Please consider: Is the "The Green Economy" just another "Green Revolution"? (Part 1)

 “Green Economy” has undergone extensive discussion in the preparation and aftermath of the Rio+20 Conference.  For developing countries and the indigenous peoples, the ‘green’ label has a very disagreeable connotation.  The “Green Revolution” of the 1970’s promised to end hunger; ultimately it resulted in land degradation due to dependency on fertilizer and single crop planting. Guess who ultimately profited?

The Rio+20 People's Summit developed their own definition of the “Green Economy”.

“The Green Economy

is a perverse attempt

by corporation, extractive industries, and governments

to cash in on Creation

by privatizing, commodifying and selling off

the Sacred and all forms of life and sky ,

including the air we breathe, the water we drink

and all the genes, plants, traditional seeds, trees, animals, fish,

biological and cultural diversity,

ecosystems and traditional knowledge

that make life on Earth possible and enjoyable.”

 (This statement was signed by 500 indigenous leaders in a ritual ceremony at the Peoples’ Summit in June.)

 Another definition from Tom Goldtooth, Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network: “the difference between money-centered Western views and the life-centered indigenous worldview based on the sacred female creation principal of

 Mother Earth.”

 Jeff Conant, Yes Magazine, Fall, 2012, Issue 63