Thank you very much for opening COP21-Paris with the call for the creation of an International
Court of Environmental Justice, to punish environmental crimes
Please do not let Ireland, or any of the
other countries, leave Paris without a commitment to stop Animal Agriculture.
Ireland’s government is only protecting a corrupt industry. It is, as you say, that greed has become our
worst nightmare.
This is all the information I have in
regard to Ireland’s current laws and business strategy. I hope it helps you and
other good leaders press successfully for an international court that is
powerful enough to charge corporations with ecocide, seize their assets and force
governments to re-direct the money to sustainable food production and energy. Use of water in Animal Agriculture
Protected
Disclosures Act
Ireland has a Protected Disclosures Act,
since 2014, so that corruption can be exposed. It is not working. This year, disclosures
were made to the Agricultural Minister himself and he arranged for the major illegal
Food Fraud case to be thrown out of court. On the day of the court case, the
same Minister for Agriculture was showing Chinese officials around the meat
factories and saying what robust food safety systems Ireland has in place. The case was never heard.
Agag
Laws
This is a gagging law that protects Big
Agribusiness by criminalizing people who record or monitor the activities,
impacts and bad practice on factory farms.
There is a version of these laws here, in the criminalizing of all
not-for-profit organizations and demonstrations.
Transatlantic
Trade Partnership (TTIP)
The TTIP is still being negotiated between America and EU and would be a disaster. Corporate Lawyers could sue governments. An example of this: New toxic chemicals (by
Monsanto, Bayer, Dow, BASF etc) are refused at first by the European Union,
because they are so dangerous. Then the companies bring a counter claim on the
grounds that it is anti-competitive to refuse their products a license. Their
appeal wins and herbicides and pesticides are used indiscriminately. I
understand your hitler comment in Paris as directors of these companies were
recruited from hitler’s original team who ran similar experiments.
70% of soil on the planet is toxic now,
whereas it was 40% twenty years ago.
Governments
are Owned by Corporations now
At the summit, please raise the problem of
governments being owned by corporations now. In Ireland, our leading political
party changed the laws so that the government does not have to disclose which businesses they get money from. This
means that there is zero transparency and they protect the companies that
finance their campaigns to get them into power. Making more profit for these
stakeholders has become the only motivation for government policy, without
consideration for the environment or people.
Agribusiness
Ecocide
In terms of ecocide, animal agriculture has
to be stopped. Over 50% of CO2 Emissions are from Animal Agriculture. The
intensification of farming is still happening.
Almost all Ireland’s pigs are caged. They are fed antibiotics to keep
them alive, which props up the massive pharmaceutical industry, as does the
eating of meat full of antibiotics and other processing chemicals, which keeps
the people ill and on medication too. The scale of animal agriculture is huge. In
England alone, they slaughter over one million pigs every month; also 1.5
million sheep and nearly a million cows. In Italy, all meat and dairy are
factory farmed. 71% of their antibiotics are sold to agribusiness. It is worse in
America because there is big Pharma, big Ag and Monsanto has much of congress
on his payroll. Please do not let the world leaders avoid the issue of animal
agriculture.
Politics
versus People
The people of the world are ready to try a
plant-based diet and some of the big companies are ready to facilitate this
change. For example Ireland’s Glanbia Dairy have invested millions into flaxseed, chia, peas and soy products in America as the demand for vegan products now outsells
their dairy products.
Ireland’s political representatives at the
Paris summit really do not care at all about climate change and they have no
intention to make changes. However, the Irish people are well informed and
active. This means that the summit must find a way to make the commitments
legally binding. With a global court process, it is totally possible but
governments will have to be legally forced to act.
Energy
and Fossil Fuels
Ireland has also let in Shell Petrol, who
beat the community off the land and coast, over a fifteen-year fight. Shell bribed the local police, as in other countries, to do their dirty work for
them. The government arranged for the courts to look harshly on protesters for the environment for better environmental law and paid the police millions in “over time” as an incentive to
protect their financial interests.
The government as well are making Ireland
into a power station for Britain. They are putting 100 metre high pylons and
turbines the length and breadth of the country. Both of which are very
detrimental to health.
Fracking for ‘natural gas’ is also becoming
popular even though it uses between 2 and 5 million gallons of water to extract and 1000s of
litres of water to clean. In addition, the underground water reserves are also polluted..
The
Ocean Environment –Ask for Change to European ‘Open Fishing Quotas’
A Dutch-owned Super Trawler, using a
Lithuanian Fishing Quota, is fishing off Ireland’s coast. It is 145 metres long
and using sonar and nets that are hundreds of metres wide. They are emptying
the seas of fish and all other life and creating dead zones. Fish cannot
reproduce at the speed at which they are being exploited. These massive fishing
boats are banned from other countries but Ireland lets any one profit off our Nature,
animals and people. Ireland has become a tax haven which means that we have
Nestle and all the pharmaceutical companies and chemical companies moving in, chem-trailing and contaminating all our resources. The run-off from the
untreated animal waste is also polluting the water off shore.
Crimes
Against Humanity
If the summit can agree to bring legal
charges against corporations, on the grounds of Crimes Against Humanity, it
would finance the changes we need to make globally. Poisoning food, destruction
of habitat and modern day slavery are all there, in their supply chains. While
you have the collective strength of all the elected world leaders, you can make
laws that could charge for these crimes.
Seize
Corporations Assets
A global court could seize the assets of corporations,
on these grounds of crimes against humanity and ecocide. This would provide
ample money to re-direct to environmentally responsible operations. For
example, incentives and subsidies must be offered to support farmers
re-purposing their land to grow crops organically.
In Ireland, our government’s agriculture department
has even refused European grants for organic initiatives in the past. They said
that organic farming was ‘on its way out’ in Ireland. That means that we are
giving it up; that they are not interested in improving our environmental
impact. The government is promoting chemical fertilizers. People were promised
by the government that no genetically modified crops would be produced here,
especially potatoes as they are the staple diet. Meanwhile, acres of
genetically modified potatoes are a government-funded project here. They
recruit foreign academics and scientists in the hope that the public will not
find out.
Climate
Instability
Just like America’s Al Gore said in his
film ‘The Inconvenient Truth’, the weather has already become unstable. Ireland
is being hit with storm after storm. I know that your country has suffered much
more because of ignorance and greed of other countries. I am so sorry for that
and I hope you get a powerful result at the summit. It is not just Ireland as
there are many countries hell-bent on destruction. I really believe that the
people are ready for change, responsible choices and less abuse. Please get a
Court in place to enforce environmental laws and force the hands of the
institutions.
Many thanks,
Frances Micklem
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