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The International Society of Ethnobiology (ISE) made news at the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development this summer. Introduced to almost 700 governments, businesses, civil society groups, and universities was the “Montpellier Statement,” delivered by Helene Mandrous, the Mayor of Montpellier, France. The statement was developed at ISE’s 13th Biannual Congress held earlier this…
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We’ve been writing a lot recently about how cities can transform themselves by going greener, from rooftop gardens, to buildings made of shipping containers, or even making entire floating cities. (Learn more at our new innovation hub.) At the recent Aspen Environment Forum, Rohit Aggarwala said most major world cities have plans to address climate change…
U.S. Makes Strides on Climate Change
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University in Road to Rio+20 on July 19, 2012 As Grist puts it, contrary to popular belief, the U.S. is making progress on climate change. Overall, the country’s carbon emissions fell 1.7 percent last year—in part because of the explosive growth of natural gas and the Great Recession. Looking at energy-related carbon emissions in the last five years, the U.S. has experienced a roughly…
We reported on the Aspen Environment Forum last month, which brought together leaders in the environment, science, policy, and business communities to discuss “the new normal” on the scenic Colorado campus of the Aspen Institute. (National Geographic co-sponsored the event.) Now, genConnect has released brief video interviews with some of the presenters. Browse the videos…
“Our fuel bill was $20 billion last year,” Sharon Burke, assistant secretary of defense for operational energy plans and programs, told a big crowd at the Aspen Environment Forum in late June. Burke explained that the U.S. Department of Defense also spends about $4 billion a year in electricity costs for its 300,000+ buildings…
“Industrial fishing has never been sustainable, it’s always been using the capital, not the interest,” Daniel Pauly, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s Fisheries Centre, told a rapt audience at the Aspen Environment Forum 2012 in late June. Pauly explained that since the advent of modern industrial fishing, spurred by such inventions…
“I’ve been to a lot of international conferences, in Nagoya, Durban, and so on, but Rio [Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development] was bigger than any I’ve ever seen,” Matthew Shirts, the editor of the Brazilian edition of National Geographic, told a large audience at the Aspen Environment Forum this past weekend in…
Posted by It may seem counterintuitive in a world where giant urban concentrations of billions of people are snagged in traffic congestion and endless sprawl, but cities may well be the smartest way to both make our use of the planet sustainable and raise prosperity.
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An interactive map, launched at Rio+20, seeks to help people keep up-to-date on the state of the Amazon basin.
As the president of the UN Foundation, former U.S. Senator Tim Wirth’s job is to connect people, ideas, and resources to help the United Nations solve global problems. Two kinds of power, electricity and empowerment, were on Senator Wirth’s mind when he sat down to discuss Rio+20, the UN’s largest sustainable development conference happening…
By Antony Spalton and Lisa Guppy Over the last twenty years, disasters have affected up to 4.4 billion people and have cost around $US 2 trillion. Women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men during a disaster, and typically the poorest and most vulnerable children suffer the highest disaster risk and…
Rio+20 Pushes on with Weak Text, Mixed Predictions
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University in Road to Rio+20 on June 21, 2012 
Delegates from around the world are meeting in Rio de Janeiro to discuss how to make the planet more sustainable, despite a rapidly growing population. The reprise of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit dubbed “Rio+20” has so far drawn mixed reactions: some call it an “opportunity”; others say it is another step on a long, complicated road to realizing a…
Rio+20 continues in the gorgeous city of Rio de Janeiro, as a steady stream of world leaders take the podium and wax poetic on sustainable development. Yesterday, I called in to Carmen Russell-Sluchansky’s show on Voice of Russia to give my impressions of how the conference is going. Listen to the brief interview here.
By Kerry Constabile Half of the world’s children and adolescents live in urban areas. As the world urbanizes, people and particularly children are faced with increasingly unhealthy communities. Environmental health hazards – ranging from air pollution, garbage and inadequate sanitation – are problematic for the poorest city dwellers who persist under the radar, neglected by…
Some of the paths through Vila Canoas are so narrow that only one person can pass at a time. When our tour group ran into a resident of the favela coming the opposite direction, we leaned into a corner, letting them pass with a smile and a bom dia (good morning). Brick and concrete blockhouses…
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An indigenous caravan is bringing to the Rio+20 conference the philosophy of “buen vivir” – “living well” in harmony with nature – as a solution to the world’s environmental and economic crises. Indigenous leaders from all over South America are making their way by foot, canoe and eventually on buses to be part of…
“We need to vote with our dollars and choose products that are helping each other,” said Ana Paula Tavares, executive vice president of the conservation group Rainforest Alliance. It’s a statement that sums up her organization’s goal, but it could also serve as a call to action for all consumers from Rio+20 (The UN…
“We try to communicate why there is a new narrative and that we need to respect planetary boundaries,” Johan Rockstrom told a well-heeled crowd at an exclusive event space in Rio de Janerio. The King and Queen of Sweden were reportedly in attendance, as was a former president of Finland. Rockstrom is executive director of…
After this year’s Blue Planet Prizes were announced in the Japan Pavilion at Rio+20, the Asahi Glass Foundation held another star-studded panel to set the stage for the ongoing United Nations negotiations. The foundation presented a 170-page paper entitled “Environment and Development Challenges: The Imperative to Act.” It was produced to commemorate 20…
“We’re facing a global storm, and the question is, is our boat ready?” Mathis Wackernagel asked the crowd gathered at the Japan Pavilion at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro Sunday. Wackernagel, who hails from Switzerland and is president of the Global Footprint Network, was being honored with a 2012 Blue…
By Esther Duflo, Michael Greenstone, Rema Hanna, Radha Muthiah Almost three billion people around the world—or 4 out of every 10 individuals—are exposed to high levels of smoke each day from traditional cookstoves. After water, indoor air pollution is the largest environmental threat to health in developing countries. Women and young children bear the…
Thomas E. Lovejoy, Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University, Virginia, was awarded the 21st annual Blue Planet Prize, the international environmental award, the University announced today. “The Blue Planet prizes are awarded to individuals or organizations each year that make outstanding achievements in scientific research and its application in helping to…
We need to drastically modify global agriculture by incorporating trees into the farming environment. The world stands at a critical juncture in the second decade of the 21st century. International policymakers have begun to face the unspeakable possibility that we might be running out of food and the land to grow it. Staggeringly, we need…
The UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) is just days away, but observers have already been griping for weeks that world leaders may not agree to any firm environmental commitments when they meet in Rio de Janeiro next week (June 20-22). However, a new survey suggests that the world’s people are rooting for concrete action. A poll…
By Luis A. Ubiñas In the 20 years since 172 countries came together for the first Earth Summit in Rio, the world has undergone an extraordinary transformation. Seven billion people today inhabit a planet that is safer, freer, healthier and more prosperous. Yet, we are still moving too slowly toward a world that is…
