The declaration of 19 June was adopted by the principals, amid frustration from environmentalists and advocates. Grassroots and indigenous organizations seemed to display the most indignant reactions as the conference wound down.
The focus of Rio+20 was sustainability, supposedly. There seems to be a mood to blame corporate power for the failure of the conference. But the real problem was there were too many rice bowls to be filled. The definition of sustainability seemed to be SO broad that it would have been difficult to resolve all the interactions and conflicts between the interests of all the groups represented. "Indigenous rights were not made a part of the declaration"--is that a key sustainability issue? Really?
Work will go forward on sustainable development goals. That's positive.
The focus of THIS blog is scarcity--food, energy and water. Perhaps the world would be more urgently served by a UN Conference on Starvation. The food problem is just too large for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to solve on its own. Serious resource commitments by developed nations will be needed to prevent widespread famine by the time population reaches 9 billion.
And while we're dreaming up UN conferences, perhaps another on Energy Justice, and a third on Water Equity, would also help to achieve progress on these real, tangible, near-term crises.
No comments:
Post a Comment