“The power under the constitution will always be in the people. It is entrusted for certain defined purposes, and for a certain limited period, to representatives of their own choosing; and whenever it is executed contrary to their interest, or not agreeable to their wishes, their servants can and undoubtedly will, be recalled.”

~ George Washington (1787)

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Failure+20

We discuss "Agenda 21" quite a bit here. We've also brought up "Rio+20", which is a mega-conference designed to celebrate the original signing of the Agenda 21 accords, and look forward for the next 20 years.

And it appears to have been a flop. There's a collection of great links at the link that are great reading, especially if you need some good news.  A sample:

The “failure” of Rio+20 is a cause for celebration, even if you can’t afford the champagne and foie gras that ecocrats served themselves as their hopes for “Sustainia” retreated into the policy fog. A mostly “B” list of government leaders (No Barack Obama. No David Cameron. No Stephen Harper. No Angela Merkel) was set to adopt a pablum-filled 283-point “vision” on Friday that was finalized before they arrived.
“[N]othing less than a disaster for the planet,” declared Nnimmo Bassey, Nigerian poet and chair of Friends of the Earth International. “[A]n epic failure,” claimed Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace International executive director. ‘[A] colossal waste of time,” chimed in Jim Leape, international director-general of World Wildlife Fund.
Agenda 21 is by no means dead, of course.  But it's clear that it's influence is not what it used to be, and we need to keep pushing it back.
Update and bumped:  Some other items from the flop known as "Rio+20"