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# Earth Summit Highlights Growing Greenhouse Gas Emissions [Infographic]
- URL: https://ivn.us/then-now-growing-greenhouse-emissions-infographic/
- Published: 2012-06-20T17:15:48.000Z
- Updated: 2026-06-22T19:26:11.000Z
- Author: Jane Susskind
- Tags: News

Over 50,000 lawmakers will meet in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, this week. It marks the 20-year anniversary of the first Earth Summit. Topics will include ending fossil fuel subsidies, reducing plastics pollution in the oceans, and protecting ecosystems that risk extinction from population growth. A top concern is the preservation of the Amazon, threatened by Brazil's own government, which plans to build 60 damns in the country's backyard, including the $11 billion Belo Monte project. These environmental issues, however, are overshadowed by economic uncertainty and expectations remain low.

> *“The European Debt crisis, [U.S.](http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/United+States?ref=ivn.us) joblessness and even the Chinese economic slowdown has sapped some people’s enthusiasm,” said [Timothy Wirth](http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Timothy+Wirth?ref=ivn.us), president of the [United Nations](http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/United+Nations?ref=ivn.us) Foundation.*

As policymakers try to solve world poverty without exploiting the planet's resources, here's a telling infographic from [Al Jazeera](http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2012/06/2012617105459959872.html?ref=ivn.us) highlighting growing greenhouse gas emissions:

[![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dc/be/dcbe1ac4-146f-43be-92a6-ea84728d86a6/content/images/2026/02/then-now-growing-greenhouse-emissions-infographic-20281.jpg "RIO Infographic")](https://ivn.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/then-now-growing-greenhouse-emissions-infographic-20281.jpg)