MEETINGS 2008

A talk and presentation by Jere Locke

Jere Locke, Outreach Coordinator for Environment Texas, is building global warming coalitions in 12 Texas congressional districts. He will do a presentation on global warming which will include the following:

• Reflections on the Bali UN Climate Conference this past December which he attended.
• Update on the latest scientific reports including NASA's Dr. James Hansen's recently released research which recommends a new upper limit for emissions. This study and others have huge implications for Thailand and all
  of Asia. Dr. Hansen is the world's foremost global warming scientist.
• Update on the political process at both the US and international levels.
• Suggestions about what we all might do.
  

Jere writes: My topic will be Global Warming. I did political organizing on globalization before coming to Chiang Mai 4.5 years ago. I was the founder and director of Texas Fair Trade Coalition, which included Texas Sierra Club, Texas AFL-CIO, Texas Farmers Union and about 50 other organizations.

Last December, I went to the UN Climate Conference in Bali with Via Campesina, an international organization of small farmers and peasant.  I was representing my foundation called Texas Harambe (Swahili for let's work together). Before going I was blissfully ignorant of the UN process thinking it would take care of the problem. However, while there I became alarmed at how flawed it was. On returning I started to read and became more and more alarmed.

This led me to talk with a variety of prominent people in the US, take a trip there in February to attend the national meeting of the Env. Grantmakers Association organized by the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation. In April I return to Texas to work with Environment America for three months building coalitions in 12 congressional districts there. Before I go I will meet with Kansri Boongrapob, a Thai member of the IPCC which recently got the Nobel Prize with Al Gore.

From my readings and various talks with knowledgeable people the science seems to be telling us that Thailand can expect Bangkok to be flooded in the not to distant future and for the rice harvest here to be severely curtailed. All this information is based on IPCC reports. Presently scientists at three Thai universities are using three different computer models to get a better idea of global warming scenarios for Thailand.

However, these won't be ready until over a year from now. What I'd be talking about is the state of the UN process which is our one
and only hope, and what we can expect to happen here in Thailand and elsewhere as the temperatures go up.

INTG CONTACTS:

1) Convenor: Brian Hubbard. Email: <[email protected]>;
Tel./Fax: 053 4094 18. Address: 106/18 Moo 2 - Potharam Road, Soi Pai di-Ma di, Chiang Mai 50300

2) Secretary: Louis Gabaude: e-mail: <[email protected]>.
H/O Phone: 053 11 73 19; Mob. 087 188 50 99. H/O Fax: 053 85 04 85.

3) INTG Website: http://www.intgcm.thehostserver.com

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