By Suzanne York, HowMany.org Rio de Janeiro — My first Rio+20 side event was titled “From Rio to Cairo to Rio…and Beyond”, but for me it was actually from San Francisco to Charlotte to Rio…and even beyond to Rio Centro, site of the UN Rio+20 conference, far from downtown..  So quite a trek just to get
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  By Suzanne York, HowMany.org In less than a month the world, or at least the environmentally-inclined members of the world, will be in the throes of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), or Rio+20. Despite the official summit focus on the green economy and sustainable development, there are many groups and individuals working
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Editor’s note: This interview with was originally published by Antoinette Siu at Wiser.org on May 24, 2012. Are you going to Rio? Do you have specific expectations? Hear from Suzanne York, from Howmany.org on what someone like her might expect from Rio. Antoinette: What will you be focusing on and looking to get out of Rio? Suzanne
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, May 14, 2012   People and the Planet a report by the U.K.’s Royal Society, does not break any new ground, but it does a good job of putting some important and overlooked issues back on the international agenda.     Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, says in the
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, May 3, 2012   It’s getting down to the wire for preparations for Rio+20, the United Nations follow-up to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the past week or two, there have been several important developments regarding the issues of population growth, youth and reproductive health, human
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, April 25, 2012 The Aspen Institute continued its series exploring living in a world of 7 billion people with an event this past April 18th, in a session called “A Long Walk to Water: Women, Population and Access to Safe Water.” As society grapples with a population projected to hit over
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, April 18, 2012   In her TED talk in early April, Melinda Gates of the Gates Foundation mentioned that if the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in India were its own country, it would be the fifth largest in the world, with over 200 million people. And in this populated land,
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, April 17, 2012 Many people are familiar with the mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle” and it has never been more important than now. A group called Business Degree has created an infographic called “The Secret Life of Garbage” detailing the amount of waste created in the United States and China. A few
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, April 9, 2012 Happiness is back in the news, at least at the United Nations. If you paid close attention, you were reminded that the UN unanimously adopted a resolution last year based on the concept of Gross National Happiness. Officially called UN Resolution 65/309, “Happiness: towards a holistic approach to
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, April 3, 2012   Recent negotiations in New York City to prepare a document and agenda for the upcoming Rio+20 conference ended on a discouraging note. Civil society organizations sent an open letter to the secretary general for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), citing frustration with the process
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