NOTE: GJEP will be traveling to the Rio+20 Earth Summit and the People’s Summit in Rio de Janerio Brazil next week, 
where we will be participating in actions to advocate for environmental human rights, as well as covering the events for Climate Connections, KPFK Radio, Alternet, Yes! Magazine, and Earth Island Journal. One of the issues dear to our movement is the Rights of Mother Earth, which we will be promoting along with our friends at the Indigenous Environmental Network and other allies. Global Exchange will be launching a report on the Rights of Mother Earth and the ‘green economy,’ described below in an advance note by Shannon Biggs. Anne Petermann and Jeff Conant of GJEP co-authored an essay that will be published in this collection. — GJEP
By Shannon Biggs, cross-posted from Global Exchange
“There is no word for NATURE in my language. ‘Nature’ in English, seems to refer to that which is separate from human beings. It is a distinction we don’t recognize.”
–Audrey Shenandoah, Clan Mother of the Onondaga Nation
The UN Earth Summit, known as Rio+20, will be held June 20th-22nd, 2012 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
If you’re old enough to recall, think back to 1992: the year of the original Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Way back then—in the days before space-age smart-phones, when newspapers were delivered daily by a kid on a bike, and college tuition was within reach for the working class—the human race was concerned about what we were doing to the planet. The attention of a hopeful world was focused on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for a historic gathering of nations, tasked with developing solutions for the emerging crisis of climate change, environmental degradation and increasing poverty.
Continue reading →
