Marwaan Macan-Markar interviews NICOLA BULLARD, member of the World Social Forum's international council

BANGKOK, Jan 13, 2010 (IPS) - Ten years after its founding, the World Social Forum (WSF) has come to represent a rallying point for activists and grassroots groups committed to shaping an alternative world view.

"It is very important that we have this space for all of us to come together and shape a vision that reflects our concerns," says Nicola Bullard, a senior associate of Focus on the Global South, a Bangkok-based think tank championing issues that matter to people in the developing world. "We have been able to build our own discourse, our own thinking, our own legitimacy."

Here we go again. Thursday it was India that joined the ranks of developing economies to announce significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in advance of the United Nations climate change discussions that begin in Copenhagen today.

So where is Thailand? When are we going to demonstrate any seriousness about our role in reducing emissions? After all, scientists warn that we're poised to receive a disproportionate share of the impact of global climate change. Our shores and coastal communities will be significantly impacted if the world as a whole does not start embarking on a major CO2 diet. Bangkok in particular will face major problems from flooding and sea level rise but, so far, hardly a word from our nation's leaders who reside here.

A new film, The Story of Cap and Trade, released last week on the internet illustrates the profit motives and flawed logic that are behind carbon trading schemes. In ten minutes viewers are given a simple tour of the flawed insight behind this approach, and why we must all work to oppose it.

It's amazing that as we struggle to get our hands around the current financial crisis, the recipes and schemes that precipitated the global economic downturn are being championed in Copenhagen this week as a core strategy to tackle climate change.

On the eve of the most important climate change negotiations to take place to date, it's unfortunate that the upcoming proceedings in Copenhagen will be overshadowed by yet another attack on the science that has overwhelming shown that the Earth is warming, and it's our fault.

In case you've not heard, Climategate has taken hold of the blogosphere over the past two weeks. Someone apparently hacked the UK-based Climate Research Unit's email servers and found that a number of the world's more prominent climate scientists have been less then forthright in sharing data that might be contrary to the abundance of evidence that we're making the world hotter.

IT'S KNOWN for its strong body and flavour. But now, threatened by a long dry spell, Assam tea is facing the adverse effects of climate change. An official at the Regional Meteorological Centre in Guwahati says that the region has been rain deficient through the last decade. In fact, in its National Action Plan on Climate Change, the central government has observed a warming trend in the north-east that is linked to overall global warming.

Now, scientists at Tocklai Experimental Station, the world's oldest tea research institute - based in Jorhat in Assam - have started exploring the overall impact of abiotic stress, climate change and temperature on the quality of Assam tea.