Greens Say Earth Summit 'Hijacked' By US

CNSNEWS.com ^ | 9/04/02 | Marc Morano

[kattracks]

Johannesburg (CNSNews.com) - The Earth summit appeared headed for the compost pile on Tuesday as environmentalists, led by Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), held their noses and declared the conference had been "hijacked" by the United States. "Betrayal," they cried.

Richard Navarro, chaiman of FoOEI, stated that instead of "protecting the environment and fighting poverty and social destruction," the summit was "hijacked by free market ideology, by a backward-looking, insular and ignorant U.S...."

FoEI lamented that the summit failed to stop the "tide of damage caused by the neoliberal economic ideology..." Navarro also blamed "global corporations that help keep reactionary politicians in limousines."

There were only two "new and specific targets" in the summit's Program of Implementation, according to FoEI. The two targets were related to sanitation and marine protection.

'Radical Environmental Action'

But Navarro remained defiant, vowing the summit's failure would only make FoEI "more determined to fight for the radical environmental action the world needs."

"See you all in Mexico!" added Navarro, a reference to the upcoming Cancun World Trade Conference.

'A Missed Opportunity'

A coalition of three environmental groups, World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace and Oxfam International, issued a statement saying the "summit will go down in history as a missed opportunity..."

Steve Sawyer of Greenpeace summed up the disappointment, saying, "After a year of debate, the [Earth Summit's] energy section does not represent a single step forward. The 'Plan of Action' is not much of a plan and it contains almost no action."

Antonio Hill of Oxfam said, "Whether it's lost opportunities for cleaner, healthier household energy sources, or increased risk of vulnerability to global climate change, the poor come out losing on every count."

'Strong Guys Style'

Michael Strauss of Earth Media, a consortium of environmental groups here, told CNSNews.com that the U.S. derailed the European Union (EU) negotiators from achieving progress at the summit.

"The EU [negotiators] are much more cautious and bureaucratic, while the Americans are executive-style, corporate, strong-guys style, and the Europeans very often don't understand what that is until it hits them and it's too late," Strauss said.

According to Strauss, the U.S. actions at the summit have been "pretty embarrassing to most moderate Americans."

He predicted that Secretary of State Colin Powell will "make a strong statement to make some right-wing Americans feel good" during his address to the summit on Wednesday.

'Bashing America'

Tom Kilgannon, executive director of the Freedom Alliance, a group concerned about U.S. sovereignty issues, told CNSNews.com that the summit was just "another example of the UN coddling dictators, bashing America and putting forth policies that don't make sense."

"I always expect stupidity from the UN," Kilgannon added.

Reacting to the Greens' dissatisfaction with the summit, Kilgannon said, "You can't satisfy them. The U.S. has come under a lot of criticism at this conference and we put forward hundreds of millions of dollars to help the poor around the world, especially in Africa, and these people just aren't satisfied."

"There is no end to their bitterness," he added.

Pandas or People?

The Sustainable Development Network, a free market coalition, was pleased with the summit's trade agenda.

The network "congratulated governments at the [Earth summit] for ignoring [environmentalists] who wanted the world's leaders to rewrite the WTO's trade reform agenda."

Barun Mitra, a member of the network said, "Developing countries have consistently emphasized the importance of trade liberalization for achieving sustainable development. They want the WTO to succeed."

"By contrast, the [environmentalists] care more about pandas than people," Mitra added.

See Related Stories:
Jerry Brown to World's Poor: Let Them Eat Cake?
Earth Summit Participants Fail to Support Pollution 'Offset' Fund
Greens Say Earth Summit 'Fallen Dramatically Short'
Earth Summit Protesters March Against 'Sustainable-Poverty'
Greens Call US 'Biggest Block' to Progress at Earth Summit
Earth Summit Seen As 'Gathering to Attack Wealth'
Green Group Includes US In 'Axis of Environmental Evil'
Environmentalist Laments Introduction of Electricity (26 Aug. 2002)

E-mail a news tip to Marc Morano.

Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.

[KC_Conspirator]

I guess all that caviar and champagne left a bad taste in their mouth?

[r9etb]

A coalition of three environmental groups, World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace and Oxfam International, issued a statement saying the "summit will go down in history as a missed opportunity..."

This rather presumptuously assumes that people will remember it....

Sure is nice to see these guys trotting out the Marxist dogma, though.

[absalom01]

FoEI lamented that the summit failed to stop the "tide of damage caused by the neoliberal economic ideology..."

Nice to see that they're publicly admitting that their agenda isn't really about "the environment". Or was this just a slip?

[mgc1122]

I wish these morons would go ahead, set the example for the rest of us, and move straight back to the caves -- leaving the rest of the world the hell alone.

[End Times Sentinel]

"hijacked by free market ideology, by a backward-looking, insular and ignorant U.S...."

I guess backward-looking means that we learn from failed ideas like socialism, fascism and communism. This trait and believing in free markets is something I wouldn’t argue with. The ignorant charge though, these ELF wanna-be’s might want to take a long look in the mirror and think about what’s looking back at them first…

Owl_Eagle

”Guns Before Butter.”

[Phantom Lord]

Roger Hedgecock, when subbing for Rush last Friday had quotes from some delegates speaking at the conference. One of the people talked about how the toilet was one of the most evil inventions on the planet and that we need to get rid of it.

Another talked of the evils of electricity destroying cultures and that we must get rid of electricity.

I would love to get my hands on the text of their remarks and similar wackos from the conference. Anybody have links to them?

[wimpycat]

Richard Navarro, chaiman of FoOEI, stated that instead of "protecting the environment and fighting poverty and social destruction," the summit was "hijacked by free market ideology, by a backward-looking, insular and ignorant U.S...."

But what about "arrogant"? It's in the anti-American Leftist Ideologue Handbook that the words "U.S." or "American" must never be spoken without the word "arrogant" or "arrogance" being spoken in the same sentence. This guy hasn't done his homework. No wonder he's failing miserably.

[FeliciaCat]

I saw on Fox News this a.m. the greenie weenies heckled Colin Powell when he tried to speak at this fisco.

Why are we even at this stupid, irrelevant affair? It pisses me off to no end that we even TRY to appease these
subhuman dregs. Piss on 'em.

[Tacis]

Hey, the crypto-anarchist, environmental, America-hating, ultra-left wing extremist greens wanted to hijack the conference!!! This was their big opportunity to finally extort the funding to make many of their leaders independently wealthy enough so that they could spend their years sailing on blue water, sniffing panda poop, or whatever else the US is ruining.

Extortion by a very small but vocal minority is a viable tactic. It has worked so well within the US, it is surprising that it didn't work at the international level. Or, at least, appears not to have worked.

[o_zarkman44]

Ahhh, Another failed attack on the United States by the greedy wannabees of the UN (United Nothings). America is smart enough to recognize socialism disguised as environmental policy. And the UN is arrogant enough to think we are actually stupid enough to go along with their schemes of redistributing wealth in the name of saving a burnt tree from the saws of capitalism.

[stlrocket]

My favorite photo of Kofi Anon and his Advisors:

KOFI & STAFF

KOFI WITH A MESSAGE FOR THE US - FROM THE UN

[2banana]

Greens Say Earth Summit 'Hijacked' By US

And then we rammed it into the Greenpeace building...

[Stultis]

'Radical Environmental Action'

But Navarro remained defiant, vowing the summit's failure would only make FoEI "more determined to fight for the radical environmental action the world needs."

"See you all in Mexico!" added Navarro, a reference to the upcoming Cancun World Trade Conference.

'A Missed Opportunity'

... to take down the head of a terrorism sponsering org. I'm sure we can make room for Navarro at Gitmo.

[A Ruckus of Dogs]

the Europeans very often don't understand what that is until it hits them and it's too late,"

Kind of like with Hitler.

[TheBigB]

I'm sorry, was there some kind of meeting that I wasn't aware of? ;-)

[Stultis]

instead of "protecting the environment and fighting poverty and social destruction," the summit was "hijacked by free market ideology, by a backward-looking, insular and ignorant U.S...."

We were fighting poverty. What Navarro finds convient to overlook is that, at the WSSD, The United States delegation was often as not allied with developing nations when it was opposing the greenies or European delegations.

First World commies, enviro-whacks and other global control freaks thought that involving the LBPs (little brown people) in their international confabs would help further their agendas. Its beginning to look like this was a big mistake. Strangley the LBPs aren't willing to remain in their "sustainable" mud huts.

[Paulus Invictus]

I'm curious about the statement by one of the enviroidiots that "moderate Americans that will be offended by the outcome." Does he mean the greenies are now call moderates?

[goodieD]

Waaaaa.

[GATOR NAVY]

These whack-jobs are a laugh a minute. First they throw a hissy fit because G.W. thumbed his nose at them and didn't attend the conference, then they complain we hijacked it.

C'mon girls, get your story straight!