Save The Planet

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.

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 1972 Stockholm meeting discussed the “need for new concepts of sovereignty, based not on the surrender of national sovereignties but on better means of exercising them collectively, and with a greater sense of responsibility for the common good.” In other words, the world can be fed, clothed and housed at the cost of autonomy. This surrendering of autonomy is a price worth paying, according to its advocates, whose argument has been reduced to a neat little slogan: global problems need global solutions.

corporate America has led us into thinking that we can save the earth mainly by buying things

‘lazy environmentalism,’ is geared toward the masses that aren’t willing to sacrifice,”

armchair activism actualizes itself most fully in the realm of consumer goods; through buying the right products we can usher our economic system into the environmental age.”

policymakers are considering language that would specifically allow use of biofuels produced via conversion of rainforests to oil palm plantations

The leaked document suggests that lobbying efforts by the palm oil industry are paying off.

oil palm production has driven large-scale destruction of rainforests across southeast Asia over the past two decades, triggering the release of billions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions and imperiling rare species

"One of the difficulties in conveying it to people," De Rothschild says, "is that you can't photograph it, the flecks are too small.

Heyerdahl could survive on fish, but on board the Plastiki they have caught only a couple of tuna in three months, despite having their lines in the water every day.

The Earth Institute’s overarching goal is to help achieve sustainable development primarily by expanding the world’s understanding of Earth as one integrated system. We work toward this goal through scientific research, education and the practical application of research for solving real-world challenges.

South Africa, Rwanda and Egypt succeeded in deleting any reference to budgetary targets for education, health, agriculture and water in the Common Position on MDGs and the conference report and resolutions

carbon dioxi

the carbon dioxide emission reductions possible from rolling out biodiesel alone are "in the order of 55 per cent"

source and process the feedstock within closer proximity to the end user

Developing and middle income countries were angry that while the draft framework contains a range of prescriptions for developing countries, it fails to recognise that developed countries should uphold their responsibilities to take the lead in combating climate change by reducing their emissions.

The draft framework has little to say about existing operations, but the Bank claims to be "leading by example" by making all its offices "carbon neutral", though this will largely be achieved by the controversial practice of purchasing offsets rather than reducing emissions.