Well, getting straight to business, and the title..! I do hope that whatever positive developments that did happen at Rio+20 last week in - yes, indeed - Rio de Janeiro, won't just stay there, but have a good influence worldwide on where we're going from here. Alright, so Rio+20, otherwise formally known as the UN conference on sustainable development, has drawn its share of criticism, and not just last week during the summit but already weeks in advance (and probably longer than that). There are multiple articles written and published on the topic, and I have tried to keep up with a small amount of it so as to stay updated on the developments and key ideas and issues. I will not repeat all that I've read in the past couple of weeks here; for some interesting articles and opinions, as well as useful overviews of the reached results (or lack thereof?) you can check out online sources such as The Guardian (which has a handy Rio+20 Earth summit section), TreeHugger, and Vice Versa for those of you with Dutch language skills ;), among others. But despite the fair amount of critical opinions, which is fair, there are some good things to take home from Rio, I hope. I told you before: I might just be the eternal optimist ;)
Twenty years after the historical gathering in Rio in 1992, this summit seems to have dissappointed many for the lack of concrete results, clear actions, and (particular? national?) interests that appear to complicate the process of reaching agreements. Will 'The future we want' affect results and will the current MDG's be successfully united with the SDG's (Sustainable Development Goals) from 2015 onwards? Time, effort and engagement might tell. I think there's still hope. Even though concrete results and action are lacking at the moment, I think the good thing about all this is that it clearly shows that now is the time to really throw ourselves in to try and make a lasting change. People care - otherwise they wouldn't care to criticize and point out where better work can be done; the attention towards the issue of sustainable development and the so-called Green Economy is certainly there. Sometimes we all have to go through some rough patches of constructive criticism, and why shouldn't that include political and national leaders? ;) Exactly. If your reputation is on the line, you'll try to do better right? There you go.
What's also good to observe is the amount of activity and positive energy (it's Rio, remember) that has been taking place at People's Summit - a variety of activities taking place in the city before, during and after the main conference. You don't welcome 50,000 guests at your party and not expect something to happen, after all! Granted, it's hard to make a sure-fire judgement from afar, but it appears to have gathered some good crowds of involved people from around the world. People are talking, discussing, protesting, writing about it and sharing their experiences and thoughts - and so on. I have tried to follow through social media and sources I've mentioned above, and the stirring up that this summit has brought among the general crowd seems worthwhile in any case. And that's surely good to see - and so there is the hope that some positive difference has been made.
Watching the sea waves move in from afar, get bigger and crash at the shore and turn into sea foam always gets me in a musing mood, expressed not in clear thoughts but just have them kind of floating around in my head. I must not be the only one (if you understood my previous sentence you're probably another person like that). The venue of the main Rio+20 conference was in the city centre, Rio centro, a fair distance from the sea, the waves and all the musing, but the diverse activities associated with the summit took place around the city, including Rio's famous beaches. But whether it's musing or thinking clearly and taking action, we need to strap on some wheels now and start rolling!
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