Petition Germany to support rainforests, not oil in Ecuador

[auroraglacialis]

The neoliberal party in Germany wants to stop helping Ecuador to protect rainforest from oil extraction. The other major parties in germany agree on helping, but the FDP wants to block it. The FDP got elected with enough votes to participate in the government coalition, but since then has plummeted in popularity to numbers below 5% of the public (that is less than the "pirate party"), yet they still hold on to office and seem determined. The idea is to let markets regulate the development of Ecuador - which would certainly lead to the deforestation of the region because of the oil that is there.

In two days, Germany could help save one of our planet's last pristine natural treasures, the Amazon's Yasuni National Park, from devastating oil-drilling -- but only if we raise our voices now to support a plan for its preservation.

This species-rich rainforest lies atop a gigantic oil reserve. But instead of destroying the area for short-term profits, Ecuador and the United Nations have said they will make it a no drill area if countries help fund Ecuador's development. The Bundestag already approved this innovative initiative, Chancellor Merkel has promised assistance, and funds are already allocated in the budget, but FDP Development Minister Niebel is refusing to award the funding. The final decision lies with the Bundestag’s budget committee -- only a targeted push from us could force the committee to stand up to Niebel and save Yasuni.

The budget committee is meeting on thursday and could finally assign the crucial funds for Yasuni. Let’s urge MPs to back this innovative plan to preserve one of the richest, most beautiful environments on earth and revive Germany's global environmental leadership role. Sign the petition to save Yasuni now -- our voices will be delivered directly to the members of the budget committee in advance of their meeting.

Avaaz - Germany = last hope for the Amazon

[Clarke]

Originally Posted by auroraglacialis

The FDP got elected with enough votes to participate in the government coalition, but since then has plummeted in popularity to numbers below 5% of the public (that is less than the "pirate party"), yet they still hold on to office...

There seems to be a more fundamental problem here.

[auroraglacialis]

The fundamental problem here was, that the FDP is self-defining as "liberal". However this is split between market liberalism (lower taxes for the rich, free markets, privatization of public property and institutions,...) and personal liberalism (protecting privacy, opposing development of further anti-terror laws and a "police state"). People voted for them because of the second part mostly as there was a lot of fuzz about the government spying on people (e.g. a law that requires all telecomminications data to be stored so it can be tracked who phoned with who at what time and at what place, plus all internet access and mobile phone position data) and increasing police power and people are not comfortable with that at all. What heppened was that they got elected as the minor party of the two coalition parties with the conservatives as the main part. But instead of working towards that incease in personal freedom and protection of privacy, they pushed only the economic part about lower taxes and easier conditions for corporations and people got fed up with that rather quickly, jumping over to the "pirates" who also have privacy and freedom written on their banners, but do not talk about making it any easier for corporations. So now the Pirates have almost 10% where they had 2% at the last elections for parliament, while the FDP dropped from almost 15% to below 4%. Interesting fact: If there would after the next election be a coalition between the social democrats, the greens and the pirates they could have a majority. Same goes for a coalition between the social democrats, the greens and the socialists. Probably that will not happen because the bigger parties do not trust the socialists or pirates. Incidentially they are missing out on about a sixth of the voters then.

But in any case that was not the point of this post - it was that there are neoliberals in charge of the decision that do not really have the support of the general public anymore and that they are making the wrong decision by not helping one of the last wild places on Earth.

[Moco Loco]

Cool name for a political party, "Pirates" Your next election is in 2013, right?

[auroraglacialis]

Yes, 2013. The "Pirates" are basically a bunch of people that mostly come from the computer geek corner of the society. They emphasize privacy, freedom of information and transparency of politics as well as truely democratic process. I think the name is connected to the famous "pirate bay" filesharing website as the party also is an advocate of alternative ways to pay for cultural products like movies and music - one that fits better the reality of lossless duplication by electronic means. But this is straying too far now