Visible

I brought quite a few books with me to Poznan in an attempt to stay sane. At the moment I am reading ‘Neverwhere’ by Neil Gaiman. Lent to me by Pete - WDM’s web maestro - it tells of a world where the marginalised fall through the cracks in London, and live beneath the streets of the city.

The marginalised of ‘London below’ are invisible to those living in ‘London above’. Unless directly confronted by them.

In a report released a couple of weeks ago (Carbon Evictions), WDM outlined how under current plans to tackle climate change, the UK will be responsible for forcing 10 million people to leave their homes due to climate change, through higher sea-level, stronger storms and more drought.

At a seminar on Monday night, Koko Warner from the United Nations University presented research about those already being displaced by climate and other environmental changes. The research shows that those forced to leave their homes because of climate change are and will be on average younger, older, poorer and ‘more-female’ than current refugees. They will be the most marginalised.

In negotiations on Tuesday several rich countries have sought to marginalise further many people across the world. The US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand insisted that references to protecting the ‘rights’ of indigenous and forest peoples be removed from any agreement on reducing emissions from deforestation.

The caucus of indigenous groups here in Poznan organised a spontaneous protest in response. The chants of ‘No rights’ blasted through the negotiations. The UN sent in security to shut the protest down. Hopefully the direct confrontation will have made the rights of indigenous and forest peoples more visible to the negotiations of the powers that be.