Occupiers Disrupt Closing Press Brief at Rio+20 Earth Summit
Posted 12 years ago on June 23, 2012, 2:37 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Two members of the occupy movement disrupted the final press briefing of the United Nations Rio+20 Earth Summit on Sustainable Development, denouncing the final document as not representative of the voices in struggle against the degradation of the environment and oppression. Occupy Wall Street member Alexandre Carvalho and Ocupa Sampa Maryana Sant' Ana infiltrated the media conference room P3 - 7 with no press credentials, sat close to the panelists, and waited until the brief started, at 2pm.
When one of the speakers started his address, state that the cause of environmental degradation and the crash of the world economy wasn't due to banks but instead to the failure of governments to take action, the two activists took to the center of the room, grabbed two flowers that were decorating the front of the panel, and said: “They do not represent us! We want a real democracy! We are here to announce a new time; a time of imagination, poetry and no ecocide! NO GENERATIONAL GENOCIDE!” when they were seized and forced out of the room by UN personnel.
The Rio+20 final document was marked by general frustration, with many voices denouncing its lack of ambition, urgency, and real commitment to the environment. While leaders of nation-states paid lip service to the document, members of civil society and NGOs threatened to remove their support to the final statement.
“Corporate take over of the UN is undermining the real solutions coming from grassroots social movements” , said Sant'Ana. “The attempt to market green capitalism as the solution to the world's environmental problems is a farce – the solution is in international solidarity, open source technologies, and a new world consciousness.
A people's petition and the Open Source Imperative, foundational statements, can be found here: www.occupytheearth.net.
For more on Ocupa Rio and the Rio Earth Summit, see here.
"imagination and poetry"? Seriously? And then straight from that to "generational genocide" hyperbole?
Wouldn't it be better if the message were something compelling that might actually shift public opinion, if successfully delivered? All of that work to deliver a message that's just going to make people snicker at the protester?
2 people courageously stand up in front of the whole planet to express their disagreement with the direction the planet/governments are taking. I may not agree with everything they said, but I gotta raise them up for challenging the farce of these eco conferences. The slow progress away from destructive fossil fuels to green tech is unacceptable. They are correct when they say our inaction is destroying the environment. I am more outraged at the lack of media coverage. We need to support these brave people! Not search for pedantic reasons to put them down. We should leave that distraction to the pro fossil fuel, anti green tech 1%'rs........
Do you stand with the pro fossil fuel, anti green tech 1%, laughing boy?
Wow you are so entertaining today with your 'us and them' mentality. I must be a pro fossil fuel, anti green tech, 1%er. Yeah that makes sense...
Don't you think that there might have been more media coverage, if the heart of the story hadn't been a protester disrupting an event to yell about "imagination" and "poetry"? It's pretty easy for the media to write that incident off when the message is such a trite cliche.
I KNOW the media ignores OWS because their corp 1% owners are tryin to crush OWS.
To focus on, and criticize the comments of the brave protesters is just an effort to blame the victim. We agree with them! Even if they didn't say it just like we would have. Maybe they are more extreme than me. That is ok as well. They are singin the right song. It is our job to support them. Lift them up. Not put them down. They need us.
We should be criticizing the media and the fossil fuel corps that control the govts that are dragging their feet. You appear to be lost in the weeds of which words were said, and are avoiding the substance of the urgent issue at hand.
And still haven't taken a stand. Your silence on eco-cide is deafening. Who do you support? Us or them!
Greens are reactionary Doomsdayers. Granted, a lot of their critiques are correct but their "solutions" lead to global fascism.
I can get behind this kind of reactionary.
Green Tech. Sustainable and healthy. Profitable and exportable.
This is where we should be going: Green Energy we have the technology we just need to use it. This is what I am talking about. A clean future to be implemented NOW!
http://www.hopewellproject.org/
http://ecat.com/
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/ff_new_nukes/all/1
FuelCell Energy http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/progress_alerts.cfm/pa_id=600
You have got to watch this vid: The liquid Metal Battery - another piece to the puzzle.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/donald_sadoway_the_missing_link_to_renewable_energy.html
Additional Liquid Metal Battery links.
http://lmbcorporation.com/
http://lmbcorporation.com/files/flyerFinal.pdf
Your notion of Green is not the same at the Doomsday Greenies who want to halt human progress in the name of an Earth deity. I could get behind it.
This is functional technology that would not change our way of life except to make it healthier.
I agree. You've shown me these links before, fyi.
I will continue to show them. As I hope others will share them out as well.
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Right on, love you all, in solidarity.
Not snickering, inspired! Also a little jealous. Expect us!!!!
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yes poetry! read John Clare! we have lost our home and connection our place in the environment. they stole our land with enclosures and now they steal our homes with foreclosures! it is all one grand larceny and conspiracy against the people!
Bravo, but... 'poetry'? A couple of seconds to speak before the cops haul them out, and they suggest poetry?
Anyway, I'm nitpicking over details; the Rio Summit promises, once again, a solution to climate change that generally ignores environmental justice, as was expected and will be expected again. Environmentally just international politics are impossible under the current power structure; until the rule of class is abolished, the rule of democracy, social justice, and environmental responsibility is impossible.
Yeah, I agree & see it that way, too.