MEDIA ADVISORY
9 October 2005
Friends of the Earth International
expresses solidarity with the peoples of
Central America and Mexico
Saddened by the tragedy caused by
Hurricane Stan in Central America, leaders of
70 environmental organizations attending the
General Assembly of Friends of the Earth
International (FoEI) expressed their
solidarity with the peoples of Central
America and Mexico in these moments of
devastation and tragedy.
Hurricane Stan has left 232,000 people
homeless, caused over 500 deaths in Guatemala
alone and left hundreds still missing.The
intensity as well as the frequency of severe
weather phenomena such as hurricanes is
increasing due to climate change, according
to Friends of the Earth. In Central America
the people are particularly vulnerable to
severe weather events because of the intense
poverty and environmental degradation already
rampant in the region.
"The panorama of desolation, death,
destruction of crops makes life even more
difficult in a region that has suffered
chronic poverty and social and environmental
injustice since the colonialist invasion,“
said Jose Utrera, Coordinator of the
Secretariat of Friends of the Earth
International, who is himself from
Guatemala.
"This hurricane, despite its relatively
small scale, exemplifies predictions of the
impacts of climate change. International
scientific consensus has been clear in
predicting that climate change will bring an
increase in the intensity of such weather
events. Stan is the third hurricane that has
hit the caribbean region since September. It
follows hurricane Katrina which destroyed the
city of New Orleans and the surrounding area
in the Gulf of Mexico and hurricane Rita
which caused huge displacement of people in
the same region,” stated Catherine Pearce,
coordinator of the climate change campaign of
Friends of the Earth International.
“We are worried about the high level of
social and environmental vulnerability
endured by the vast majority of communities
in Central America. Only a few years ago
hurricane Mitch left a large number of people
dead and caused destruction to our
agriculture and our infrastructure. Moreover,
many people were left without means of
sustenance. Both then and now, the poorest
people suffer most from what climate change
is bringing, triggered by the consumption of
fossil fuels by the richest countries,”
declared Fanny Figueroa of Movimiento Madre
Tierra – Friends of the Earth Honduras.
Meena Raman of Friends of the Earth
Malaysia and chair of Friends of the Earth
International stated that “the ecological
debt of the countries in the North to the
countries in the South increases day by day.
Climate change generated by unsustainable
lifestyles and overconsumption in the North
hits the poorest communities in the South the
hardest, communities that have least
responsibility in causing the problem.”
Faced with this situation FoEI calls upon
the international community and especially
the industrialised countries:
-
to bring the desperately needed
financial and logistical support to the
people affected by the recent storms in
Central America, especially the poorest, so
that they can speedily count on the means
they need to live a life in dignity.
-
to finance a program of social
reconstruction and environmental
restoration that allows the central
american society to decrease its level of
vulnerability, restore its environmental
conditions and generate socially and
environmentally just conditions.
FoEI also emphasizes that climate change
is no longer merely a challenge that is yet
to come, but that dangerous climate change is
already being felt and threatens to overwhelm
our planet.
We make a firm appeal to the
industrialised countries, who, due to their
historical and current levels of greenhouse
gas emissions must take responsibility for
their contribution to climate change by
taking the furthest and deepest cuts in their
domestic emissions and by paying the costs
for adaptation needs and decarbonisation
strategies in the South.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
In Guatemala Mario Godinez, Friends of the
Earth Guatemala / CEIBA, Tel: +502 7839 6033
or +502 7839 10 33 or +502 5718 28 40, or
email ceibauno@terra.com.gt
In Honduras Juan Almendares, Friends of
the Earth Honduras / Madre Tierra Tel: +504
237 5700, or email:
atoldeelote@hotmail.com
In El Salvador Ricardo Navarro: Friends of
the Earth El Salvador / CESTA Tel: +503 220
3000, or email cesta@cesta-foe.org
In London (UK) Catherine Pearce,
International Coordination Climate Change
Campaign, FoEI Tel: +44 7811 283 641 or email
catp@foe.co.uk
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