Ronald Bailey Heads to Rio +20 Earth Summit
This week the United Nations is convening the Rio +20 Conference on Sustainable Development. It's called Rio +20 to commemorate the fact that 20 years ago, the United Nations convened an "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro, modestly billed as "the most important meeting in human history." The tone is a little different this time around: It turns out that a good portion of the activists attending are not at all happy with the concept of sustainable development anymore and are denouncing the Green Economy as a corporate sham.
The eco-activist group La Via Campesina has already declared, "Humanity faces a grand dilemma: to continue the path of capitalism, predation, and death, or undertake the path of harmony with nature and respect for life." Starting Sunday, Reason's Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey will be sending back daily dispatches from Rio reporting on the various goings-on at the People's Summit, the Global Compact business meeting, and the actual U.N. conference itself.