Yearly Archives: 2012

by | 2012-06-29 · 10:31

Rio+20 Breaking News: Activists who spoke at the Peoples’ Summit killed

Cross-Posted from Front Line Defenders, June 28th, 2012

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mr_joao_luiz_telles_penetra_june_27João Luiz Telles Penetra.  Photo courtesy Front Line Defenders
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EJOLT partner Professor Marcelo Firpo has just send us a sad message:“I was with two fishermen on 19 June in a meeting at Peoples´Summit discussing the impacts of big projects (basically oil, mining and steel) in Rio de Janeiro State. Three days later they disappeared when went to work. They have just been found dead. The media is considering this case without importance and we will need more national and international pressure in order to protect other people and to investigate who have killed them.”
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On 24 and 25 June 2012 the bodies of human rights defenders Mr Almir Nogueira de Amorim and Mr João Luiz Telles Penetra were found following their disappearance on 23 June 2012.

Almir Nogueira de Amorim and João Luiz Telles Penetra, or “Pituca” as he was known, were both leaders of the Associação Homens do Mar – AHOMAR (Association of Sea Men) which was set up in 2009 to defend the rights of the fisher-folk working in Rio de Janeiro, and particularly those affected by the construction of a gas pipeline for Petrobras. Since the founding of the organisation its members have reported being subjected to death threats, physical attacks and killings. According to AHOMAR’s members, the attacks are perpetrated by people linked to death squads, security guards hired by the companies in charge of building pipelines and militias operating in the region.

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by | · 09:00

Video: Pablo Solon on what’s next after Rio+20

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Filed under Climate Change, Corporate Globalization, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Green Economy, Greenwashing, Rio+20

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by | 2012-06-28 · 16:45

Audio: Michael Dorsey on the 1992 Earth Summit vs the 2012 Earth Summit

Lindsey Gillies, for Climate Connections Earth Audio, interviews Michael Dorsey, professor at Dartmouth College.  Dorsey was a youth delegate at the original Earth Summit in 1992. He talks about his experiences in 1992 and looks at pressing issues at the Rio+20 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Michael Dorsey

To listen to the interview or to download the podcast, click here

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Filed under Climate Change, Climate Justice, Corporate Globalization, Earth Radio, Green Economy, Rio+20

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by | 2012-06-27 · 14:44

Audio: Earth Minute – corporations try to advance the green (greed) economy in Rio

Global Justice Ecology Project partners with Margaret Prescod and the Sojourner Truth show for weekly Earth Minutes and weekly Earth Segment interviews.

To listen to or download this week’s Earth Minute on KPFK’s Sojourner Truth show, click on Earth Minute 27 June 2012.

Text from this week’s Earth Minute:

Last week, government leaders convened in Rio de Janeiro for the UN’s Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development.  One of the goals: develop a Green Economy built on so-called “green growth” basically–a greenwashed version of the same Greed Economy that has trashed communities and ecosystems to enhance the profits of a very few.  In response, social movements, Indigenous Peoples, organizations and Southern countries stood fast in Rio to oppose this Greenwash Economy.
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Filed under Climate Change, Corporate Globalization, Earth Minute, Green Economy, Posts from Anne Petermann, Rio+20

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by | 2012-06-26 · 11:00

NGO views – Rio+20: the good, the bad and the invisible

Cross-posted from Alertnet

This photo, of a sticker produced by Global Justice Ecology Project and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, went around the world on various media outlets. Photo: REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino.

LONDON (AlertNet) – Many environment and development groups have expressed disappointment with the political agreement that emerged from the U.N. conference on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro last week.

The prevailing view is that it was short on specific commitments and targets, and lacked the level of ambition required to tackle the triple challenges of sustainable development – environmental, economic and social.
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by | 2012-06-25 · 15:00

What’s wrong with the green economy?: Alejandro Mariani, Terra Vista Settlement, Bahia, Brazil

Landless Workers’ Movement member Alejandro Mariani discusses the impacts that the Rio+20 conference and the “Green Economy” will have on landless workers in Brazil and around the world.

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by | · 12:00

What’s wrong with the green economy?: Michelle Maynard of PACJA –

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by | · 11:31

Rio+20 Peoples’ Summit closes with Declaration and points of struggle

June 25, 2012. One of the opening paragraphs of the Declaration produced at the close of the Peoples’ Summit states:

“The Peoples Summit is a symbolic moment of the beginning of a new cycle in the course of global struggles, which produced a new convergence of the movements of women, Indigenous Peoples, people of African descent, youth, family and peasant farmers, workers, the poor, and traditional communities such as quilombos, those who fight for the right to the city, and religious groups world wide.”

80, 000 people attended the Peoples’ Summit and at least 30,000 mobilized daily in different activities.


The full Declaration has yet to be translated into English (and Climate Connections will publish or link to it when it is), but it closes with these consensus points of struggle going forward:

We are:

  • Opposed to militarization of territories and states.
  • Opposed to criminalization of social movement organizations.
  • Opposed to violence against women.
  • Opposed to violence against LGBT people.
  • Opposed to large corporations.
  • Opposed to imposing payments of unjust financial debt and for popular hearings on them.
  • For guaranteeing the right of the people to land and territory, urban and rural.
  • For free informed and prior consultation and consent, based in the principle of good faith as per Convention 169 of the ILO.
  • For food sovereignty and healthy food, against agrochemicals and transgenics.
  • For the conquest and guarantee of rights.
  • For the solidarity of peoples and countries, chiefly those threatened by military or institutional coups (like the recent one in Paraguay).
  • For the sovereignty of the people over ownership of the commons, against attempts to privatize and commodify.
  • For changing the current energy grid and system.
  • For democratization of the communications media.
  • For a recognition of the historic social and ecological debt.
  • For building towards a worldwide GENERAL STRIKE.

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