From Petro-States to People-Power: Reflections on PowerShift Atlantic

By Nimisha Bastedo and Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler Canada is a Petro-State – a prime example of a government that bows down to the oil industry while it turns its back on the land’s integrity and people’s basic rights. I’d been trying to keep tabs on my country’s dirty ways from across the border, but hearing it straight from those working on the front lines made it even more of a reality....

Beyond a ‘talk shop’ in Rome

By Nimisha Bastedo How can we make sure that the decisions that are made here actually have an impact? This was the central question during the side event yesterday morning that was called “Towards the Innovative monitoring mechanism of the CFS”. The special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier de Schutter, talked about the risk of reducing the CFS into a “talk shop” if there aren’t...

Enbridge’s Northern Gateway to Destruction

By Nimisha Bastedo The rally in Portland last Saturday does not and cannot stand alone. While we try to prevent Tar Sands oil from entering the Northeast, and the battle against the Keystone XL continues, the Alberta Tar Sands still show no signs of defeat. Over a million barrels of the world’s dirtiest oil continue to be extracted every day. Even if Canada can’t send its oil South, there’s...

Analysis of the most recent text on food security

By Nimisha Bastedo, Anna Odell, Clara de Iturbe and Lara Shirley Having watched the development of the issue of food security in the negotiating text from the original release of the Zero Order Draft to the current negotiating text, we have identified some key areas that are particularly relevant and/or contentious in the facilitator’s suggested text. We have examined the text in depth, and...

Date with History (again)

"The Future We Want" Earth in Brackets from Devin Altobello Documentarian on Vimeo.   The Date with History competition is long gone, but we thought that we'd share our entry, our vision, ahead of the opening of the prep comm in Rio tomorrow, where negotiations will resume on "The Future We Want," a document that is many miles off the Future We Really Want.