Rio + 20 Earth Summit Collapses

At least that is what apoplectic Greenpeace spokesperson Kumi Naidoo is claiming in a press release:

"The future we want has gotten a little further away today. Rio+20 has turned into an epic failure. It has failed on equity, failed on ecology and failed on economy."

"We were promised the 'future we want' but are now being present with a 'common vision' of a polluter's charter that will cook the planet, empty the oceans and wreck the rain forests."

"This is not a foundation on which to grow economies or pull people out of poverty, it's the last will and testament of a destructive twentieth century development model." …

"World leaders will begin to descend on Rio today and we have to ask why? We were promised a green economy, the Future we Want, but all we can look forward to is three more days of Greenwash."

Indeed why? In any case, Naidoo is complaining about the new version of The Future We Want declaration that the leaders gathering here in Rio are expected to endorse by Friday. I can't be sure that there are not some pernicious policies shrouded in UNspeak in the document, but a quick glance through it suggests that the hopes of Naidoo and friends for establishing a global system of central ecological planning have largely been disappointed this time. Come greenwash or greenpower, I will continue to report from the Rio + 20 conference until it whimpers to its end.

Comments

[Pro Libertate]

Who is "we"?

[db]

Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand...

[Ron Bailey]

PL: You know perfectly well who "we" is and you're not one of "them."

[Pro Libertate]

The Future I Want has more technology and less nonsense. So maybe I'm the problem.

[AlmightyJB]

You forgot less equality. If for no other reason then to piss off people named Kumi.

[Monkey's Uncle]

Exactly. You know, we 99%ers.

[Groovus Maximus]

Aww, Ron, you need a song. Also, told ya about this Rio +20 being a Brick Joke.

[MikeP]

"The future we want has gotten a little further away today..."

Drink!

No, really. Drink.

[wareagle]

"We were promised the 'future we want'

and you actually believed that "promised" future could be delivered? How cute.

[Monkey's Uncle]

I thought Kumi Naidoo was a rejected Star Wars character name. hmm.

[BakedPenguin]

Beat me to it, although I was going to specify the prequels.

[Pro Libertate]

Nothing was rejected in making the prequels.

[Monkey's Uncle]

"Nothing was rejected in making the prequels."

So very unfortunately true.

[Groovus Maximus]

Not quite. Quality writing and dialougue was instantly screened out.

[?Ex Nihilo?]

dialougue

Canadian??

I keed, I keed.

[Pro Libertate]

I don't think they were submitted for approval in the first place.

[db]

I like to thing that most of the B.S. in the prequels ended up as the glop in the trash compactor in Episode IV.

[Cytotoxic]

I think the glop was re-used as script for the sequels.

[juris imprudent]

Same thought here. In fact, reading that paragraph in JarJar speak made it much more entertaining.

[John]

We were promised the 'future we want' but are now being present with a 'common vision' of a polluter's charter that will cook the planet, empty the oceans and wreck the rain forests.

Tony is a spokesperson for Green Peace

[wareagle]

I'm just glad the spokesman was able to avoid the usual apocalyptic language. Seriously, when these folks utter these dire pronouncements, it has all the excitement of a grocery list.

[Bill]

Apocalypse Soon! If the planet is getting cooked, shouldn't he have picked something worse than wrecked for the rain forests?

Incinerated maybe? Or Vaporised?

[The Hammer]

Empty the oceans? I thought the oceans were supposed to overflow?

[db]

The oceans will empty uphill, inundating all the poor people in favelas the world over. Dolphins will drown on the tops of mountains, and spotted owls will search for a tree in vain.

[toxic]

While I have to admit that I got bored and only skimmed the thing, it came across as mostly wanker feel good Ms. America-wants-to-sound-smart bullshit, though I guess of a distinctly moderate variety. To the degree I think it matters, I would say an environmental consensus that is interested in a realistic balance of ecology and economic development has a much better chance of actually improving the world than Greenpeace.

One of my major reasons why I think far leftist's are kind of stupid is that they get their panties in a wad over stuff like this. It's like they think the whole world is a big internet comment thread.

[Almanian's Evil Twin]

Rio + 20 Earth Summit Collapses

Good

That is all.

[Mr. FIFY]

Best news of the day, though the week is still young.

[NotSure]

Even better news for the week:
Greece leaves the eurozone.
Mexico legalises drugs.
Central bankers admit they have no clue whats going on.
China dismantles its firewall.
USA decides to shrink its military.

[CatoTheElder]

Sorry, but Kumi Naidoo would have said pretty much the same thing if Rio+20 were to yield commitments signed in blood for everything that Kumi Naidoo could reasonably expect.

There is simply no end to their demands, and the world is going to end if they aren't met.

[creech]

Ron, just post for us a few shots of whatever bikini styles are being worn in Rio this year. Maybe you can find the new "Lobster Girl" for us.

[Ron Bailey]

creech: You think that I actually make down to the beaches here? Nope, it's mostly hotel and convention center conference rooms for me, although I did drop by Flamengo Park today to wander/wonder through the People's Summit.

[Almanian's Evil Twin]

I trust you have not been accosted by bands of 13-year-old ruffians as of yet?

[Groovus Maximus]

"Ruffians" FTW! That word needs to come back in common parlance. "Hooligans" is another.

[JW]

I won't rest until ne'-er-do-well is back in the lexicon.

[Isaac Bartram]

Larrikin is my favorite.

Actually, I always assumed the word had Irish or English roots, but according to the wiki, it's an original 'strylyunism.

[MOFO.]

Hoodlum. A quality word. Often shortened to just hood if you are Dirty Harry.

[AlmightyJB]

I was called a scufflaw once. All I could say was, yeah thats true.

[Almanian's Evil Twin]

I was once a "scofflaw" myself, which is even more badassianish. Ness.

[mad libertarian guy]

I was once called a reprobate.

[juris imprudent]

I admonish the miscreants whilst polishing my monocle.

[Sevo]

"The future we want has gotten a little further away today."

For which quite a few of us are thankful.
I've seem the future you want and I don't want any part of it.

[Isaac Bartram]

The future they want is pretty much the past we rejected.

Poverty, privation, starvation.

[JeremyR]

Was this ever anything but an excuse for these people (and journalists) to have a nice vacation?

If these people were truly serious about global warming, they would have a conference over the internet, instead of flying to a resort.

[General Butt Naked]

According to Ron it's all blood, sweat, and banging on the keyboard down there. Christ, I could imagine how long that alt-text took him.

Also, you must remember that though Mr. Gillespie has a soft spot for journalism he and his backers, the notorious Koch Brothers, are first and foremost capitalists. Motivated by profit they surmise, correctly, that a journalist having fun is a journalist losing them money.

They keep a tight ship and aren't afraid to crack a literal whip now and again to maintain discipline. Bailey has the scars to prove it.

[Ron Bailey]

GBN: How did you know? 😉

[NotSure]

Look on the bright side Kumi Naidoo, at least now you get to travel to another exotic location for the next save the world conference.

[Brutus]

And really, sacrifices like this are all part of being one of the Philosopher Kings.

[MOFO.]

Has anyone called dibs on this guy's delicious tears yet? If not im calling it. At a minimum, sweeter than nectar, and Ive heard that the tears of environmentalists make good monocle polish, or is that just the tears of overworked children in factories?

[Pi Guy]

Environmentalists' tears are for shining up your spats.

[DantoRang]

Yep yep, no doubt man that makes a LOT of sense dude.

http://www.Anon-Browser.tk

[econmagic]

I think it is worth looking at this article that explained back in February, before anyone even heard of the summit, why it will be a failure.
http://zoltansustainableecon.b.....tions.html

[Hyperion]

The reason it will fail is because no one is going to willingly give up their stuff, their material stuff, their comfortable standard of living, over some stupid pipe dream that makes no sense and is not based on any sense of reality that warrants actions they are advocating. Sure, people will talk about this stuff, but when it comes time to give up the cars, the technology the cool stuff, etc., etc., it is all over.

Take for instance the very country that this is taking place in. If you think that Americans love their 'stuff', wait until you have been around Brazilians for a while. You try to get between Brazilians and their shopping, umm, let's just say the doorway of a shop that caters to women in a busy mall, that has just put up a big clearance sale sign, is probably the most dangerous place you will ever be in your life. You many as well stand in the middle of the DC beltway during rush hour.

[Hyperion]

I was there in March. There were no green nazis, just a few European tourists running around with suspenders holding up their soccer shorts and white socks up to their knees.

The thought of all of those enviro-wackos and commies stinking up that beautiful place is so sad.

Can't they go someplace fittingly ugly for such ugly examples of humans to congregate? I want to suggest a few places, but really nowhere on earth deserves these luddites. Maybe hell, that would be ok. They could have a debate with Hitler and Stalin over who could dream up and implement the most oppressive world system.

[John B.]

You know, one thing is their green mindless crying about how it is necessary to save the Planet and the other thing is the reality we all have to live in.

We are living in a current economical paradigm, which reflects the usage of oil as a primary resource for the economic growth. The levels of pollution, deforestation, chemical hazards etc are the things that are moving our capitalist economy forward, not backwards as they like to point out.

One of the brightest examples of the development of industry specializing in extradiction of resources is Calgary with its economic growth. While the rest of Canada is suffering from the starting real estate crisis, Calgary is continuing with low vacancy rates and increasing benchmark property value. More and more companies are moving in, new high building are being constructed and so on. How do they want to reverse it from Rio?

[????? ??????]

Thanks