The Future We Want

Leading up to Rio+20, the United Nations launched a video to promote sustainable living and development. The conference left some activists disappointed but was considered by many to be a turning point in promoting billions of dollars of voluntary commitments from banks, corporations and governments.
Using painted hands, the video tells the story of sustainable development and why it is important. With the help of Spanish actor Antonio Banderas, French actor Lambert Wilson, Brazilian football player Marta Vieira da Silva and Italian actress Laura Morante, the video was launched on June 4 in order to publicize the conference and its goal.

The video’s message is that sustainability can be achieved not only environmentally, but socially and financially as well. After watching the video, viewers had the option to vote on 100 recommendations for sustainable development that were presented at the conference. Rio+20, or the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 20-22.

Despite a lot of talk prior to the conference about the goals it wanted to accomplish, not everyone was pleased with the conference’s outcome.While Rio + 20 gave an international stage to discuss sustainability as a goal and what individual countries would do to help the environment, some activists wanted more in the way of an agreed-upon treaty.

However, Rio + 20 was hailed as groundbreaking for the way it incorporated social media, for its inclusiveness and for the hundreds of commitments that came about as a result of the conference, available on the website cloudofcommitments.org. Now the challenge will be for environmental organizations and the public to remain vigilant that these commitments are honored.