My Short List of Demands from the Rio+20 Summit
The Rio+20 Summit is starting next week and I thought I might as well write a short list of personal demands. To make everything simpler and clearer, I have also decided to follow a suggestion that I have seen given to those who have taken part in the recent protests, namely to put forward a single list, containing no more than five main demands, each of them having an explanation no longer than two lines, and leaving all other details aside until the actual negotiations. So I opened a file, used the default font and size, which is Times New Roman, size 12, and wrote my five main demands when it comes to environmental issues, making sure that no demand will take more than one line and no explanation more than two. This is the result:
1. Solve the overpopulation problem by drastically reducing the number of births worldwide.
Enforce strict regulations to reduce the population to no more than three billion by 2100 without requiring increased mortality. Only allow healthy people with extraordinary talents to have children.
2. Adopt a declaration stating humankind’s place within, not above, Earth’s ecosystem.
Acknowledge that humans are merely one species of many and that our immense capacity to influence the world implies more responsibilities to care for and help the others than rights to exploit them.
3. Protect sufficient areas to allow the other species to live out their lives without fear of humans.
Strictly protect wilderness areas covering at least 25% of the land area and 25% of the oceans of Earth by 2050. Select areas according to what other species need, not according to what humans can spare.
4. Ensure that healthy and organic food will be readily available and affordable for everyone.
Tax conventional and subsidize organic food production. Encourage organic farming in all private gardens. Ban the use of GMOs and patented plant and animal species. Phase out factory farms by 2050.
5. Switch energy generation to clean, safe and renewable sources with a low negative impact.
Cover at least 30% of the demand from such sources by 2020, 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2050. Phase out nuclear by 2030 and coal by 2050. Ban additional hydroelectric plants of any size.
The order I listed them in is the order of importance at the moment, though all of them are crucial. Yes, even the second one, which is essentially a demand for a statement, not for a binding agreement or any other immediate action, because such a statement would pave the way towards what needs to be done in the future, specifying the framework within which we must work and the mindset we’ll all need to have from this moment forward. It could be written in the form of a pledge that all attendants to such summits would be required to take from now on, so it’s only second because the overpopulation problem is absolutely critical and very drastic action must be taken immediately, because the necessary reduction may well become impossible to achieve without also increasing mortality within as little as five years, if the current trends continue.
