La Via Campesina Calls for Ban on Geoengineering

La Via Campesina, the international peasants' organization struggling against global capitalism, has called for governments to impose a complete ban on all geoengineering activities at the upcoming Rio+20 conference. Specifically, the group has announced,

We demand a complete ban on geoengineering projects and experiments; under the guise of "green" or "clean" technology to the benefit of agribusiness. This includes new technologies being proposed for adaptation and mitigation to climate change under the banners of "geo-engineering" and "climate smart agriculture," including false solutions like transgenic plants supposed to adapt to climate change, and "biochar" purported to replenish the soil with carbon.

La Via Campesina is a charter member of the HOME anti-geoengineering campaign, along with the ETC Group, Biofuelwatch, and many other left-leaning groups.

The organization makes a number of other sweeping calls for action, rejecting all forms of carbon trading, REDD+, and indeed the global capitalist system itself, while citing worldwide agrarian reform as the solution to climate change and myriad other socioeconomic and environmental problems. Making such demands is no doubt therapeutic, but bears little connection to the world we live in. Global land redistribution may appeal to one's sense of justice, but is hardly a pragmatic strategy for averting catastrophic climate change. Nevertheless, these and similar positions will continue to be advocated in the run-up to Rio+20 in June (see, for example, European Parliament Comes Out Against Geoengineering, 10/11/11), as the summit is shaping up to be the next major forum for debating the merits of geoengineering.