Starting next week all eyes will turn towards Mexico as the UNFCCC gathers in Cancun to begin another round of Climate Negotiations, the COP-16. Thousands will travel to Cancun by land, air and sea to influence the international negotiations where forests, water, and Indigenous Rights (among others) are commodified and waged like poker chips on the global card table.

Allied movements from the Global South and North are coming to the United Nations this year with our own People’s Agreement towards an ecologically just future that embodies not just the rights of humans, but the rights of Mother Earth and all her creations.

Last year at COP15 in Copenhagen, Ruckus took a stand with our friends from the Indigenous Environmental Network to create actions that brought voices of Indigenous Peoples to the forefront of world media and posed direct challenges to our world leaders.

This year in Cancun we stand ready to link arms with our friends again to challenge destructive policies like REDD (so-called “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation”), which are being pushed down our throats as false solutions to climate change, but in actuality cause even more problems while doing nothing to curb climate change. (Want to know more about why REDD is a false solution? Read up here).

I landed in Cancun this morning, and the rest of our Ruckus Action Team is arriving over the next few days to hit the ground running prepping for actions over the next two weeks of COP-16 negotiations.  Don’t miss out on the action! Stay virtually connected throughout the negotiations and peoples mobilization by following us on Facebook and Twitter and here on our blog for all the latest action updates from COP-16.

And while some of us are in Cancun, Ruckus is also joining our allies at home in the U.S. to respond to La Via Campesina’s call for actions this Dec 7th to create ‘thousands of Cancuns’. We encourage YOU to hit the streets with your neighbors this December 7th and practice bold acts of resilience and community sustainability.

Remember, actions speak louder than words, and they start at home!  Local Organizing Cools the Planet!

In Solidarity from Cancun,
Sharon