We need a system change to solve climate change
Twenty years since the Rio Earth Summit, Ian Rappel looks at the growing ecological crisis and how we can rekindle resistance.
It's that time of the decade again. In June we will see the world's attention focus upon another United Nations-sponsored international environment conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ("Rio+20").
Twenty years ago the UN's conference at the same venue took place in an atmosphere of giddy post Cold War optimism. The importance of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (or the "Rio Summit") reflected a growing scientific consensus over the emerging environmental crisis.