Before leaving office, President Bush negotiated NAFTA-style free trade agreements -- with Panama, South Korea, and Colombia that have yet to be voted on by Congress. These agreements, if ratified by Congress, will significantly contribute to global warming. But instead of dropping these bad Bush deals, Obama's Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, intends to push for Congressional ratification of these agreements. Endangered forests ecosystems like the Amazon are at risk as a direct result. The Obama administration and the Democratic leadership in Congress claims these trade agreements will be good for the environment—they are dead wrong.

Free trade agreements contribute to global warming in a big way: Encourage the globalization of a US-style meat-centered diet, increasing livestock emissions- the single biggest source for global warming.
- Lead to increased use of “factory farm” agriculture. Factory farms are energy intensive consume vast quantities of fossil fuels.
- Shift global agriculture towards industrial scale production and fossil fuel consuming farm machinery, while driving sustainable “low-tech” farmers out of business.
- Contribute to deforestation by destroying the economy for local farmers, who lose their lands and proceed to cut down forests for fuel and new farmland (documented by Oxfam International and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). 25% of global warming can be attributed to deforestation.
- Challenge environmental selective purchasing agreements (e.g. bills that require governments to buy recycled products and prohibit purchasing of wood from endangered forests) under trade agreement procurement rules.
- Provide vast investor protections for natural resources extractive industries, increasing access and lowering costs for corporate extraction of fossil fuels and additionally contributing to deforestation through land clearing for mines and oil rigs and pipelines.
- Contribute to a shift towards globalization of consumption, undermining efforts ecological friendly ³buy local² campaigns and contributing to vast consumption of fossil fuels in transportation of products to market via trucks, airplanes, and ships. - Contribute to deforestation through road construction for bringing commodities to market (e.g. Plan Pueblo Panama and I-69.)

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Write, call, fax, and email your Senators and US House Representatives and demand that they publicly oppose free trade agreements with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea, and support the repeal of the North American, Central America, and the Peru Free Trade Agreements .Let them know that the May 2007 Bipartisan Agreement on Trade, failed to address the core environmental problems with free trade agreements and that these agreements will still contribute to global warming and endanger the survival of life on Earth. You can find out who represents you and their contact information here.

Spread the word! Print and distribute GJAE's Climate and Trade flyers and petition cards. Distribute these flyers and get members of your community to sign the cards. Mail completed cards to Global Justice for Animals and the Environment, 15 Thames, Street, Brooklyn, NY 11206.

Volunteer or intern with Global Justice for Animals and the Environment. Join our efforts to stop anti-environmental free trade agreements, through lobbying, protest, community education, and the mass media. To learn more, visit our interning and volunteering page

Make an online contribution to the campaign.

YOU CAN HELP FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING!