Feature: Environmentalists slash fossil fuel, GMO companies on eve of World Environment Day

"Rogue companies" and "the Mafia economy" are words used to slash big companies doing business related to fossil fuel and genetically modified seeds by some the world's famous environmentalists on the eve of the World Environment Day that falls on Friday.

Some 2,000 environmentalists from more than 30 countries gathered at the Bridges Auditorium of Pomona College in southern California Thursday, kicking off a four-day international conference.

The meeting under the theme of "Seizing an Alternative -- Towards an Ecological Civilization" will discuss more than 400 different specific topics about ecological civilization and environment protection in the next three days.

Bill McKibben was the first keynote speaker at the plenary session held on Thursday evening.

As the founder of 350.org, which was seen as the first planet-wide grassroots climate change movement that was joined by people from more than 180 countries, McKibben recalled 26 years ago when he published the book "The End of Nature" which was translated into 24 languages.

"This (climate change) is the first truly global problem we ever faced, our elites are not solving it, our system is not solving, so we need a global grassroots movement," McKibben said, with his speech winning applause from the audience from time to time.

Famous for his anti-pipeline movement, McKibben targeted the fossil fuel-related industry, such as oil and gas companies as the ones that need to be changed first. "It is the richest industry on earth and it needs to be changed," he said.

350.org has organized 20,000 rallies around the world, spearheaded the resistance to the Keystone Pipeline, an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, and launched the fast-growing fossil fuel divestment movement.

Ever arrested outside the White House in 2013 while protesting the planned Keystone XL Pipeline Project, McKibben said the most important technology invented in the 20th century is "non-violent action," which was echoed by Vandana Shiva, a famous Indian environmental activist.

Shiva has been working on sustainable agriculture and organic farming for more than two decades. She founded the Navdanya in 1991, which is a national movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources, especially native seeds, the promotion of organic farming and fair trade.

Big agriculture companies like Monsando were strongly criticized by Shiva. "The fight to protect the bio-diversity of the planet and the fight for arresting dangerous climate change are the same fight," she said.

The Indian lady in her symbolic Saree used the words "mafia economy" to describe what the GMO (genetically modified organism) giants are doing.

"What we are going to do is non-violent action," she said.

Philip Clayton, author of a new book "Organic Marxism", told Xinhua in an interview at the conference that "The majority of the Americans are rising up against the control of the elite, the rich and the industrial military complex."

"Here the people of America, not the industrialists, rise up and make their voices be heard, to say no, no longer will we support an unjust social and political order that is bringing our world to the edge of disaster," Clayton said.

"Now we demand that our government, our business leaders and world leaders begin to make decisions for the good of the planet, for the good of the people, for the good of the society, for the common good," Clayton added. Endi