Marina Silva says Rio+20 can still be saved

The former minister of Environment and former presidential candidate
(who got 19 million votes in the first round against Dilma Rousseff and
Jose Serra in 2010), Marina Silva, speaking at the Summit of Indigenous
Peoples at the Rio+20 United Nations Sustainable Devlopment Conference
declared that there is still time to salvage the event. Participating in
a public act against the new Land Use Law (“Código Florestal” – “Comitê
em Defesa das Florestas e Desenvolvimento Sustentável contra o Código
Florestal”) Ms Silva said that the fate of the conference is in the
hands of world leaders, but that Brazil has an important role to play.

“The economic crisis cannot push the environmental crisis aside. Brazil
has the prerogative to make decisions. It is a grand opportunity to
reexamine commitments and correct our course. The responsibility is not
ours alone, but as the host of Rio+20 we have a greater responsibility,”
she declared. 

Silva called on Brazil to lead by example. “That is what the country
has to do. We did it in Copenhagen. We embarrassed others who wanted to
do less by making a commitment to establish goals for carbon reduction.”