Oregon Fair Trade Forum; June 12th 2014
Comments on GMOs and TPP
Alan Journet
SOCAN Co-Facilitator
Presentation (as pdf) on web site: click ‘Projects’ – select ‘Presentation Project’ scroll down to listed presentation schedule
Outline
• Climate Change / GEOs / TPP
• SOCAN on the issues
• Sustainable Living
• SOCAN & SOCAN Projects
• If time and Interest…
• Rogue Valley Climate
• What this summer portends…
Climate Change:
Parallels
The Scientific Consensus is clear:
(a) the planet is warming, and
(b) human activities are contributing
Opposition is: Fossil Fuel Corporations (Exxon-Mobil, Koch Industries, etc.), Chamber of
Commerce, etc. funding a denial campaign of lies and distortions.
Genetically Engineered Organisms:
The Science in unclear because:
(a) GE corporations hold patent rights preventing free, independent, and open research on their
product, and
(b) While corporate research suggests health benefits and yield benefits these results are
tainted, and
(c) Independent studies range from far less positive in their conclusions to substantially
negative, and
GE corporations exhibit a single objective: “profit at whatever cost.”
TPP:
Parallels
The evidence on Environmental / Health Cost vs Economic Benefit is unclear, however:
(a) Corporations are promoting treaty development in secret with unknown provisions, and
(b) Those negotiating treaties claim they will be economically beneficial and include health and
environmental safeguards, but
(c) Previous trade treaties (e.g. NAFTA) have produced questionable outcomes, where
environmental costs exceeded economic benefits
The problem: again, corporations with a single motive: “profit at whatever cost.”
Recall Also:
Tobacco
Pesticides – DDT - Dioxin
Drugs - Thalidomide
Parallels
The pattern of corporate economic benefit trumping societal cost
rings clearly in our ears.
It is time for citizens to decide:
Should the people and the planet serve the economy?
Or should the economy serve the people and the planet?
Problems:
1 – Burden of Proof; Should this fall on the developer to demonstrate safety or
‘society’ to demonstrate a threat?
2 – Precautionary Principle (Science & Environmental Health - Wingspread 1998)
3 – Corporate Fiduciary Requirements:
In most jurisdictions, courts will exhort directors to use their best efforts to
maximize shareholder wealth.
But B Corporations…
SOCAN Position on Genetically Engineered
Organisms
• SOCAN has grave reservations about the role of Genetically
Engineered Organisms in terms of their potential negative
impacts on our ability to address climate change. In
particular, SOCAN favors a moratorium on GEO crops until
independent research is conducted demonstrating an
absence of negative impact of GEOs on yield, drought
tolerance, water use efficiency, genetic diversity among crops,
fertilizer and pesticide use, carbon storage, and long term
health effects.
TPP
• Where freedom is valued, ‘free trade’ seems a ‘no-brainer…’
• The 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement incorporated a side
agreement designed to protect the environment.
• In the case of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) linking 12 Pacific Rim
nations, this lesson should be learned.
• A leaked copy of the Environment Chapter suggests that current
environmental regulatory provisions will lack teeth and be totally
inadequate for the job.
SOCAN on Trans Pacific Partnership
• In letters to Senators Merkley and Wyden, August 2013, we urged:
• Including an environment chapter that would obligate countries to enforce domestic
environmental protections and abide by global environmental agreements that are enforceable
through international lawsuits.
• Rejecting the proposed TPP investment chapter that would authorize foreign investors to
bypass domestic courts and bring suit before special international tribunals biased in favor of
multinationals to seek awards of unlimited monetary damages in compensation for the cost of
complying with environmental and other public interest regulations.
• Rejecting "provisions of the TPP intellectual property chapter that would provide international
legal protections for corporate patents on plant and animal life, granting companies ownership
and sole access to these building blocks of life."
• Rejecting the regulatory coherence chapter that could hamstring environmental regulation and
"encourage cost-benefit analysis that exaggerates financial costs and minimizes the intrinsic
value of protecting living things, wild places, and the stability of the ecosystem."
• And finally that the TPP "must serve to strengthen environmental protection and support the
biodiversity in the Pacific Rim and not facilitate a race to the bottom in environmental
deregulation."
Sustainable Living?
• We have to appreciate that we cannot live in a finite world, with
• An infinitely expanding economy and resource requirement,
• An infinitely expanding population, and
• An infinitely expanding by-production of pollution
• Reality has limits….
• While we must recognize legitimate aspirations of other peoples, we should
help them avoid the ‘cowboy’ economic phase through which we are
passing
It’s all about future generations!
http://socan.info
Co-Facilitators:
Alan Journet alanjournet@gmail.com 541-301-4107
Kathy Conway kathleendconway@gmail.com 541-324-4501
MONTHLY MEETINGS:
Last Tuesday of the month
June 24th
Special Topic Presentation 6:00 – 6:30 pm Carbon Credits / Offsets
General Meeting: 6:30 – 8:00 pm
‘Projects to Make a Difference’
Medford Pubic Library, 205 S. Central Ave.
SOCAN Projects
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Divestment from Fossil Fuel
Master Climate Protector
Climate in the Curriculum
Weather Reporter
Presentations
Oregon Legislative District
Writing Corps
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SOCAN RED
Federal Government
State Government
Local Government
Regional Recognition
Forest-Climate Change Interface
Networking
Some Comments on Our RV Likely Future
Business As Usual
Rogue Valley Temperature Trends and Projections
63
HISTORICAL AVERAGE
61
59
CSIRO Annual Ave
HADLEY Annual Ave
MIROC Annual Ave
55
53
51
49
47
45
1900
1904
1908
1912
1916
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
2028
2032
2036
2040
2044
2048
2052
2056
2060
2064
2068
2072
2076
2080
2084
2088
2092
2096
2100
Temperature ⁰F
57
1961-1990
Ave – 50.030F
Summer Ave – 63.580F
Winter Ave – 38.170F
Years 1900 to 2100
Rogue Basin Temperature History and Projections
Projected Increases
2035-2045
Average
1.6 – 4⁰F
(51.6 – 53.8⁰F)
2075-2085
Average
4.3 – 8.2⁰F
(54.3 – 58.2⁰F)
Winter
1 – 3.5⁰F
(39.1 – 41.7⁰F)
Winter
3.4 – 6.3⁰F
(41.5 – 44.5⁰F)
Summer
1 – 6⁰F
(64.4 – 69.5⁰F)
Summer
5.5 – 11.8⁰F
(69.1 – 75.4⁰F)
August
1 – 7.5⁰F
(67.1 – 73.5⁰F)
August
6.7 – 16.8⁰F
(72.7 – 82.8⁰F)
Related Climatic Factors: Local Trends & Projections
Precipitation Accumulated as of May 2014 % “Normal”
Climate Summary Observed Temperatures in May 2014; departure from
“Normal”
U.S. Drought Monitor June
th
10
2104
Short & Long Term
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?OR
Precipitation since October 1st 2013 as % of “Normal”
Snow Water Equivalent as % of “Normal”
Rogue Valley: Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Fossil Fuels for energy production
Utility Energy Production for use in our homes
& local businesses (app. ¾ = 18%)
Natural gas for heating
Private cars/trucks
Public Transit
Local Freight
Energy to make stuff
Energy to transport stuff here
Clothes, shoes, ‘phones, TVs
Projected Regional Solutions
Current Non-Renewable
Need = 2.1 M MWH
Could be reduced to
1.2 M MWH or 57%
Renewable
= 43% reduction in C intensive
electrical generation need
i.e. 18% of our
GHG emissions
= nearly 8% of
Regional GHG emissions
http://rvcog.org/cogboard/2011/Dec_14/RVCOG-REA-Final_PPT-121511.pdf
Energy efficiency: where are the greatest savings?
http://rvcog.org/cogboard/2011/Dec_14/RVCOG-REA-Final_PPT-121511.pdf
We Have Choices! Individually & Collectively
Now….
Back in the Day…
CO2
Energy
Accounting
Money inflows
& outflows
Hopium
Carbon
Accounting
Finally – Definitive, Irrefutable,
Confirmation of Global Warming…
Is there a conspiracy?
OR
$271 b in US
97%
socanhotline@gmail.com
• Questions?
Any comments or
questions ????