising sea levels and long term droughts.

One of the most energizing parts of being in Durban was joining other international colleagues from the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, including South African environmental lawyer Cormac Cullinan, former Bolivian Ambassador to the U.N. Pablo Solon, indigenous leader Tom Goldtooth, South Durban community activist Desmond D’sa, and Shannon Biggs from Global Exchange, in hosting a series of activities to advance the rights of Nature and strengthen coalition-building with other environmental and human rights organizations.

We spent a day in a wilderness reserve strategizing how best to advance the rights of Nature agenda at the upcoming Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development to be held in Brazil in June, 2012. I also joined Cormac for a panel presentation at Diakonia, the World Council of Churches headquarters in Durban, addressing “The Earth Bears Witness: Who Should Stand Trial?”

Desmond D'Sa, Tom Goldtooth, Shannon Biggs, Natalia Greene, Cormac Cullinan & Pablo Solon (L-R). Photo courtesy of Shannon Biggs, Global Exchange.

I completed my African journey with several days in northeast Kenya visiting our sisters who serve at St. Clare’s School for Girls near Meru, Kenya. While there I had the opportunity to teach several classes, sharing with the young women the U.N. Climate Change Conference outcomes and exploring with them the major influence of recently deceased Kenyan Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai. We bonded immediately as I spoke of meeting Wangari at Thomas Berry’s memorial service at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 2009, and the long-term impact she has had on my sense of eco-feminism and the empowerment of women and protection of Nature.

I also visited the Samburu National Reserve and met many elephants who wanted to get “up close and personal.” (Click here for video:  Elephants Samburu Dec. 2011.) The beauty of the Samburu game reserve and of the Kenyan spirit remain as gifts to me.

As we transition from the season of darkness into light, I extend to you my wishes for a graced holiday season, and my gratitude for your support and generosity throughout this year.

May we move forward into 2012 with the words of recently departed Vaclav Havel, playwright and previous President of the Czech Republic, in our hearts.  He wrote about the hope necessary in times of darkness: “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” It is the conviction that our lives will have meaning and our story will continue.