Since returning from Rio, I have already participated in a number of debriefings about the summit. I am pleased to see the interest, but dismayed to find many people have already accepted the message that the Summit had been a "flop" or a "failure."

Around the dump, impoverished Brazilians live, work and play in the discards of consumerism. Toxic chemicals, fetid liquid, and a river of plastic trash all pollute the salt water around the mangroves, which eventually runs out to the sea.

Humans have incredible technological skill and drive to produce and expand. This skill and drive, however, is not yet matched by a drive to collectively curtail the massive environmental damage we are wreaking on the Earth and the systems that keep us alive.

22 high level representatives have just released Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing, setting out recommendations to "put sustainable development into practice and... economic policy as quickly as possible."