I remember the genuine excitement that surrounded the original Earth Summit back in 1992. It seemed a dawning realisation of the parlous state of our planet was really going to translate into action.
And to some extent it did ... do read Mark Avery’s guest blogs (here's one, do read the others) for a compelling commentary on the successes and failures.
Climate change came to the fore as the greatest long term threat to life on earth – there’s more on that here. You can step up and join the Rio Connection and ask your MP to sign the Rio Declaration, just like David Wright MP (pictured below) did at a recent event in Westminster.
Thinking globally and acting locally led to a wave of Local Agenda 21 groups across the UK (did you get involved in one?)
And for our glorious, life sustaining, awe-inspiring natural world – we got a new word; biodiversity. Don’t get me wrong – a lot of good stuff came out the original Earth Summit but re-labelling nature as biodiversity didn’t help!
This time in Rio the big idea is sustainable development. If the rhetoric of Rio isn’t to be any more than a mumble in the jungle, if it is to guide our leaders to new ways of thinking then how will it look at home here in the UK? How will it deal with the very real threats to our wildlife? How will it enable you and me – and many others to make a real difference together.
Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, is leading the UK delegation in Rio and here he is blogging for us on his ambitions for Rio+20.
A few days ago I met the BBC’s Science Editor, David Shukman, at Dungeness – one of our most special places for wildlife (it’s stuffed with biodiversity). As regular readers of this blog will know it’s also threatened not least by plans to expand nearby Lydd airport – here’s his report.
Two of my colleagues are in Rio and they will be blogging from the heart of the action – here’s the first one.
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I really hope that the leaders at the summit make the sensible decisions that we (who care about our planet) know should be made. It is the only way that they can live with a clear conscience about their contribution to our worlds future.
On the subject of our growing population, I find myself thinking about China's example of limiting the amount of babies born per family. It's a massive can of worms but I would be in favour of say, a limit of two per family. ( I am a parent of one son, aged 23 and, as far as I am aware, I could have had many more children If we had chosen to do so)