EULOGY FOR RIO +20 AND A DECLARATION OF HOPE

RIO +20 Collapse -- photo source

Powerful words from George Monbiot:

After Rio, we know. Governments have given up on the planet 

The post-summit pledge was an admission of defeat against consumer capitalism. But we can still salvage the natural world

THE CHINA PRIZE: IN BRAZIL AND IN THE USA

It's all about trade and commodities.



Last week, on the sidelines of RIO +20, Brazil and China have jointly reinforced their financial cooperation with a financial reserves $30bn swap arrangement aimed at reinforcing trade and resistance to financial shocks from Europe and the USA.

SÃO JOÃO VIVE -- SAINT JOHN LIVES

Saint John lives in Brazil, for sure in the music.

VIVA SÃO JOÃO - VIVA XANGO

More music for the night of São João and Xango:

VIVA! SÃO JOÃO

All across Brazil, tonight belongs to São João.  Here is some (sorry that it's incomplete) of Gilberto Gil's documentary about the traditions of the Nordeste.

RIO 1492 + 520

I didn't expect much from RIO +20 but it was hard to see the world leaders so unable to come up with anything but words that attempt to mask their inaction.

 
photo -- stage set for Verdi's opera, "A Masked Ball" (1999 Bergenz Festival)

It's been about 520 years since that day when Columbus made it across the Atlantic and placed a fatal foot on the America's. The killing of people and forests continues to this day. I sure hope that we may yet figure out how to be here on earth in a peaceful and sustainable way.

AIR CONDITIONING FOR ALL

Air-conditioning in Mumbai, India -- Photo: Kuni Takahashi for The New York Times

[UPDATE 22 June -- There's a follow-up debate today at the NY Times --  "Is it a good goal for everyone in the world to have access to air-conditioning — like clean water or the Internet? Or is it an unsustainable luxury, which air-conditioned societies should be giving up or rationing?"  The focus on the developed world is good. It really drives home how our lifestyles make us complicit.]


The likely response to a warming world is more use of air conditioning wherever it can be afforded. But, according to this NY Times report by Elisabeth Rosenthal and Andrew W. Lehren, the new non-ozone-damaging gases are by weight thousands of times more potent as CO2 and "up to 27 percent of all global warming will be attributable to those gases by 2050."

This is not only an urban Asian problem. Here in Brazil I am watching air conditioning follow the cars and rural electrification (Luz para Todos) into the Amazon forest where people want it for the same reasons as Asians, Australians, Europeans and North Americans do -- to deal with the heat.

Suely Carvalho, the Brazilian-born chief of the United Nations Development Program’s Montreal Protocol and Chemicals Unit, said: “The developing countries are already struggling to phase out, and now you tell them, ‘Don’t do what we did.’ You can see why they’re upset.”

"DEFEAT OBAMA" IS THE LATEST PRONOUNCEMENT FROM THE PRINCIPLED POMPOUS PROFESSOR

I am no fan of Obama but the principled pronouncements of the pompous professor Roberto Mangabeira Unger fall clearly into my major "GIMME A BREAK" department.



Who is this guy?

DEEP LISTENING

... and much more from Rumi through Coleman Barks

UNDERSTANDING

The word "understanding" literally means to "stand under" or to be at the root of things.

AYAHUASCA RESEARCH

EXCELLENT! Thanks to the production efforts of David Suzuki, who can be counted on to cut through the confusion and sensationalism to find a meeting ground between modern science and ancient wisdom.

(Hat tip to Hans Boger)

A PILLOW, A ROCK AND MEMORIES OF A FRIEND

Late last night I was contemplating the up-coming RIO+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development. I was, realistically (I believe), not feeling hopeful about what might emerge from this global theater of leaders, agendas and postures. Indeed, I was feeling rather depressed about where the world seems to be heading.

In the midst of a mood plunging toward grief, I stumbled upon a wonderful film and concert about two great 13th Century Sufi poets -- Rumi from Iran/Persia and Amir Khusrau from India/Pakistan -- both of whom transformed their grief into a great love that endures in spiritual practice, in artistic performance and in personal inspiration to this day.

 

IT'S ALL ABOUT WATER (con't)

Auroville, the South Indian visionary community flowing from the legacy of Sri Auribindo has a video about making spiritual works (sadhana) and earth works one-and-the-same. Returning to the garden ("on earth as it is in heaven") is here linked to water conservation and reforestation. It's a lovely vision.