Civil Society groups have walked out of the official Rio+20 talks in protest of the failure of the key negotiators to listen to the calls for a conference which adequately addresses the key issues of sustainable development, with Bill McKibben tweeting "Walkout beginning. Proud to be part of 350, a youth-led movement "
After a three hour sit in, at least 100 representatives have turned in their official UN badges because "the future we want is not here."
Word from the ground is that the group is walking towards the People's Summit, the alternative meeting whose focus is on the rights of indigenous peoples, nature and environmental justice.
Stay tuned for further updates (and clarificatons) as they come in. Follow live reporting and action • Alas de Rio on Facebook• #riofail on Twitter
McKibben, removed about an hour ago from "The Future We Bought" demonstration, tweeted before the march began:
"I've listened to endless green leaders say youth should lead, well see in a little while who follows #riofail"
"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."
Reporting for Adopt A Negotiator, Joshua Reise releases segments of CAN International Executive Director Wael Hmaiden's official statementon behalf of NGOs to Heads of State and Government,
You cannot have a document titled ‘the future we want’ without any mention of planetary boundaries, tipping points, or the Earth’s carrying capacity. The text as it stands is completely out of touch with reality. Just to be clear, NGOs here in Rio in no way endorse this document. Already more than 1,000 organisations and individuals have signed in only one day a petition called “The Future We Don’t Want” that completely refuses the current text. It does not in any way reflect our aspiration, and therefore we demand that the words “in full participation with civil society” are removed from the first paragraph. Here are some of the sample tweets offered, all using the hashtag #riofail
I’m calling on world leaders to stop the #RioFail by (bringing forward solutions being called for by civil society / ending handouts to big polluters / enshrining fundamental rights / building a pathway to a just, sustainable future) Politicians may be able to live with #RioFail, but the people won’t. As it stands, this is a #RioFail for the people, the planet, and our generation. Stop #RioFail by putting the interests of the people and planet ahead of the interests of polluters. #RioFail has been hijacked by big polluters, profits, and the governments who negotiate on their behalf. #RioFail isn’t a failure of the UN, but a success for the corporate polluter lobby. Real leaders listen to the people, not polluters. (insert leader name/twitter account here) stop a #RioFail! (Insert Name of world leader) put your money where your mouth is and stop the #RioFail
The Guardian continues to be the finest source for breaking news and commentary on the conference. Their Thursday liveblog
And in today's Adbuster's blog, Prometheans vs. Soterians, Clive Hamilton analyses how the nuances in diplomatic language in the fields of science and the environment have shifted since the first 1992 summit to emphasize "technocratic and corporate thinking dangerously changing our relation to the Earth."
Thinking like an Earth system engineer has insinuated itself into unexpected places: Achim Steiner, the chief of the UN’s environment program and a man who will play a key role at Rio+20, has called on world leaders to “better manage the planet.” The new Earth System Governance Project, a consortium of concerned scientists, argues that Rio+20 should establish new institutions of global governance, which are undoubtedly needed, but it slides unnoticed into a call for “Earth system governance,” which is quite a different proposition.Many of those who have begun to speak of planetary management use the language of engineering metaphorically. But others are deadly serious. Lowell Wood, the legendary Pentagon weaponeer and pioneer of sulphate aerosol spraying, has declared: “We’ve engineered every other environment we live in, why not the planet?”
Resource: Building the People's Summit