It is called the ‘Future We Want’, but forget about wanting, no one has admitted to even liking anything it has to offer! I am talking about the outcome document that was signed by government honchos from countries—both rich and poor, developed and developing--at the end of the Rio+20 summit last month.
    
Yes, the grumpiness is evenly spread. The rich nations are miffed because they failed to get their ‘historical debt’ to the global community written off. You see, the 1992 Rio Conference--that for the first time forced world leaders to face up the horrible mess that their shortsighted, selfish, growth plans had made of the Planet--had also concluded that the developed countries must shoulder a larger burden of responsibilities in the Clean-up process. After all, they had consumed far more than their share of the global ecological space for the past 250 years, hadn’t they?

Now let them make space for the others to grow. And how hard these nations have argued since to be let off the hook!!! The poor are no longer poor, they claim now. Look at the growing girth of China and India…why should they feast while we go on a diet? But the Rio+20 legion refused to relent.

Then why is the developing world grumpy about the document? Because the document was all it got. No penalties for the rich who renege. No commitment for new funds or technology.

So Rio 2012 provided space for all to voice their demands. But, unfortunately, there was no one to hear. And this tower of babel was all that this epical event had to offer to a Planet on the brink.