Photo Credit: Getty

Above: Bolivian Vice President, Alvaro Garcia Linera (L), Bolivian President Evo Morales (2-L), his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez (C) and Nicaraguan commander Tomas Borges (R) participate in a World Climate Change Conference at the Feliz Capriles stadium in Cochabamba, Bolivia on April 22, 2010. April 22 marks the 40th Earth Day, which urges local action and increased awareness to understand and respect the environment.

Seems like many of the voices locked out of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference found a voice here and I applaud the formation of a separate conference. All the attention and all the protests, though well intentioned, in Copenhagen reinforced the idea that change would come from those invited and allowed to be heard at that conference. I simply don’t believe in that.

If we have to wait for large, wealthy nation’s to act in everyone’s interest or save our lives we’ll be waiting a long time. And so will our grandchildren, if the world is still inhabitable by humans by the time anyone young now has grandkids. It’s good to know there are many that don’t want to take the Copenhagen concessions and tricknology as our only options.

Here’s some footage from the excellent coverage Democracy Now! did.

democracynow.org: One of the key initiatives of the climate conference in Bolivia is to come out with a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth. We speak with South African environmental lawyer Cormac Cullinan, the co-president of the Rights of Mother Earth Working Group at the summit. He arrived at the climate change conference with a draft Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth that formed the basis of the discussion.

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