Early Warnings from Stockholm

Humans have acquired the power to transform environment in countless ways and on an unprecedented scale.
A point has been reached in history when we must shape our actions throughout the world with a more prudent care for their environmental consequences. Through ignorance or indifference we can do massive and irreversible harm to the earthly environment on which our life and well being depend. Conversely, through fuller knowledge and wiser action, we can achieve for ourselves and our posterity a better life in an environment more in keeping with human needs and hopes. To achieve this environmental goal will demand the acceptance of responsibility by citizens and communities and by enterprises and institutions at every level, all sharing equitably in common efforts

The Rio Promise, and the Hidden Capture

The 1992 Rio Declaration institutionalised bases for international cooperation, such as polluter pays, common but differentiated responsibilities and the precautionary principle. But Rio also institutionalised the concept of sustainable development based on sustainable growth. Rio Conventions acknowledged for the first time rights of indigenous communities and their central contributions to the preservation of biodiversity. But, in the same documents, the industrialised countries and corporations received the guarantee that the seeds and genetic resources that they gained though centuries of colonial domination would be protected through intellectual property rights.

James Hansen's Cowards in our Democracies Statement

Public doubt about the Climate Change science is not an accident.

Rate of global emissions since Kyoto Protocol accelerated to almost 3%/year, compared to 1.5%/year in the preceding two decades. There is a huge gap between rhetoric about reducing emissions and reality. Climate change is a moral issue of unprecedented scope, a matter of intergenerational injustice. Burning all fossil fuels would create a different planet than the one that humanity knows. Fossil fuels are cheap only because they are subsidized directly and indirectly, and because they do not pay their costs to society.

The Durban fiasco

Less than half the commitments to cut carbon, to keep global warming below 2C (450 ppm C) If nations continue to emit CO2 at current rates, the world could reach 560 ppm by 2100
Ice free planetary state, 25 m sea level rise

Between now and 2020, no legally binding cuts

United States, Canada, Japan, Russia, Australia and New Zealand will be out of this second period of the Kyoto Protocol.

The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities established in Climate Change Convention likely to disappear.
This will be known as the lost decade in the fight against climate change

Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth

We are all part of Mother Earth, an indivisible, living community of interrelated and interdependent beings with a common destiny
Capitalist system and all forms of exploitation and contamination have caused great destruction, degradation and disruption of Mother Earth, putting life as we know it today at risk through phenomena such as climate change To guarantee human rights it is necessary to recognize and defend the rights of Mother Earth and all beings in her and that there are existing cultures, practices and laws that do so The rights of each being are limited by the rights of other beings and any conflict between their rights must be resolved in a way that maintains the integrity, balance and health of Mother Earth Establish precautionary and restrictive measures to prevent destruction of ecosystems or the disruption of ecological cycles

Green Economy Rio +20 - The Future We Want?

Seeks to disassociate economic growth from environmental deterioration

Nature as capital natural capital Instruments of the market are powerful tools for managing the economic invisibility of nature. Main targets are the developing countries, where there is the richest biodiversity. Acknowledges developing countries are facing great challenges in eradicating poverty and sustaining growth, and a transition to a green economy will require structural adjustments which may involve additional costs to their economies. It's here already: We support policy frameworks and market instruments that effectively slow, halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation. Eg. REDD (Reducing Emissions through Deforestation and Forest Degradation)

Article 39 of the Constitution Of India

That the citizens, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means to livelihood;
Ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good; Operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment; Equal pay for equal work for both men and women; Health and strength of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or strength; Children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment