Living in a world where there is no guarantee of a secure future, where every breath we take is toxic and every morsel of food we let's eat is full of pesticides, protecting and saving Mother Earth should be at the top of our to-do list. But unfortunately, that's the least of our worries. We are at the tipping point, at the edge where we cannot go back and rectify our mistakes and if we delay any longer, it will be too late. There are questions we need to ask ourselves and governments from time to time: Are our governments doing enough to protect our environment? Are they investing enough money to save our environment? And if so, is all the money being used where it belongs? Better coordination between governments and appropriate funding are needed to effectively address this problem. The Rio+20 UN Sustainable Development Summit held in Brazil in 2012, a prototype of unsuccessful collaboration between governments of different countries, failed in its sustainable development goal. development. is one of many examples of the inability of different nations to decide on a sustainable development agenda. The final negotiated conclusion “The Future We Want,” made up of paragraphs of declarations and affirmations, was in fact just a plea for a better environment. Kumi Naidu, executive director of Greenpeace International, said the conference was "a failure of epic proportions" and added that the declaration itself was "the longest suicide note in history." The world is no better than it was a few years ago. centuries ago. The list of endangered species continues to grow and major environmental problems like global warming are melting the ice caps, which will mean that within a few years, all low-lying coastal cities...... middle paper......killing millions of people right now. Investing the same amount to provide clean water and sanitation facilities and control water and air pollution will save countless lives. Pressuring our governments to act quickly to save our environment is our duty as responsible citizens of this planet. We need to focus on solving short-term problems that can save millions of people, instead of depending on our governments to save our planet. All we can do is fix the small problems and hope the bigger ones aren't as bad as we fear. Works Cited • Rio+20 and Kumi Naidu Retrieved December 14, 2013 from http://content.time. com/time/health/article/0,8599,2118058,00.html• Copenhagen Summit, accessed December 15, 2013 http://ieet.org/index.php/ieet/more/dvorsky20100110/• Copenhagen Failure Retrieved December 15, 2013 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8426835.stm