Why Is the US Cutting Off Climate Aid to the Poorest Country in South America?–Bolivian Climate Nego

From Democracy Now

The Obama administration has confirmed it’s denying climate aid to at least two countries that refused to sign onto last year’s Copenhagen environmental accord. The State Department has canceled funding of $3 million to Bolivia and $2.5 million to Ecuador. The funding was canceled at a time when Bolivia is losing its glaciers and suffering mass drought due to climate change. Bolivia’s lead climate negotiator Angélica Navarro calls on the developed world to pay a climate debt to poor nations suffering the impact of climate change.


Guest:

Angelica Navarro, lead climate negotiator for Bolivia


AMY GOODMAN: We’re broadcasting here at the summit in the Bolivian town of Tiquipaya just outside Cochabamba. We did say that we were going to be joined by President Morales for the hour. We are anxiously awaiting his arrival. It’s not clear if he will be here, but stay with us. We’ve got some very interesting people coming up.


First, we’re going to turn to Angélica Navarro. She’s the Bolivian lead climate negotiator. She took part in an afternoon discussion yesterday on the state of international climate negotiations following the failed talks in Copenhagen. After the panel, she took questions from reporters, including Democracy Now! producer Mike Burke. She began by talking about how climate change is affecting Bolivia.


ANGÉLICA NAVARRO: We have at least two major imprints of climate change. And the first one is regarding our mountains and glaciers. And as I was mentioning in the presentation, what we have is the Tuni and Condoriri, that are two of the main glaciers that give drinking water to La Paz and , the main cities of Bolivia and the capital, are running out, actually, in the . And they have reduced between 40 to 50 percent.


So what we are facing, actually, in this case is problems with food security, but also only for drinking water for a population of around one to two million that may become internal migrant on climate change. The other one is, of course, droughts in the other parts of the country that are affected. And the third one is in the Amazon, where we have seen an increase on floating and also the malaria boundary that has been pushed to the north, because it’s more humid and more warm, actually. So this is the main ones.

remainder in full: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/21/why_is_the_united_states_cutting

3 million is pocket change. You couldn't build a small town post office for that much in this country, but that amount to them could help them deal with the very problems that make them hesitant to sign these international environmental accords.

But of course, any US aid has to come with huge fucking strings attached, which historically have been less than beneficial to the recipients of the aid. The reason there is a 'third world' is because we need to keep them in the third world - it's expensive to exploit self-sustaining nations.