Environmentalists call for meaningful action at upcoming UN sustainable development conference

Earlier this week, environmentalists gathered in front of the UN building to call on world leaders to take meaningful action at the upcoming Rio plus 20 sustainable development conference in Brazil.  Eric Weltman is with Food and Water Watch, which organized the event:

“We are concerned that much of what passes for sustainable development is a real disguise for the privatization of water resources and other resources that hinders access to these essential resources, privatizes them then sells them to the highest bidder.”

Other activists, including Tristan Quinn-Thibodeau with the advocacy group Why Hunger say the UN must start paying attention to the solutions offered by social movements:

“Many experts say that such sustainable agriculture could feed the world, but the UN shuts them out. They only listen to the technocrats, chemical agricultural folks. So we want to raise the stories that tell the solutions that peasants are living. They are leading lives that are cooling the planet and producing wealth.  And they are completely shut out of the discourse at the UN.”

The UN conference begins next week and civil society groups, collectives and social movements have organized a parallel People’s Summit.