Rio de Janeiro, Brazil–Alongside the multilateral government negotiations happening at the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development are business negotiations and so-called “public-private partnerships” being driven by corporate networks such as the Consumer Goods...
Climate
Contentious Politics and the Climate Justice Movement | by Jacklyn Cock
‘Ask for a camel when you expect to get a goat’ Introduction The climate crisis is deepening. Despite 17 years of multinational negotiations there is no binding global agreement on the reduction of carbon emissions. In fact carbon emissions are rising which means...
Rio+20: An opportunity to rekindle the movement | by Ian Rappel
It’s that time of the decade again. In June we will see the world’s attention focus upon another United Nations-sponsored international environment conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (“Rio+20″). Twenty years ago the UN’s conference at the same venue took place in an...
Saving resources and the environment: A modest proposal | by Fred Magdoff
There are significant numbers of people in the wealthy countries who believe that the great issues of resource depletion and global environmental pollution are caused primarily by the huge number of people on the globe — currently about 7 billion — and that things...
The people of the world confront the advance of capitalism: Rio +20 and beyond
La Via Campesina Position Paper - June 6, 2012 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,...
Towards an ecosocialist network | by Grant Brookes
Text of a presentation by Grant Brookes at the conference Socialism 2012: Class Struggle in Aotearoa, held June 1-3 in Wellington, New Zealand, sponsored by the Workers Party New Zealand. I had some reservations, when I was asked to speak in this session, about an...
Liberalism and climate change: A remedial assessment | by Andrew Loewen
“You have my word that we will keep drilling everywhere we can.” —President Obama, March 22 2012— “Liberal” may be the most elastic term in American English. Even pushing aside its use as a right-wing slur or a cultural stereotype, the capaciousness of “liberalism”...
Beautiful Green World – The Myths of the Green Economy
We are told that «A green economy can be thought of as one which is low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive» (see www.unep.org/greeneconomy). We are also told that It will stop climate change and the extinction of species and in so doing will create high...
At Rio+20: Values versus prices | by Patrick Bond
[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...
