Press Room

George Monbiot, The Guardian

The post-summit pledge was an admission of defeat against consumer capitalism. But we can still salvage the natural world

George Monbiot, The Guardian

World leaders have spent 20 years bracing themselves to express 'deep concern' about the world's environmental crises, but not to do anything about them.

The Associated Press, The Gazette

RIO DE JANEIRO - Feather headdresses floated past dreadlocks and activists in cow costumes mingled with others in business suits Thursday as more than 200 non-governmental groups joined in a People's Summit to seek alternative responses to the planet's environmental degradation.

Mike De Souza, the Gazette

OTTAWA - Canada is making waves heading into the global Rio+20 Earth Summit by trying to prevent the conference from adopting commitments requiring an end to public fossil fuel subsidies.

Simon Romero And John M. Broder, The New York Times

RIO DE JANEIRO — Global leaders, development experts, bankers, academics and activists are gathering here this week to celebrate the anniversary of the landmark Earth Summit of 1992 and to try to address the linked problems of poverty, hunger, energy shortages and environmental degradation.

Felicity Barringer, the New York Times

Climate scientists have long been concerned about the possibility that warming temperatures will speed changes on the earth’s surface that will in turn accelerate global warming.

Jonathan Watts, The Guardian

Attack on president's environmental credentials comes weeks before she is due to host Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. A coalition of Brazil's leading conservation groups have condemned the country's president Dilma Rousseff for pardoning illegal deforesters, weakening protection of the Amazon and rowing back on efforts to recover land that has been cleared of trees.

Paulo Prada, Reuters
A stagnating domestic economy and uncertainty abroad will not hinder Brazil's long-sought ascendance on the world stage, Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said on Thursday.

Peter Ross, Environmental Health News

Editor’s Note: Canada is dismantling the nation's entire ocean contaminants program as part of massive layoffs at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Among the scientists terminated are ones who have conducted landmark research about global pollutants for decades: Peter Ross, who is among the world’s leading experts on marine mammals and contaminants, Gary Stern, a mercury expert whose work focuses on the Arctic, Michel Lebeuf, who studies the highly contaminated St. Lawrence belugas and Michael Ikonomou, who researches flame retardants and other endocrine-disrupting contaminants in salmon and other ocean life. Ross told EHN that his main concern is the "wholesale axing of pollution research" that will leave Canada, and much of the world, without the scientific knowledge to protect whales, seals, fish and other marine life -- as well as the indigenous peoples who rely on them for their traditional foods. Many scientists say the purpose of the move by the Canadian government is not just cost-cutting but to eliminate environmental rules and protect the oil and gas industry. The following is an essay that Ross wrote Thursday for EHN. -- Marla Cone, Editor in Chief

Gro Harlem Brundtland and Fernando Henrique Cardoso, The Guardian

Rio+20 must learn from the MDGs, emphasise sustainable development, and tackle climate change and gender inequality.

Common Dreams Staff

Greenpeace: Climate crisis caused by lack of political action
International climate talks ended in Bonn, Germany today with little progress made on key issues and stark divisions remaining between rich and poor nations. The disappointing outcome saw delegates unable to reach agreement on how best to move forward for higher level talks in November and less than one month ahead of the Rio+20 Earth Summit in Brazil.

Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian

The United Nations chief, Ban Ki-moon, held out little hope on Thursday of an historic outcome at the Rio global development summit, now less than a month away, admitting negotiations had been "painfully slow".

Erin Hale, The Guardian

Car makers source iron from Brazil that contributes to Amazon deforestation, says Greenpeace ahead of Rio+20
Ford, GM and BMW are sourcing material from Brazil that is driving illegal logging and slave labour, according to campaigners at Greenpeace.

Fabiana Frayssinet, Inter Press Service

RIO DE JANEIRO - As the host of Rio+20, the Brazilian government has defined guidelines for achieving success at the upcoming world summit, whose aim is to assess and strengthen what has been done since the 1992 Earth Summit, the first global meeting on sustainable development.

Richard Black, BBC

Environmentalists say leaders at June's Rio+20 summit must urgently step up nature protection, as a report confirms a 30% decline in wildlife since 1970.

Jeffrey Simpson, The Globe and Mail

Canada, you might be surprised to hear, is a world leader in climate change.
Canada leads the world in presenting plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and Canada leads the world in the size of the gap between plans and deeds.
The Mulroney government had a plan (1990). The Chrétien government had plans (1995, 2000, 2002). The Martin government had a plan (2005). And now the Harper government has a plan, sort of.

Julian Brookes, Rolling Stone

President Obama can't catch a break: Just when he gets right with the gays, the greens come after him. In today's New York Times NASA's leading climate scientist James Hansen takes the president to task for not doing jack on climate change. "President Obama speaks of a 'planet in peril,'" Hansen fumes, "but he does not provide the leadership needed to change the world’s course."

Bradley Brooks, associated press, The Washington Post

RIO DE JANEIRO — Conflicts over land issues in Brazil increased last year, although the number of rural activists killed nationally went down slightly, according to a report released by a watchdog group that tallies land-related threats and murders. The report found that at least two ongoing conflicts could turn into violent conflagrations.

By Madeleine Cuff

Lib Dem Brian Paddick launches his manifesto with pledges to make buses and taxis electric and create a clean air zone

By Maude Barlow

It is World Water Day, a day to celebrate the world's water heritage and ensure clean adequate supplies of drinking water and sanitation for all. To our shame, Canada is once again leading a charge to weaken language in an important United Nations document that would reiterate the human right to water and sanitation leading up to the June Earth Summit Rio + 20.

By The Members of the Coalition for Bottled Water Free Communities

Backing the Tap: Campuses lead the way for Bottled Water Free Day 2012

Is the challenge for Rio+20 to build the collective political will to respond to the current crises? Or is it to bring the social dimension back alongside the economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability?

By Amy Goodman, The Guardian

One year on from Fukushima, the US is rewarding the nuclear energy lobby by underwriting new investment – regardless of risk

By John M. Broder, The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The oil giant Shell filed suit in federal court in Alaska last week against a dozen environmental groups, employing a rare — and rarely successful — legal gambit in an effort to pre-empt anticipated legal challenges to its plans to begin exploration in the Arctic Ocean this summer.