The Pains of the Planet

The developed nations of the world have turned their backs to show their apathy and disinterest in supporting a global plan to save the planet from the effects generated by the unbridled exploitation of natural resources and the irrationality of a consumerist model that’s only after big money, brushing aside all the damage being caused to Mother Earth.

In effect, the rather distant positions taken by the immense majority of the heads of state invited to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20, celebrated recently in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, made evident the unwillingness of developed countries to adopt any concrete commitments to avoiding the irrational model of industrialization and consumption that is currently bringing the planet toward its destruction.

Why do industrialized countries continue to show such patterns of indifference toward the urgent necessity of taking action to reduce their frenzied consumption of carbon, petroleum and natural gas?

The rich countries have “forgotten” the commitments they signed decades ago that were to benefit the under-developed economies of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, such as providing technology to those weaker economies in order to more appropriately manage the emission of contaminating gases. This was to be financed in part by 0.7 percent of the GDP of these under-developed countries.

Why haven’t the developed countries supported the proposal to create a specialized fund to combat the effects of climate change and its disastrous repercussions on the flora and fauna of the planet? A special fund of $30 million a year is hoped to be created during the period of 2013-2017, with the goal of increasing the amount to $100 million beginning in 2018.

The United States, as much as Germany, France and Great Britain, among other developed countries, makes it clear that their most immediate concern is in overcoming the deep financial crisis affecting the world’s economy, and that the issues of climate change and sustainable development can wait. But…

It’s necessary to gather political might and willpower so that the world can design “a new paradigm and construct a new type of civilization that integrates the social sectors and allows for the generation of wealth as well as a decrease in poverty with an environment of harmony between human beings and nature,” announced President Leonel Fernandez during his appearance at the Rio+20 Conference.

The final official agreement of the Rio+20 Conference contains only simple aspirations of working on crucial issues like food security, the use and consumption of water and energy. Nothing in the way of commitments or concrete goals to save the planet from the consumerist maelstrom that characterizes the world’s rich economies.

If one thing stood out in the presentations of the great majority of the developing world’s representatives, it was the inevitable necessity to confront the devastating effects of climate change induced by the industrial model, and over-consumption prevalent in developed countries.