In 2011, writer David Huberman in a  World Conservation Magazine article asked whether the ‘Green Economy’ was just a passing trend or if it would still be relevant 10 years down the road.  In his article Staying Power he observed that the Green Economy had by then become a fashionable topic for discussion among environmentalists.

“With the much-anticipated presentation of the global study on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB),” he wrote,  “during the UN biodiversity summit in Japan, the buzz surrounding the idea of greening the world economy got even louder.  As a result, the case for supporting a Green Economy transition is gaining in political prominence—the topic has already made its way to the top of the agenda of what is likely to become the world’s biggest environmental meeting— the 2012 Rio+20 Summit.”

As Huberman asked rhetorically in 2011: “As the Green Economy continues to generate interest and enthusiasm, one might wonder when it will run out of breath.” 

I am reminded, now well more than a decade down the road from his pointed question, that while much enthusiasm and much hype continue through today around biodiversity, carbon and other issues of sustainability, that little of the money, the effort, the ‘breath’ has ever found its way to the restoration of our planet.  That uncomfortable truth remains the legacy.