Climate Caravan 2014

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Climate Caravan 2014

By Jarred Sferruzzi

Everyone knows that Bangladesh is one of the countries that will have most problems from climate change. People in this area know this very well, but the government does not. They are building a very big new coal power plant. It will be ready in 2019.

This is part of bigger plans: to produce 9,000 megawatts of electricity and take over about 2,000 hectares (20 square kilometres) of perfect coast land. Bangladesh has 1,175 people per square kilometre, so it is a terrible idea to take up so much land. So the Bangladesh Krishok Federation (BKF) and Bangladesh Kishani Sabha (BKS) want to do something about it. This year, they have organized a Climate Caravan.

The Climate Caravan is on a two-week tour. It started on 10 November, and will visit places in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. It will try to bring people together – people who are fighting for justice in industrialized and developing nations. It wants to share information and show examples of how to stop climate change and fight against capitalism.

The first Climate Caravan (the South Asian Climate Change, Gender and Food Sovereignty Caravan) was in 2011. It was at the same time as the UN climate change conference in Durban, South Africa (COP17). Important people went from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Philippines, Britain, Germany and Australia. And the caravan visited 18 villages in Bangladesh for meetings, workshops and seminars on important local problems.

All the people are in farming areas. They talked a lot and found that they all have similar problems. Climate change makes the problems worse. The Climate Caravan said they do not agree with the solutions suggested by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). They said the suggestions were the multinational companies (that have caused climate change in the first place) wanting to take over the rest of their land and life.

The 2014 Climate Caravan wants to be bigger and better than the others. They want to cover more environments and fights, and still focusing on the main aims: to do something about climate change, gender, food sovereignty and how these work together.

Find out what Climate Caravan is doing at the BKF website

We want system change, not climate change.

Jarred Sferruzzi is an Australian journalist.

NOW READ THE ORIGINAL: http://newint.org/blog/2014/11/10/climate-caravan-bangladesh/