Earth Minute: Rio+20 Earth Summit– “Green Economy” or “Greenwash Economy”?

Global Justice Ecology Project partners with Margaret Prescod’s Sojourner Truth show on KPFK–Pacifica Los Angeles radio show for a weekly Earth Minute on Tuesdays and a weekly 12 minute Environment Segment every Thursday.

This week’s Earth Minute discusses the upcoming “Rio+20 Earth Summit” being planned for this June in Rio de Janeiro.  It outlines the so-called “Green Economy” that is supposed to be developed at this Earth Summit and what it really means for tackling some of the most difficult environmental problems of our day.  Listen to the Sojourner Truth show this Thursday for a special show devoted to analyzing the outcomes of the UN Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa last month.

To listen to this week’s Earth Minute, click here and scroll to minute 38:15.

Text from this week’s Earth Minute:

Twenty years ago, the Rio Earth Summit brought the world’s nations together to tackle some of the most critical environmental issues of our time through legally binding agreements and conventions.

The goals of this summit went largely unmet. This June, however, a new earth summit –the UN “Rio+20” Sustainable Development meeting–will be held in Rio de Janeiro.

This summit is considerably less ambitious than the first.  This time countries will not be asked to sign any legally binding documents.  Instead they will work towards developing a global green economy.”

This Green Economy would enable the continuation of business as usual under a green veneer.  This greenwashing scheme would, for example, allow the use of carbon stored in forests, agriculture, soils, and even oceans to supposedly offset industry pollution. Biodiversity offsets would allow environmental destruction in one area as long as it is offset in another.

These schemes were discussed at the Durban Climate Conference last month.   This Thursday, Global Justice Ecology Project and the Sojourner Truth show have organized a special program to analyze the outcomes of the Durban Climate Conference.  We hope you will join us.

For the Earth Minute and the Sojourner Truth show, this is Anne Petermann from Global Justice Ecology Project.

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