Progressive Student Union

THE INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON GLOBALIZATION

THE INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES &

THE PROGRESSIVE STUDENT UNION AT GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

PRESENT A TEACH-IN:

Confronting the Global Triple Crisis

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

FOR SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2007

(Subject to change)

Marvin Center at George Washington University

800 21st Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

(across the street from Lisner Auditorium)

FIRST SESSSION: 10:00AM-11:30AM

BUSINESS RESPONSES TO THE TRIPLE CRISIS – ROOM 301

Michael Northrop, Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Javier Hurtado, IRUPANA- Bolivia

Judy Wicks, Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE)

Aimee Christensen, Christensen Global Strategies

Conrad MacKerron, As You Sow Foundation

Thoughtful CEOs are already anticipating rising costs of energy and pending climate legislation, not to mention water depletion, by investing in efficiency and shifting their supply lines to source more sustainably, which often means locally. An even bigger factor driving these decisions is the change in consumer preferences and the companies’ resulting desire to appear as an environmental leader, not laggard. How are businesses responding to the Triple Crisis? What initiatives are gaining ground? Everyone knows that business must be part of the solution but can corporations really self-organize the shift in economic paradigms that we need to equitably sustain life on our planet? As coal executives and venture capitalists together call for rules setting real costs on carbon, what does this tell us about the role of citizens, governments, and corporations? Join this conversation featuring a co-chair of the national Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), the founder of Bolivia’s largest organic food cooperative, a sustainability adviser to global companies, and a leading shareholder activist, who will explore how to create businesses according to ecological and sustainable principles.

INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE CHANGE CAMPAIGNS – ROOM 307

Hilda Guttierez and Lorena Rodriguez, Student Trade Justice Campaign

Dan Imhoff, Wild Farm Alliance

Kasha Ho’okili, Rainforest Action Network

Come turn ideas into action! Learn how YOU can get involved in the struggle against corporate control of our global and local food systems. This workshop will explore how the global food system and industrial agriculture contributes to climate change, hunger, and poverty. The global food system presents a good lens to examine the "development" related root causes of natural resource degradation in the world. We will discuss how globalizing trade undermines local economies and explore ways to challenge industrial agriculture through community-based food systems. In addition, we will draw the links between expanding agro-fuels and rising food prices and hunger. Furthermore, we will talk about the importance of adopting a food sovereignty framework for food aid and development.

BEYOND COAL – ROOM 308

Mary Ann Hitt, Appalachian Voices

Becky Tarbotton, Rainforest Action Network

Lenny Kohm, Appalachian Voices

The coal industry is looking for a new lease on life by promoting itself as the all-in-one answer to climate change and energy independence. A new generation of technologies to extract, process, and burn coal, plus sequester its carbon, is allowing Big Coal to remove entire mountaintops and market itself anew as “clean coal.” Join this session to converse and strategize with leading authors and activists who are campaigning to organize coal-mining communities, consumers, investors, and everyone else along the chain of supply and demand of one of the most carbon-intensive fuels on earth.

BIODIVERSITY AND THE TRIPLE CRISIS – ROOM 309

John Fitzgerald, Society for Conservation Biology

Jennifer Krill, Rainforest Action Network

Atossa Soltani, Amazon Watch

Janet Redman, Sustainable Energy and Economy Network

We welcome to this session people who love the planet’s wild places and are deeply concerned by the accelerating rates of species extinction worldwide. This session features leading conservation biologists, as well as top biodiversity campaigners. Participants will help assess current efforts to protect species diversity, and try to identify the systemic threats to it. Depending on the interests of the participants, we will also brainstorm on how to best offer strategic support to local struggles, while also addressing the broader battle to reverse the hierarchy of values in today’s global system, whereby the rights of corporations become subordinated to the rights of nature.

BEYOND NUCLEAR: THE MYTH OF CLEAN NUCLEAR ENERGY – ROOM 310

Claire Greensfelder, Plutonium Free Future/INOCHI and International Forum on Globalization

James Riccio, Greenpeace USA

Haeyoung Kim, Korean Americans for Fair Trade

Bob Alvarez, Nuclear Policy Project, Institute for Policy Studies

Not only is nuclear power not clean energy (or "cheap energy" either as has often been claimed) - it's the starting point for nuclear materials proliferation, the development of weapons of mass destruction and the worldwide problem of nuclear accidents. In spite of all this, the industry has seized upon global warming and climate change as a clarion call to breathe new life into what was, at least in the US, a dying industry. This workshop will deconstruct the false advertising spread by the global nuclear corporations, debunk the myth of "clean nuclear power" and highlight campaigns in the U.S. and around the world to stop the expansion of nuclear power plants and promote alternatives that are truly cleaner and safer.

BLIND SPOT – ROOM 401

Amanda Zackem, producer

Adolpho Doring, director

Blindspot is a documentary film that illustrates the current oil and energy crisis that our world is facing. Whatever measures of ignorance, greed, or wishful thinking; we have put ourselves at a crossroads offering two paths – both with dire consequences. If we continue to burn fossil fuels we will choke the life out of the planet, and if we don’t, our way of life will collapse.

CARBON TRADING – ROOM 403

Jutta Kill, FERN

Tamra Gilbertson, Transnational Institute

Daphne Wysham, Institute for Policy Studies

This workshop will explore why carbon trading is the wrong answer if a swift and just switch to low-carbon economies is the challenge. What are the differences between emissions trading/cap-and-trade, and carbon offset trading and how are the two are linked? We will discuss what lessons ought to be learned from the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, or why carbon offset schemes are, despite their popularity, a dangerous distraction from decisive action to avert climate chaos.

BEYOND BIOFUELS – ROOM 405

Leila Salazar, Rainforest Action Network

Lucia Ortiz, Friends of the Earth, Brazil

David Pimentel, Cornell University

Tad Patzek, University of California at Berkeley

David Waskow, Friends of the Earth

How can critiques of corn-based and other questionable types of biofuels be advanced without opening the door for the expansion of sugar, soy, and oil palm-based biofuels that are causing their own problems in exporting nations of the Global South? Are criteria for sustainable production a viable tool to influence how biofuels are made? How can we in the U.S. (whose consumers will ultimately use these fuels) work more closely with activists in the South to elevate their political demands? This workshop will involve a number of key biofuels activists and academics from top producing and consuming countries. Depending on what participants want to achieve in this session, the facilitator (an experienced climate campaigner) can help deepen peoples’ understanding of the issues facing biofuels or explore how best to channel participants’ organizing energy into collective responses based on international solidarity.

CONFRONTING OVERCONSUMPTON – ROOM 411

Thomas Princen, University of Michigan and author, The Logic of Sufficiency

Vicki Robin, author, Your Money or Your Life

Michael Maniates, co-author, Confronting Consumption

How much is enough? This is a question that is almost never asked in conventional discussions about the economy and society. The tacit assumptions are that there is never enough, that growth must continue indefinitely. The session will examine chains of consumption in the context of economic globalization and discuss citizen action through local currencies, home power, voluntary simplicity, “ad-busting,” and product certification.

SEEKING AN ECOLOGICAL ECONOMY - ROOM 414

Randy Hayes, International Forum on Globalization

Jack Santa Barbara, Sustainable Scale Project

Josh Farley, Gund Institute for Ecological Economics

Dave Batker, Earth Economics

John Talberth, Center for Sustainable Economy

Dale Wen, International Forum on Globalization

A discussion on how ecologizing the economy is a critical component to resolving the Triple Crisis. People who are already familiar with the basic concepts of ecological economics, and would like to see it become more effective are encouraged to attend. Workshop goals: 1) understanding of how the principles of ecological economics help to resolve the triple crisis; and 2) moving beyond discussion of principles to actions to be taken.

POWERING-DOWN EQUITABLY – LISNER LOWER LOBBY

Megan Quinn, Community Solutions

Richard Heinberg, author, The Party’s Over; Powerdown

David Korten, Positive Futures Network

Tom Athanasiou, EcoEquity

Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network

If the world must reduce its overall consumption of energy, or “power-down,” how can we do this in a way that raises living standards for the billions of people worldwide living at or below the poverty level who want access to energy? Featuring a group of prominent specialists, this session will engage participants in a discussion that explores the difficult questions inherent in the concept of powering down, such as: What would it look like? How would it work? How can the current over-consumers adapt to lower levels of consumption? How can those who have little or nothing achieve a sustainable minimum consumption level without adding to the problems of climate change and resource depletion? How can we find common ground in addressing a key conceptual challenge for facing the Triple Crisis?

POST-KYOTO DEAL – LISNER AUDITORIUM

Meena Raman, Friends of the Earth International

Herman Ott, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy

Simon Retallack, Institute for Public Policy Research

Jennifer Morgan, Third Generation Environmentalism

Ross Gelbspan, author, The Heat is On

Talks are now underway for a new framework deal on global climate change to replace the UN Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012. Next week, President Bush will welcome to Washington delegations from the world’s 15 largest greenhouse-gas-emitting nations. The week after that in New York, the UN General Assembly will host a special session on climate change. All of this leads up to December 3-14, 2007, when the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will attempt to forge a new post-Kyoto framework when it meets in Bali, Indonesia. What are the essential ingredients of a deal that is adequate to the climate challenge and yet equitable for all? Which new mechanisms are most needed to ensure compliance with meaningful targets? Which could worsen the problem? How can we ensure that commitments come with new financing and technology transfer for the Global South? What does a new climate regime mean for global economic institutions whose policies create the economic incentives for climate chaos? Come engage international specialists who are in the middle of moving these talks forward and attempting to influence government negotiating positions for whatever outcomes emerge from a new Bali Mandate.

SECOND SESSION: 11:30AM - 12:55PM

THE ECONOMICS OF HAPPINESS: REBUILDING LOCAL ECONOMIES WORLDWIDE– ROOM 301

Helena Norberg-Hodge, International Society for Ecology and Culture

David Korten, Positive Futures Network

Shannon Biggs, Global Exchange

Richard Heinberg, author, The Party’s Over and Powerdown

The Triple Crisis demands a fundamental shift in the direction of economic activity: towards localized business and finance, towards rebuilding the connection between producers and consumers, towards economies of place. In addition to its destructive environmental effects, globalization is responsible for a growing gap between rich and poor, widespread job insecurity and poverty. This in turn lies behind social breakdown – from fundamentalism and ethnic friction to an epidemic of depression… This workshop will outline the multiple benefits of economic localization from a broad international perspective, with a focus on the social and psychological benefits. We will explore the major policy changes and community initiatives necessary for a shift towards localization. Finally we will explode some of the commonly held myths that are used to undermine the global-to-local movement.

WHAT’S GOING ON IN CHINA? – ROOM 307

Dale Wen, International Forum on Globalization

Although our media is saturated with stories about China’s accelerating climate change, oil depletion, and global ecological collapse in general, we rarely hear about grassroots efforts in China to confront the Triple Crisis. Having just returned to the US from an entire summer back home in China doing field research, public speaking, and networking, Chinese native, Dale Wen, will share what she found on the ground in communities that are bearing the brunt of the Triple Crisis, some of whom are countering it with their own organizing. Several streams of popular movements in China are weaving together a new front that has potential for becoming a new force in changing how China relates to the natural world.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND THE TRIPLE CRISIS – ROOM 308

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Tebtebba Foundation

Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network

Q’orianka Kilcher, indigenous activist

Perhaps no community is more impacted by globalization and its ensuing Triple Crisis than the world’s 350 million indigenous peoples who still live traditional lifestyles on to their ancestral lands. As many of their battles for land and culture continue locally, indigenous peoples are uniting globally, most recently evident in the adoption of the United Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. A revolutionary document, it also has potential as a powerful international instrument for addressing the Triple Crisis because it counters the industrial paradigm of growth by recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples, including protection of the land, water, air, species, and other elements of nature that are essential to their cultural survival. This session will feature leading international indigenous activists who were highly involved in the UN effort yet remain deeply embedded in their communities back home.

THE POWER OF FRAME & THE FRAME OF POWER – ROOM 309

Francis Moore Lappé, Small Planet Institute and author, Diet for a Small Planet

“How forcible are right words,” says Job 16:25; so come explore with Frances Moore Lappé the words and mental frames progressives use to communicate our vision. The goal? To clarify our thinking about the worldviews and unexamined assumptions our words carry so that we can become more effective. We’ll examine prevailing frames for thinking about—and terms for discussing—power, capitalism, democracy, the environmental movement, and even human nature. Are they consistent with an ecological worldview? Do they empower or disempower? How can we creatively reshape limiting assumptions and develop a language to make us more powerful ourselves in creating the world we want?

HOW WE LIVE NOW – ROOM 310

Megan Quinn, Community Solution

Ann Leonard, Funders Working Group for Sustainable Development

Betsy Taylor, former president, Center for a New American Dream

Claire Greensfelder, International Forum on Globalization

Jerry Mander, International Forum on Globalization

A workshop and discussion on individual lifestyle changes and creative community responses to the pressing global crises. Share personal experiences and campaign strategies re-envisioning our society, and connect with a growing grassroots movement pioneering a new American way of life.

BLIND SPOT – ROOM 401

Amanda Zackem, producer

Adolpho Doring, director

ECUADOR INITIATIVE – ROOM 403

Nadia Martinez, Institute for Policy Studies

and others…

Prompted by years of struggle by indigenous and social movements in Ecuador, the administration of that country'snew President, Rafael Correa is breaking with tradition and carving a new path in the search for solutions to the many problems associated with the triple crisis. His government is offering to spare the ITT oil field located below the UNESCO-rated Yasuni National Park, from oil exploitation in exchange for international community aid to address the country's development needs. The Yasuni-ITT proposal could be a bold and innovative first step towards shifting Ecuador's economy from oil dependency to a more sustainable model that takes into account natural ecosystems, social and cultural values, and seeks to abate global carbon emissions. This session will discuss the Ecuadorian proposal, debate its pros and cons, and exchange ideas for U.S. activists to support the effort.

COMMON STRATEGIES FOR FALSE SOLUTIONS – ROOM 405

Tony Clarke, Polaris Institute

Mary Ann Hitt, Appalachian Voices

Lucia Ortiz, Friends of the Earth, Brazil

So, how do we break the trend and momentum in favor of false solutions, which is imperative if we are going to bring about the kind of social transformation urgently needed to overcome the Triple Crises and build a better world? This workshop will begin with three brief overviews of campaign plans to confront and prevent false solutions currently being advanced to avoid the real social transformation that’s needed — Tony Clarke on the Canadian tar sands, Mary Anne Hitt on the Appalachian coal mines, and Lucia Ortiz on Brazil’s production of bio-fuels — followed by open and extensive discussion with participants on what needs to be done to mobilize for these kinds of campaigns.

REFRAMING FREEDOM IN A WORLD WITH LIMITS – ROOM 411

Vicki Robin, co-author, Your Money or Your Life

We are "beyond the limits" - environmentally, socially and psychologically - but unable to stop. We need a new frame for freedom that makes living on "less and local" compelling and exciting, a true global "survivor game" with the winners those who live within limits and love them. Facing limits - like addicts as they hit bottom or dying people as they accept the end is near - can liberate us to change. Activists, analysts and people simply perplexed by our denial of the reality of limits will understand the roots and toxicity of our American cowboy, cornucopia and individualist story of freedom. We will deconstruct and reframe the "freedom as no limits" paradigm and suggest a new paradigm - actually the ancient truth and hard reality - of "freedom within limits". In this view, limits are not "in the way" - they are the ways. They are the tools we use to channel our amazing freedom towards a future we choose. You will hear and share empowering language and concepts of liberating limits that you can use in your communications as well as your own inner work. You will have an opportunity in conversation with others to gain greater clarity and commitment to personal change and activism.

CLIMATE AND THE WORLD BANK/WTO – ROOM 413

Victor Menotti, International Forum on Globalization

Daphne Wysham, Sustainable Energy and Economy Network

Martin Khor, Third World Network

David Waskow, Friends of the Earth

Margrete Strand Rangnes, Sierra Club

Susan George, Transnational Institute

Resolving the Triple Crisis means not only creating stronger and smarter multilateral environmental agreements but, maybe more importantly, changing the international economic institutions that govern the global economy and drive destructive growth. Two of the foremost bodies are the World Bank (WB) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), both of which have been traditional targets of action by global civil society, although their authority over climate and energy policy has been less well known. WTO and WB each have aggressive and complementary proposals to deal with these issues, although their prescription is, higher doses of the same bad medicine which would greatly expand the power of each over the climate and energy issues. This session will assess the potential impacts of current proposals in each of these institutions and explore ways to address them via international networks that elevate the voices of the poorest nations while promoting clean energy sovereignty and clean energy banking worldwide, all with a view toward leveraging a new global economic architecture.

SEEKING AN ECOLOGICAL ECONOMY - ROOM 414

Randy Hayes, International Forum on Globalization

Jack Santa Barbara, Sustainable Scale Project

Josh Farley, Gund Institute for Ecological Economics

Dave Batker, Earth Economics

John Talberth, Center for Sustainable Economy

Dale Wen, International Forum on Globalization

U.S. CLIMATE CAMPAIGNING – LISNER LOWER LOBBY

Steve Kretzmann, Oil Change International

Autumn Barr-Engstrom, Americans for Informed Democracy

Reverend Lennox Yearwood, Hip Hop Caucus

Ross Gelbspan, author, The Heat is On

Maja Gopel, World Future Council

How do we channel our collective organizing energy into real results for American climate policy? Are there realistic ways to make short-term progress on climate and still addressing systemic issues about the paradigm? How to do this in solidarity with social movements in the Global South to ensure equity? Join this session if you want to get into what’s on the table in terms of national legislation and efforts to influence US positions in global negotiations. Depending on the make-up of participants, the group can either choose to review current efforts in Congress to pass climate and energy legislation or go deeper into sharing strategies and developing new networks that can harness new ideas into action.

GLOBAL GRAND BARGAIN – ROOM 307

John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies

Sara Larraín, Chile Sustentable

Wolfgang Sachs, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, and Energy

Meena Raman, Friends of the Earth

Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South

Herman Ott, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, and Energy

This session will be a follow-up discussion of the plenary panel that proposes the outline of a Global Grand Bargain, which is an attempt to find common ground for an international consensus to solve the Triple Crisis. John Cavanagh will distribute copies of the working draft document and then facilitate a conversation that seeks comments, reactions, and additional ideas to add to the mix of how to move forward, if at all, a Global Grand Bargain.