The Femmebots

In 2006, Al Gore’s film, “The Inconvenient Truth” brought the phrase “climate change” into the American mainstream consciousness.

As a result, there are more “eco” things consumers can buy at the store, but is any of it making a difference? How can we measure?

“Rio + 20″ will be an hour-long documentary that strives to answer these questions at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), where Al Gore, national representatives, heads of state, non-governmental organizations and individuals will gather with the purpose of determining specific agreements that would balance environmental preservation with economic needs.  The conference will take place in Brazil on 20-22 June 2012 to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), in Rio de Janeiro.

Thais Corral, advisory board member of Ethical Markets Media, attended the first Earth Summit in 1992, and plans to return this year. Through her eyes, viewers will get a ground-level perspective on the changes in the last 20 years.

“The original conference was the beginning of the environmental movement,” said Corral at her office in Rio de Janeiro. “It turned out most people were concerned about poverty. Social justice is related to the environment – you have to see them together in a systems thinking perspective. This was end of cold War in 89 so this was really bold and they decided to go for something really different by creating platform of sustainability made up of the 3 sectors – private, public and NGos.”

Brazil is now becoming a leader in the international sustainability movement, although Corral says “Brazil is very enthusiastic, but not so great at implementation. Changing policy was the model 20 years ago and now it’s more about concrete change. In 20 years, you may not change a country but you may change a neighborhood.”

The primary audience for Rio + 20 is adults between the ages of 18 and 49. A secondary audience would be high school student activists, i.e., the next generation which will be most affected by climate change.

The markets for Rio + 20 would be the Discovery Channel or TLC, followed by distribution on Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu.com.

Competition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vfR_0iYf28

In 2003 I tried to escape the US.

The Bush regime declared a war I didn’t support.

Powered by the oil at stake, I took the scenic route from San Francisco – Mexico City to Costa Rica to Nicaragua to Honduras to Guatemala – and landed in Miami.

Finally.

I’d been dreaming of this magic city since I was 8.

“If this is my ami, what’s your ami?” I asked my dad.

He squinted in the intense rays of the sun and didn’t answer, only patted his fifth daughter on the head as she asked incessant questions. A father could only answer so much.

And so his little offspring, at the tender age of 18, gypsied south, to a locale that was close to MyAmi…but no Cuban cigar…in search of answers…

TIME WARP!!!!!!!

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

West Palm Beach – the land of the Christian college students who sang of sailfish and Jesus. Twas shiny and happy but dark Melanin Melanoma Melanie was bored out of her mind and wanted to write herself into a more fun situation so off she traveled to London where the vibration was heavy and sarcastic and British.

“Ah! What a relief!!” she gasped into the grimey air.

She could be as morose and dark as she wanted to be and no one thought she was weird or a wet blanket.

And then she saw Paris and Vienna and Munich and Berlin and Scotland before returning to the US and deciding at 20 that she wanted a broader education at Chapel Hill which led to her first jobs as a journalist in Seattle and then Michigan where she befriended Lee, the bassist who taught her how to code HTML pages.

But it was so dark and cold – this was definitely just a year-long stop-through. Jack Kerouac had kept going west and so would she, stopping in Denver where 300 days of sunshine, AmeriCorps and the Latina Lawyers brought cold, dark little Melanie into the light. Despite the snow there was always sun and skies so blue she could crunch it with her teeth.

And this was good.

For a year.

“Nah – this isn’t where I wanna live,” she exclaimed (although the chile is freaking amazing!), and decided to continue west (cuz that’s what Kerouac did) to San Francisco and became what she thought was a hippie from Hair until Bush didn’t listen to her generation’s protests.

“This ain’t your parents’ political climate,” she thought. It was the critical moment. She had to leave the country. Become an expat. See this place from a different perspective. The US no longer represented her ideals. She became alienated and decided the only way she could live free was to leave for

Costa Rrrrrrrrrrica!!!

And so she was free. Her version of free. With the rent so cheap she could afford to write her first novel, “Sirens,” a romance between a tranny hooker and a fireman after 9-11. It was her first story about transformation.

Once the money and creativity ran out in Central America she headed for Miami…her final destination…or so she thought…

Miami was another planet.

Art shows. Parties. Kind faces. Beach. Ocean. Pool. Yoga. Affordable rent. Meaningful work.

It was everything she ever wanted…and close to the family in Orlando.

“But I want mooooore, daddy!!”

She wanted kids. A home. “No” and “no” said her traveling partner. He had different plans for life. And so she released him so she could dream with someone else. And someone else. Until she accepted home and family in the forms she understood would not be in her destiny…at least not during this part of the journey.

Her picture of home and family expanded. She found her spiritual sisters and brothers. Angello. Alejandra. Tennille. Claudia. Terri. Jeile. Lisandro. Jose. Jodi. Julian. Kiro. JJ. Alex. Oscar. Meg.

And they created art together.

They couldn’t help themselves. This is the energy of MyAmi.

Simultaneous to the real estate boom was the evolution of Art Basel, which attracted the masters of the universe one week out of the year since:

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

The city has experienced the most dramatic transformation since the first boom. At the turn of the 20th century, Julia Tuttle and Henry Flagler recognized each other’s talents and lifted each other up to create a new city.

Upon discovering a place with no infrastructure, the pioneer spirit thrives. The promise of Utopia, “a better life” drives us.

I cry every time I look at the skyline. Like it is a child who has grown up and I must let her go. Perhaps because I arrived in Miami with the desire to have children and make a home, I fed all that energy into the city. And became the mom I so wanted to be.

The irony is that the city gave back what I gave. I was a kid who needed to grow up. MyAmi was my spiritual father who answered all the questions my biological father couldn’t.

And now I’ve got a huge family which has prepared me for the next child.

My destiny is taking me to another city that is about to transform: Rio de Janeiro.

Vrrrrrooooooooop!!! T-I-M-E WARP!!!

1992 Earth Summit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J1ydwbO320&feature=youtube_gdata_player

2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GgQYK6kIQE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

2009

2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvcSnWXLr4o&feature=youtube_gdata_player

2011

2012 Earth Summit

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

2025

2026

2027

2028

2029

2030

2031

2032 Earth Summit