Rio-20: Another Take

May 28, 2012 Editorial

Ben Pile, convenor of the Oxford Salon takes a second look at next month’s Rio-20 Summit.
“Forty years ago, two ideas about humanity’s relationship with the natural world caught the imagination of the richest and most influential people. The first was that the demands of a growing population were taking more from the planet than could be replaced by natural processes.
The second related idea was that there exist natural “limits to growth.” These two reinventions of Malthusianism became the basis of a new form of global politics, which has sought to contain human industrial and economic development ever since.
Fears about the possibility of global environmental catastrophe and its human consequences became the ground on which a number of organisations established under the UN were formed. In 1972, the UN held its Conference on the Human Environment, and began its environment programme, UNEP. In 1983, the World Commission on Environment and Development was formed. Its publication of its findings in 1987, also known as the Brundtland Report, became the bible of “sustainable development.”
Having established sustainable development as an imperative of global politics, more organisations and programmes under the UN were formed to deliver it. In 1992, the UN Conference on Environment and Development, the first “Earth Summit,” was held in Rio, leading to the Agenda 21 “blueprint for a sustainable planet,” UN conventions on climate change and biodiversity, and the creation of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UNSCD). Since then, an entire ecosystem of global, national, governmental and non-governmental organisations has emerged to advocate and implement the closer integration of human productive life with knowledge about the environment: to observe the “limits to growth.” The most notable of these is the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), under which a global agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions is being sought.
Forty years on and those predictions of doom have not been borne out. The average life expectancy of a human has increased by 10 years, and the number of infants dying before their fifth birthday has fallen from 134 per thousand to 58. Thus, the human population has nearly doubled, and global GDP has risen threefold.
There are more of us, we are healthier, wealthier and better fed. There is vast disparity between what the advocates of political environmentalism have claimed and reality. So why are world leaders set to meet next month in Rio at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development?
The conference, known as Rio+20, aims to bring together “world leaders, along with thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, NGOs and other groups” to “shape how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection on an even more crowded planet to get to the future we want”.
But these apparently noble ends belie some shameful means. It is not for you or I to decide what “the future we want” will look like by participating in democratic processes. Instead, “world leaders” from governments, businesses and NGOs are to decide it for us.
What happens then, if we do not believe that an emphasis on sustainability is the best way to approach the problems of poverty and inequity? What happens if we think that progress in the world has been achieved, in spite it not being “sustainable”? And what if we do not think that the Great and the Good are doing anything other than serving themselves by this new form of politics?
There is, of course, no opportunity for the expression of such ideas. The Rio+20 conference will be a meeting to extend the reach of supranational institutions that are already beyond democratic control. By design, the meeting precludes public engagement.
And any recalcitrant “actors” who do make it to the meeting can expect to be made pariahs. Environmentalism is a form of politics that exists apart from the demos, promising to solve the problems of the poor. However, this promise comes at a price: the world can be fed, clothed and housed at the cost of autonomy.

Latest News

Rio-20: Another Take

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| February, 10th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Khalil, Pollard and Barker reign supreme as BCQS Int’l Masters...

Cricket West Indies passes historic governance...

Archery Guyana hosts thrilling 2024 National...

Prashad claims victory at the recently concluded...

West Indies & Sri Lanka top their respective...

Allicock, Amsterdam named in GBA training squad...

Features/Columnists

Are we better off today than we were before first oil?

OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus

Jagdeo on contract awards

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Rio-20: Another Take

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| February, 10th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]