ABSTRACT
The biodiversity debates at the Earth Summit in Rio (June 1992) provided for many one of those rare moments that encapsulate the reasons why we continue to have great inequality between people on this planet. At the summit President George Bush refused to sign the framework Convention on Biodiversity on the grounds that it could be detrimental to the US economy. The treaty was a deal by which developed countries could access biological resources (such as genes) in return for money and technical assistance. President Bush's refusal to sign the treaty provided one of the news highlights of the conference, and brought into sharp focus the conflict between national interest and wider development. It also highlighted the wealth-creating potential of such biological resources.
