Thursday, June 21, 2012

Rio Summit: "A Collossal Waste of Time"?

The world's ruling class is going to Rio de Janeiro, expenses paid, to discuss what can be done to save the planet from destruction and at the same time feed the world's millions living in poverty. Even before the summit starts, conservation groups are giving thumb's down to a "pathetic" draft agreement.  The document was watered down even more in the last stages of negotiations before the summit convenes.  The Greenpeace representative said, "the agreement is a last will and testament" for the planet, one dying from a destructive development model born of an industrial revolution two centuries ago. The Danish Environment Minister, while being disappointed in the results, was satisfied with putting a green economic model on the agenda. Subsidies to fossil fuel companies were not abandoned despite international public pressure via social media (aka 'twits'). Oil exporting countries like Canada and Venezuela blocked any effort to end subsidies. The greatest problem facing the world is global warming, yet the officials addressed it in only three paragraphs out of 283. An effort to get a governing structure for international law of the sea was delayed for three years by Russia and the United States. There is still time to amend the agreement but the host nation, Brazil, is not interested in having the agreement undergo more debate, and the US is apparently not willing to negotiate further.  That the UN's biggest conference on the most pressing issues confronting humanity is turning out to be just another paid vacation is something of a death wish.