Social forum activists: Companies conspiring with govt’s to profit from global warming market

Social forum activists talk of ‘green’ conspiracy

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil — Leftist activists protesting capitalism at the World Social Forum claimed Wednesday that multinational corporations in cahoots with governments are trying to take control of a new multibillion-dollar market for reducing emissions that cause global warming.

They made the accusation on the third day of the gathering of leftists that serves as an annual counterweight to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“The companies that caused the problems are saying, ‘Trust us, we’ll get you out of this problem,’” said Pat Mooney, a Canadian expert on biotechnology and biodiversity. “They’re saying, ‘Don’t worry, because we have a new technology that you will pay for to control the world’s thermostat.’”

Activists who converged on the city of Porto Alegre, near the border with Uruguay, said the World Economic Forum — which got under way Wednesday — should focus on bettering global conditions for the poor and the environment instead of debating whether global financial reforms must be enacted or abandoned because of concerns about over-regulation.

While the Davos participants sip champagne in luxury hotels, eat catered meals and try to find time to go skiing, “we’re here camping in the rain and cooking outside with open fires,” said Melissa Zumino of Uruguay, who works for a nonprofit group promoting human coexistence with nature.

The social forum, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, began Monday and will last through Friday. The forum’s highlight came Tuesday night, when Brazil’s first working-class president received a hero’s welcome and vowed to reproach the planet’s business titans for causing the global meltdown when he meets with them in Davos.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — a former radical union leader known almost everywhere as Lula — was greeted like a rock star by activists in a sports stadium chanting “Lula, Lula, the warrior of the Brazilian people!”

He received more cheers after promising to tell world leaders and bankers at the World Economic Forum that the free-market policies they have espoused for decades are to blame for the worldwide financial crunch.

Silva was scheduled to leave Wednesday night for Davos, where he will become the first head of state to receive the economic forum’s new Global Statesmanship Award.