As you use this prayer share your reflection and your own prayer with us. This prayer is available in Spanish and English. Pausa por la paz – 2012[1] Pause for Peace 2012[1]
In less than two months, the world will gather in Rio de Janeiro for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development. The first Earth Summit in 1992 gave us important legally binding conventions, the far-reaching Agenda 21 blueprint, and the conceptual breakthrough of sustainable development. Rio+20 offers us a timely chance for a similar change in course — for a much-needed paradigm shift and a recommitment to implementation.
In the next twenty years, the world will need at least 50 per cent more food …
45 per cent more energy … 30 per cent more water … and many millions of new jobs. Our challenge at Rio+20 and beyond is to take a holistic, integrated approach to these linked challenges — driving at the interrelations such that solutions to one problem translate into progress on all.
Hard but necessary choices lie ahead. We need an outcome that is simultaneously practical and transformational. We must use Rio+20 to promote better respect for nature and to cultivate an environment – natural and social – in which all children feel safe and all people can prosper. Mother Earth belongs to us all; Rio+20 is a once-in-a-generation opportunity that all of us must seize.
This year in June, world leaders will gather at the Rio+20 sustainable development conference, to discus on two main themes: how to build a green economy to achieve sustainable development and lift people out of poverty; and how to improve international coordination for sustainable development.
Mother Earth is a common expression for the planet earth in a number of countries and regions, which reflects the interdependence that exists among human beings, other living species and the planet. For instance, Bolivians call Mother Earth Pachamama and Nicaraguans refer to her as Tonantzin.
The proclamation of 22 April as International Mother Earth Day is an acknowledgement that the Earth and its ecosystems provide its inhabitants with life and sustenance. It also recognizes a collective responsibility, as called for in the 1992 Rio Declaration, to promote harmony with nature and the Earth to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations of humanity. Read more http://www.un.org/en/events/motherearthday/index.shtml
International Mother Earth Day was celebrated at the UN on Wednesday 20th April with an Interactive Dialogue with the General Assembly on Harmony with Nature http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2011/04/general-assembly-interactive-dialogue-on-harmony-with-nature-english-2.html There were two panels. It is the second panel presentation that is webcast. All panelists are experts in their field. Riane Eisler book “The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics” (2007) is highly recommeded.
Interactive Panel Debate 1: Ways to promoting a holistic approach to sustainable development in harmony with nature
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Interactive Panel Debate 2: Sharing national experiences on criteria and indicators for measuring sustainable development in harmony with nature
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