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Time for peace, says Greenpeace director
New York/Porto Alegre, 1 February 2002:
Greenpeace's international executive director, Gerd Leipold today
accused industrialised nations's governments of conducting a war
against the planet, and launched an ambitious campaign to ensure
that the Johannesburg Earth Summit lays down a path to an environmentally
sustainable and peaceful future. The Earth Summit meets in August
and marks the 10th anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit.
Speaking at the World
Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Leipold delivered a keynote
speech, outlining the Greenpeace plan for "real peace",
based on sustainable development, global equity and environmental
protection.
"We face a global menace just as deadly
as any war," said Leipold. "It is a war against the planet
itself. We must end this war, to make peace with the planet, and
make peace with one another.
"To achieve this peace we need security based
on a willing inter-dependence between individuals, cultures, communities
and states. We need to make our industries ecologically intelligent,
we need to make the economic system fairer, and we need new forms
of security."
Despite the promises made at the last Earth Summit,
little progress has been made towards protecting the environment
and bringing about peaceful, sustainable development.
"Under the banner of 'economic growth' we
have seen a decade of broken promises and gross environmental abuse,"
said Leipold. "Millions live in poverty while 20 percent of
the population consume 80 percent of the resources and make 80 percent
of the pollution.
"We need to connect economics with morality.
A system in which industry can destroy nature and other common resources
in order simply to create profit is not acceptable. A system in
which the poorest are made poorer in order to make the rich richer
is not acceptable."
In the lead up to the Johannesburg
Earth Summit Greenpeace will show how international treaty commitments
are not being met, and how governments support industries that pollute
and destroy, fail to implement existing solutions, and work to lower
public expectations thus making the environment a lower priority.
"There is no doubt that a regrettable dynamic,
intentionally perpetuated, by the USA,
Canada and Australia during the course of environmental negotiations
before and since Rio has contributed to this decade of failure,"
said Greenpeace political director Remi Parmentier speaking in New
York at the United Nations headquarters where the preparatory committee
for the Earth Summit's meeting.
"Not only have these three nations undermined
the Kyoto Protocol on climate, but methodically undermined most
other international environmental conventions, including the Basel
Ban on exporting toxic waste to developing countries and the Biosafety
Protocol on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in food and agriculture."
Greenpeace unveiled today a checklist
of policy objectives for the Earth Summit, which if implemented
would start to address the problems of this war against the environment.
It includes governments and industry not only honouring the promises
made at Rio, but going beyond existing promises to address environmental
abuse and social inequity globally.
Greenpeace also launched
a website at Porto Alegre, which will track the journey
from the Rio Earth Summit to Johannesburg, showing key examples
of where governments have failed to meet the commitments they made
10 years ago.
More information:
A full copy of Gerd
Leipold's full speech.
Why is Greenpeace going to
the Johannesburg Earth Summit?
What does Greenpeace want
out of the Johannesburg Earth Summit?
Related news stories.
Media contacts:
Gerd Leipold, Greenpeace International Executive Director + 31 20523
6282 in Porto Alegre
Media officer Natalia Truchi on +31 6 212 96908 (THIS NUMBER MAY
CHANGE PLEASE CONFIRM BEFORE USE) in Porto Alegre.
Remi Parmentier, Greenpeace Political Director + 31 6 535 04 702
in New York.
Louise Fraser, Greenpeace International Press Officer + 31 6 53955202
in New York.
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