Analysis

Rio+20: Governmental Dead-end versus Social Convergence at the People’s Summit

Lea — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 17:54:47 +0000

28 June, 2012

Press Statement, Alternatives

(RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL)- June 21st 2012 – While the assembled heads of state were clearly exhibiting a lack of will to act at the United Nations Conference on sustainable development (Rio+20), Québec civil society representatives were meeting with social movements activists from around the world at the Peoples Summit for Social and Environmental Justice.

Peoples’ Dialogue

Lea — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 18:01:55 +0000

23 June, 2012

People’s Summit Closing Press Conference

The Peoples’ Summit ended on Friday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with a press conference similar to the plenary sessions and assemblies organized in the past days and it ended in a « people’s dialogue » with the media.

For a Future without Fracking!

Lea — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:42:22 +0000

22 June, 2012

Statement of Anti-fracking groups at the Cupula Dos Povos

Gathered in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday 22nd June 2012 during the Peoples’ Summit, we, activists and campaigners engaged in the struggle against shale gas and shale coal and shale oil from around the world affirm our determination, our categorical opposition against all extraction of shale gas and shale oil and every use of hydraulic fracturing and other associated extractive industries such as frack-sand mining on our territories.

Indigenous Peoples International Declaration on Self-Determination and Sustainable Development

Lea — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 18:11:40 +0000

20 June, 2012

People's Summit

Indigenous Peoples from all regions of the world met at the “Indigenous Peoples International Conference on Sustainable Development and Self Determination,” from June 17th – 19th 2012 at the Museu da República in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

At Rio+20: Values versus prices

Lea — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 17:35:59 +0000

18 June, 2012

Patrick Bond, Climate and Capitalism

[RIO DE JANEIRO, JUNE 18, 2012] – Given the worsening world economic crisis, the turn to ‘Green Economy’ rhetoric looms as a potential saviour for footloose financial capital, and is also enormously welcome to those corporations panicking at market chaos in the topsy-turvy fossil-fuel, water, infrastructure construction, technology and agriculture sectors.
On the other hand, for everyone else, the Rio+20 Earth Summit underway this week in Brazil, devoted to advancing Green Economy policies and projects, appears as an overall disaster zone for the people and planet.

Global Alliance of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities on Climate Change against REDD+

Lea — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 16:37:51 +0000

16 June, 2012

People's Summit

After more than 500 years of resistance, we, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, peasant farmers, fisherfolk and civil society are not fooled by the so-called Green Economy and REDD+ because we know colonialism when we see it.

Indigenous Peoples must haves at the Río+20 Conference

Lea — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 16:52:19 +0000

14 June, 2012

People's Summit

Honour our Peoples, Honour our Mother
Indigenous Peoples around the world have a special connection to their lands and resources arising from long standing relationship to their territories. Within this room, we all have a moral and legal obligation to ensure future generations have an abundance of resources needed for their long-term survival and wellbeing. We must respect the rights of mother earth, and protect the web of life which supports us all.

The Amazon: Dirty dams, Dirty Politics and the Myth of Clean Energy

Lea — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 16:54:23 +0000

6 June, 2012

Brent Millikan, International Rivers

A growing trend in Brazil and other countries is to portray large hydroelectric dams as a source of “clean energy” critical to powering a “green economy.” This catchphrase is resounding at a number of international bodies, including Rio +20, which seeks to prioritize market solutions that reflect the interests of powerful economic and political groups. The risk, now being borne out in Brazil’s dam industry, is the undermining of protections for human rights, ecosystem health and democratic decision-making.

The people of the world confront the advance of capitalism: Rio +20 and beyond

Lea — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 17:26:54 +0000

6 June, 2012

La Via Campesina Position Paper

Governments from all over the world will meet in Río de Janeiro, Brazil from June 20-22 2012, to supposedly commemorate 20 years since the “Earth Summit,” the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, that established for the first time a global agenda for “sustainable development.”

A JUST TRANSITION NOW – NO TO “GREEN ECONOMY”

Lea — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 16:43:33 +0000

5 June, 2012

People's summit

The statement was adopted by participants at the conference Celebrate! Resist! Transform! in Gothenburg, May 18 to 20
On 20-22 June 2012 NGOs, governments and businesses gather at the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro. Simultaneously social movements from around the world organise an alternative meeting with focus on human rights and environmental justice on 15-23 June.

Disempowering Women through the Green Economy

Lea — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 16:46:38 +0000

5 June, 2012

Clarissa Militante, People's Summit

“The Future We Want,” the text being discussed by governments for Rio+20, promotes rhetoric of empowering women but in reality, it not only disempowers them further, it also gives more rights and access to corporations.

Canadian government gutting environment protection

Lea — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 17:41:13 +0000

1 June, 2012

Climate and Capitalism

Although Canada’s Conservative Party won only 40% of the popular vote in the last election, it captured an absolute majority of the seats in the House of Commons. This gives Prime Minister Stephen Harper the ability to pass any legislation he wishes – the opposition parties don’t have enough votes to stop him, and no member of the ruling party dares vote against the leader’s wishes.

Why the Green Economy is a wrong path to restore the equilibrium with nature: What Are the Alternatives?

Lea — Thu, 31 May 2012 14:31:07 +0000

31 May, 2012

Pablo Solon, Toronto Bolivia Solidarity

Twenty years after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992, the environmental crisis continues to worsen. The unsustainable development model that gained dominance in the world resulted to grave loss of biodiversity, melting of polar ice caps and mountain glaciers, alarming increase in deforestation and desertification and the looming danger of an at least 4ºC increase in temperature, which will threaten life as we know it. Science is saying that we are approaching a point of no return that will change the way our planet has behaved over 650,000 years”

Why an oceans rescue plan must be agreed at Rio

Lea — Wed, 30 May 2012 19:27:00 +0000

27 May, 2012

Richard Page, Greenpeace International

It’s only a few weeks until the Rio+20 Earth Summit and although the countdown has started, the world’s politicians still don’t understand that our long-term future is at stake.

Thousands Join Black Out Speak Out Campaign

Lea — Wed, 30 May 2012 19:29:05 +0000

25 May, 2012

Greenpeace

Every day more Canadians and organizations stand with environmental groups against the federal government’s attacks on nature and democracy.