Combating climate change and water scarcity and supporting agricultural entrepreneurs
for sustainable food security – those are just some of the issues at the heart of
World Environment Day June 5. The theme for 2012: Green Economy- does it include
you?
The United Nations Environment Programme describes the Green Economy “as
one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly
reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities.” A Green Economy then, is
“an economic environment that achieves low carbon emissions, resource efficiency and
at the same time is socially inclusive.”
For a Green economy to work, it must
begin at “an individual level, scaling up to macroeconomic and global levels.” Hence,
the question “does it include you?”
With a global population of 9 billion people
projected by the year 2050, countries are increasingly hard pressed to guarantee
food and water security and demand could soon exceed supply. According to estimates
from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), “1.8 billion people will be living
in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity by 2025.” Moreover, the U.N.
says world resources continue to be exploited unsustainably, leading to dire environmental
degradation.
Immediate interventions are needed to curb the situation. And
delegates to the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development will be discussing these
June 20-22nd in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Dubbed Rio +20, the Conference marks the
twentieth anniversary of the 1992 U.N. Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED),
in Rio de Janeiro.
But Fr. Joe Rozansky ofm says “there’s a lot of concern
about what has not happened” over the last twenty years. “We haven’t been
caring for Creation in the way that we need to do to keep things sustainable.”
As
Director of the ofm office for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation, Fr.
Rozansky will be among a delegation of some 60 Franciscans to go to Brazil for Rio
+20 and other meetings on the sidelines of it.
“From the outside looking
into the U.N. conference, we want to ask them ‘why is it that way? What are the real
concerns that we have in the world today?’”
Fr. Rozansky even takes issue with
the term “Green Economy” itself saying many people are concerned that instead of being
“white washed,” issues are being “green washed.” There’s a concern, he clarifies,
“that (in) using certain kinds of vocabulary, people are going to be satisfied that
something’s happening.”
“There is a major concern that there is not enough
happening or that what’s being sold as green economy is really in a sense an excuse
to keep things going the way they have been going.”
In this interview with
Tracey McClure, Fr. Rozansky also raises the alarm about what he calls the “commodification
of the common goods of our world – things like air and water…”