June 12, 2012 – The green economy is nothing more than capitalism of nature. The 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, which is promoting a green economy, is the next step in the evolution of capitalism.
The goal is to implement an alternative to global regimes cashing in on creation by privatizing, commodifying and selling off all forms of life – including air, water and genes, plants, traditional seeds, trees, biological and cultural diversity, ecosystems and even indigenous traditional knowledge.
The green economy is the mechanism for new ways to sell nature, including UN and World Bank initiatives such as REDD-plus (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), the Clean Development Mechanism, carbon trading, PES (Payments for Environmental Services), the International Regime on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing, patents on life, TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity), natural capital, green bonds and species banking. This economic system greenwashes environmentally and socially devastating, extractive industries like logging, mining and oil drilling, and promotes them as "sustainable development."
REDD-plus is a false solution to climate change promoted by the UN, the World Bank and climate corporate criminals, such as Shell, that allow polluters to expand fossil fuel development and not reduce their emissions at source. REDD-plus is a pillar of the global agenda for the privatization and financialization of nature, and constitutes a worldwide land grab and carbon offset scam.
Indigenous peoples from every region of the world inhabit and care for the last remaining sustainable ecosystems and biodiversity hotspots in the world. One example of unsustainable development is the destructive mineral extraction industries continuing to encroach onto Indigenous peoples' traditional territories. Unconventional oil and natural gas development into these areas is increasing despite the urgency for the world to move away from a fossil fuel economy. This extreme energy development based on the combustion of fossil fuels is causing climate chaos that directly affects the well being of Indigenous peoples from the North to the Global South.
Read the full story at AlterNet.