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.