Rio + 20

Twenty years ago, the United Nations held a major conference in Rio de Janeiro to address various ecological and development issues - among them, global climate change, alternatives to fossil fuels, the development of public transportation and the growing scarcity of water.  Several framework documents came from this "Earth Summit".  The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change led directly to the Kyoto Protocol of 1997.  Another was the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development which proposed 27 principles to guide sustainable development through the coming decades.

While most are familiar with the Kyoto Protocol (and the United States' shameful non-signatory status), the principles of the Rio Declaration are more general and not as well known.  Two of the key principles from the 1992 Earth Summit are: Principle 1 ("Human beings are at the centre of concern for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.") and Principle 25 ("Peace, development and environmental protection are interdependent and indivisible.") 

The "Rio + 20" conference on sustainable development will be held in Rio de Janeiro from June 20 to June 22.  Whether this Rio conference will have more success than the first on changing the behavior of nations is debatable.  The UN recently assessed progress on 90 of the most important environmental goals.  The bleak results: just 4 of the goals showed "significant progress" (the ozone layer, the removal of lead from fuel, increasing access to improved water supplies, and boosting research to reduce pollution of the marine environment.)  Little or no progress was detected for 24 of the goals.  This "little/no progress" list included climate change. 

Put that assessment beside a study reported in the June 6 issue of Nature.   The study warned that we are approaching a climatic tipping point with irreversible consequences.  As summarized in a blog by Beth Buczynski:  "The researchers say a combination of variables are forcing the planet toward irreversible biological changes, including exploding global population, rapidly rising temperatures and the clearance of more than 40 percent of Earth’s surface for urban development or agriculture. They also warn that ignoring these changes, and our role in fast-tracking them, is a dangerous gamble."

This is what is at stake and this is Rio + 20's challenge.  Hopefully the climate change deniers, the "drill-baby-drillers" and the bright lights such as those North Carolina legislators that are proposing legislation to tell scientists how to perform science will some day get the message before it really is too late.