Graham May - Motivations & Expectations
01 June 2012
Motivation to participate in the British Council Rio Delegation
I am taking part in the BC so as to maximize both my experience and my impact at the UNCSD. During the conference, most of my energy will be directed towards the Students on Ice Alumni Delegation, in which I am a director, but by joining another community I hope to gain access to more opportunities to learn from the conference, and to share my message.
Expectations for I think it's unreasonable to expect Rio+20 to solve the world's environmental problems - no single conference could achieve that, especially with such fractured leadership. Instead, my hopes are that in 20 years this conference stand as a milestone, just as does the first Earth Summit today. In 20 years, I want to look at Rio+20 and say "that was not the solution - but it was the turning point." And I expect nothing less. My specific objective for Rio is to make my home communities aware of the event. I truly believe that the conference itself is less important than the public awareness and pressure it garners. Rio+20 is a special opportunity to gather the world's attention to what I see as the greatest challenge & opportunity of our century: Sustainable Development. My objective is to teach as many people as I possibly can that this is an issue we really, really, really need to start caring about.
