Océanos, la posibilidad de Río
Solange Marquez Espinoza - 18-Jun-2012
La aprobación de un acuerdo para la protección de la biodiversidad y los recursos genéticos de los océanos en aguas internacionales es quizá uno de los pocos temas en los que una gran mayoría de países está de acuerdo. Dentro del documento que está siendo debatido en estos momentos está incluido el tema de océanos con 19 párrafos en total, cada uno con diferentes medidas relacionadas con la protección de las aguas internacionales. De esos 19 párrafos, en 16 ya se ha logrado acuerdo...
Politicians can’t save the environment
Peter Bjerregaard - 18-Jun-2012
By Peter Bjerregaard The Rio+20 summit will accentuate the management crisis that characterizes international environmental cooporation. Politicians probably won’t agree on anything substantial. Instead, new networks – spearheaded by companies, NGOs and cities – will set the agenda for the future. "This is no way to run a planet," wrote Todd Stern, American chief negotiator on climate change in a letter to former President Georg W. Bush in 2007, and stressed that just like you...
No breakthrough in Rio despite looming deadline
Joydeep Gupta - 14-Jun-2012
Thousands of participants to the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) continued to pour into Brazil’s picture postcard coastal city on Thursday. They will be joined by 130 heads of state and government – apart from many more ministers – next week. But the main reason why they are all here remained bogged down in controversy. Coming 20 years after this city hosted the Earth Summit and set into motion three global treaties to fight climate change and desertification as well as...
No agreement, some hope as Rio+20 starts
Joydeep Gupta - 13-Jun-2012
The largest international gathering of them all got underway in Rio de Janeiro this Wednesday June 13 with no agreement on how the world could be made more liveable and sustainable at the same time. Delegates from 193 countries are still divided over key issues – development financing, capacity building especially in least developed countries, technology transfer, the “green” economy and the framework of action to implement all these ideas. But as the first lot of 50,000-odd politicians,...
Cúpula dos Povos é espaço de todos
Maristela Crispim - 18-Jun-2012
Maristela Crispim Diário do Nordeste Andar pela Cúpula dos Povos, evento paralelo à Rio+20, organizado pela sociedade civil global, é uma grande mistura de sensações. Há espaço para todas as cores, traços, cheiros e sabores. No lugar, é permitido expressar todo tipo de sentimento e ideal. Há quem comercialize a sua arte, presenteie seus pensamentos, ofereça a paz, questione ideologias, a lógica do mercado. Enquanto a conferência oficial discute a economia verde, a Cúpula dos Povos a questiona....
The global crisis threatens an agreement at Rio +20
Lucas Viano - 18-Jun-2012
The crossing between developing countries and powerfull countries locks a global agreement, but the summit could provide specific bilateral arrangements between states, NGOs and companies. The Carnival City is ready to host Rio +20 Earth Summit, organized by the UN two decades after the now legendary 1992 meeting in the city of Rio. But the specter of global crisis, with its epicenter in the "Euro Zone" flies over the streets. Is that when the wallet gets smaller, the least important is...
里约前夜，世界还能期待什么？
Hongxiang Huang - 17-Jun-2012
Published on June 16th, Southern Weekly, China.http://www.infzm.com/content/76995 里约前夜，世界还能期待什么？ 来源：南方周末 作者：南方周末记者 袁瑛 特约撰稿 黄泓翔发自：巴西里约 最后更新：2012-06-16 09:10:55 里约+20峰会开幕进入倒计时。 （CFP/图） 20年前，人类的环境盛会——“联合国环境和发展大会”在巴西里约热内卢召开，20年后，2012年6月20日至22日，各国元首将再聚里约，这是个被誉为“千载难逢的向可持续经济未来迈出实质性进展的机会”。自本期开始，我们以“里约时刻”关注这场地球峰会。 “我不认为在国家领导层面可以取得实质性的协议。”贾布斯是巴西里约热内卢知名的生态学家，在2012年6月5日举办的联合国可持续发展大会（下文简称“里约+20”峰会）前奏系列论坛上，他难掩消极预期。 这种情绪正在蔓延，对于里约，世界范围内正弥漫着一种悲观的态度。世界上最主要的碳排放国美国和中国的最高决策者都不会出席，...
The gods must be angry – a Himalayan account
Tashi Dorji - 15-Jun-2012
A prelude report to the upcoming Rio+20 Summit on the impacts of climate change in Bhutan. The Summit is expected to come out with major decisions outlining climate change issues. In the agrarian Himalayan country of Bhutan, farmers are resolute that the gods have been angry with them for over a few decades now. It is a country where the natural rivers, ponds, mountains and even rocks have been revered for centuries as the abode of deities and gods and are thus considered sacred. Such beliefs...
‘Happiness should be the purpose and end of development’
Tashi Dorji - 15-Jun-2012
Prime Minister Jigme Y. Thinley, in an exclusive interview, shares his expectations with Business Bhutan Editor Tashi Dorji on the upcoming Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development to be held on June 20-22 in Brazil. 1. Bhutan will be calling upon the world to embrace a new development paradigm and move away from the Bretton Woods concept of GDP at the Rio+20 Summit in Brazil. Isn’t it an ambitious campaign? A: Extremely ambitious but timely. It is extremely...
The story of a king, a poor country and a rich idea
Tashi Dorji - 15-Jun-2012
How the development philosophy of Bhutan, Gross National Happiness (GNH), was born? About the time when the Bretton Woods System collapsed in the early 1970s leading to the then worst stock market crash in 1973-74, a teenager king of a small Himalayan kingdom had started advocating a development philosophy among its mostly illiterate citizenry. The message was clear and simple – happiness of the people is more important than economic development of the country. Bhutan had just opened...
Fellowship Brings Journalists from 20 Countries to Rio+20 Summit
Willie Shubert - 12-Jun-2012
A group of 30 journalists that includes Fellows, editors, trainers and staff from 20 countries will report on the negotiations of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as the Rio+20 Summit, taking place in Brazil this month. Over 10 days, the journalists will participate in capacity-building activities focused on the main themes of the international meeting, have contact with sources of government, civil society and multilateral organizations, and provide locally relevant...
From SOS to SMS
James Fahn - 29-May-2012
Barents Crabs Suffer From Soviet Legacy, Russian Reality
Anya Zalota - 30-May-2012
Barents Crabs Suffer From Soviet Legacy, Russian Reality
Anya Zalota - 30-May-2012
Can Logging and Conservation Coexist?
James Fahn - 17-Feb-2012
When it comes to deforestation, loggers have usually received the bulk of the bad press. Armed with chainsaws, they are the bogeymen typically blamed for doing away with not only our forests, but also the biodiversity which inhabits them. But as anyone who has worked on forestry issues – particularly in the tropical regions home to the world’s greatest biodiversity – knows, the demise of natural forests usually comes in the form of a double whammy: first come the loggersbut then come the...
Why UN climate summits like the one in Durban are challenging, but worth covering
James Fahn - 14-Dec-2011
Climate Communications Day - December 1, 2011 - Program
Pat Chadwick - 01-Dec-2011
UN Call for Climate Revolution
Bruce Gellerman - 07-Feb-2011
GELLERMAN: From the Jennifer and Ted Stanley Studios in Somerville Mass, this is Living on Earth. I'm Bruce Gellerman. Despite 20 years of UN led negotiations, global greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, and a new international climate treaty seems a distant hope. Now the Guardian newspaper in Britain reports that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon appears to be ending his day-to-day involvement with the climate talks. But he's not going quietly. Former UNFCCC executive...
Moguls from mountains of Trash
Bruce Gellerman - 07-Feb-2011
GELLERMAN: You know what to do when life hands you lemons - but what if it gives you a power plant that burns garbage? Well, if you're architect Bjarke Ingels of Copenhagen - you turn it into a ski slope. His company, the Bjarke Ingels Group, just won first prize in an international competition that challenged architects to design a new incinerator to turn waste into energy in the Danish capital. Bjarke Ingels joins me on the line from Copenhagen - welcome to Living on Earth. INGELS:...
