Rio Fail: Youth Lead Walkout of UN Summit

[DeSwiss]

Source: Common Dreams

[font size=3]Rio Fail: Youth Lead Walkout of UN Summit[/font]
Slamming leaders' negotiating text as a failure for people and the environment, youth climate leaders stage civil disobedience

Common Dreams
Thursday, June 21, 2012
- Common Dreams staff

Youth climate leaders and their supporters have walked out of the UN climate summit in Rio today to protest the negotiating text that fails to protect the climate. The group staged a "people's plenary" saying the text decided at the conference by world leaders does not represent "the future we want."

Satirizing Rio+20's The Future We Want slogan, members of the groups staged a sit-in and read a mock text called "The Future We Bought." The group then tore the document to shreds saying "the future we want is not found here" and have returned their badges to UN security to make their way towards the People's Summit.

"World leaders have delivered something that fails to move the world forward from the first Rio summit, showing up with empty promises and empty pockets at Rio+20" says Mariana Calderon, a young woman from California. "This text is a polluters plan, and unless leaders start listening to the people, history will remember it as a failure for the people and the planet."

"The Rio text saves political face but fails at protecting people on the frontlines of climate and environmental crises," Calderon explained. "The current text shows no ambition on the most important issues here in Rio - protecting Oceans, ensuring the right to food and water for all, ending handouts to big polluters, addressing climate change or setting goals for the creation of a just and sustainable future for people and the planet."

Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/06/21-10

---

[center]"Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she
has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do." ~Wendell Berry

[/center]

[freshwest]

1. Time to end the carbon credits bs, too.

[DeSwiss]

2. Yep.

It's time for the TRUTH.

[freshwest]

3. Wondering though. Removing the class, 1% vs. 99% aspect of the people protesting...

And part of this summit's emphasis was on overpopulation... And the first and third world not being treated the same...

Could it be argued in any way that those opposing the measures, other the charade of credits, to allow the first world to pollute freely in exchange for running people off their lands to grow forest to make up their deficit...

Another form of colonialism that is going on world wide with no real impact on the slaughter of the planet...

Because are talking in some cases of so much destruciton by mining trees, minerals, etc. that there will no be life giving land in those areas for the rest of our lives...

But could it be argued those opposing are regressive and ignoring the big picture, the global picture, on that one subject... Overpopulation.

The growth of population in the first world has never matched the third, unless I'm mistaken. The carrying capacity of many of the countries with the largest increase in population, shown by the ratio of youth to older members, despite the lack of arable ground, has been exceeded for years.

The idyllic vision of local economies, with local production of food and work and vibrant societies, seems to be able to work in only a few areas. Populations have always been regimented to produce more food or goods than they could consume, but don't always get the fruits of their labors. This is a human problem, which beomes an environmental one with monoculture for profit to trade for what is not available.

got to go, get back, later..'

[raouldukelives]

4. Good for them.

It will never be taken seriously with corporate leadership. Or that is to say, it will be discussed seriously by serious people until were seriously fucked. Even if the crescendo of people demanding something be undertaken became so great they actually got together and met for a week to come up with answer they'd come out singing a happy song about capping emissions and reducing greenhouse gasses by some far off, open to future extensions date and what a rounding success it combined with carbon & wetland credits will become. It would seem the only answer, as always, is doing it yourself and hoping to create positive change along the way.

[Blue_Tires]

5. Wow...I hand't heard of this...

kick

[hatrack]

6. Cross-posting to environment group

Interesting - thank you!