Posted on 04/15/2005 8:13:24 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Mikhail Gorbachev is pressing world leaders to adopt a treaty guaranteeing clean water and sanitation for their people, a task he says is more daunting than ending the nuclear arms race during the Cold War.
Dwindling water supplies and political resistance have hampered efforts to bring fresh water to poor people around the world, the former Soviet leader said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press.
"We were able to solve the nuclear arms race because of ... political will," he said before an awards banquet held by his American environmental group, Global Green USA. "Today we don't see that political will. But I think it will emerge that leaders will have to address this problem."
Gorbachev will call for a first-ever international water treaty during an April 21 keynote address to the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development.
He envisions a binding agreement that makes access to water and basic sanitation a human right, holds nations responsible for providing it, and governs how freshwater resources are managed and shared.
A petition campaign he launched March 22 aims to pressure governments to begin negotiations that would produce the covenant.
Gorbachev, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who led the Soviet Union for six years until its 1991 collapse, founded Green Cross International in 1993 to encourage business, government and non-governmental organizations to collaborate and find solutions to environmental problems.
About 2.5 billion people worldwide lack water sanitation services, and 5 million die from waterborne diseases each year, according to Global Green USA, the American arm of Green Cross. Nearly 1.2 billion people do not have clean water to drink.
On the Net: http://www.watertreaty.org/
Mmm--Swiss cheese account. . .64 slices, laundered through my stomach. . .
Lisa:
Dad, that wasn't Swiss cheese! It was Mayor Quimby's finance statements. The holes were from shredding the documents.
Homer:
Doh!!!
Gorby will supply the whine.
Hello, I'm Troy McClure. You may remember me from such educational films as `How to Channel Your Clients for Innocent Verdicts' and `How to Win Elections without a Village'! But today I'd like to go over, how to remove a paper trail.
Chief Wiggum:
Alright, I've seen enough--arrest McClure, Lou.
Lou:
But Boss, Sandy Berger's the one with the stolen documents stuffed down his pants.
Chief Wiggum:
Yeah, but he owns a majority share of Dunkin' Donuts, so we can't arrest him. Besides, I always wanted to abuse my power by railroading a helpless scapegoat.
Lou:
Sorry, Boss, I can't arrest an innocent man.
Chief Wiggum:
Alright, then you're under arrest for obstructing justice, smart guy! Book 'em, Eddie.
Eddie:
I can't, Boss: you arrested me last week, remember?
[throaty groan] Uhhh, I have to make another citizen's arrest....I have to stop with the payoff 'donations'....
LOL! I figured Krusty would show up eventually :-)
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