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A pig eats from a trash-ridden creek that runs towards the conference centre where the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 20. Photo, Victor R. Caivano/AP |
Rio de Janeiro: Pollution rife in city hosting UN sustainability conference
Juliana Barbassa
Associated Press
The Star
Wed Jun 20 2012
RIO DE JANEIRO—The throngs streaming into Rio for a sustainable development conference may be dreaming of white-sand beaches and clear, blue waters, but what they are first likely to notice as they leave the airport is not the salty tang of ocean in the breeze, but the stench of raw sewage.
That's because the airport sits by a bay that absorbs about 1.2 billion litres of raw waste water a day: 480 Olympic swimming pools worth of filth.
As they head into the city, they will note soda bottles bobbing on the water and the colourful detritus that wreathes the shore: discarded television sets, couches and broken toys snarled in plastic. They will likely get caught in a traffic jam, peering out at the acrid haze of diesel fumes and exhaust from the commercial port that lingers over the city.
The United Nations Environment Program warned this month that the planet's environmental systems “are being pushed towards their biophysical limits,” and for the 50,000 visitors from 190 countries streaming in for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, the welcome here is a rank reminder of just how hard it will be to balance economic growth and environmental protection elsewhere across the globe.
Rio+20 Declaration Is a Disaster for the Planet
Friends of the Earth International
EcoWatch
June 20 2012
The deal on the table at the Rio+20 Summit does nothing to address the environmental and social crises that the world is facing—it simply allows multinational corporations to continue exploiting people and the planet without restraint, according to Friends of the Earth International.
“Politicians are spinning this outrageous deal as a victory but in fact it is nothing less than a disaster for the planet. This is a hollow deal and a gift to corporate polluters that hold UN decision-making hostage to further their economic interests,” said Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International.
Multinational corporations made massive lobbying efforts in the past twenty years to ensure that the UN serves their own interests rather than promoting solutions that benefit the people, such as economic justice, climate justice and food sovereignty.
“The Rio+20 Summit obviously ignored the demands of the 50,000 people marching today from the alternative Peoples’ Summit in Rio. Corporate interests prevailed. The deal even allows countries to sell out nature to multinational corporations while it does not include any measures to hold corporations accountable for their negative impacts,” said Lucia Ortiz, economic justice international program coordinator for Friends of the Earth International.
Multinational Corporations Continue to Pull the Strings at Rio+20
By Andy Rowell
Oil Change International
EcoWatch
June 19 2012
If you open a copy of the Financial Times this morning, you will see a full page advert from the “Friends of Rio+20” with a message to the delegates at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development.
These “friends” say they are an assortment of big business, scientific and civil society leaders, but a quick glimpse down the list reveals more big business than anything else.
The list includes the likes of the Nestle, Coca-Cola, Anglo American and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
To an unsuspecting public, it looks like big business cares about the planet and is demanding action. To many seasoned environmental campaigners, it looks like the latest in a long line of greenwashing exercises by multinationals to con the public into thinking they care.
It was twenty years ago, on the eve of the first Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, that Greenpeace published a ground-breaking report, entitled The Greenpeace book of Greenwash. It was written by Greenpeace campaigner Kenny Bruno.
It warned that in 1992, Greenwash was going “global through the participation of transnational companies (TNCs)” at the Earth Summit. It went on to warn that: “Despite their new rhetoric, TNCs are not saviours of the environment or the world’s poor, but remain the primary creators and peddlers of dirty, dangerous and unsustainable technologies.”
Rio +20: Based on the news coming out of Rio +20, it would appear that the optimistic objectives that were spelled out in this video might not be met. Interesting and unique video. Unfortunate outcome.
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