http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0912-07.htm
Published on Thursday,
September 12, 2002 by CommonDreams.org
Americans... Leading the Way... Destroying
The Planet.
What's The World To Do?
by Lynn Landes
It wasn't enough for
George Bush to boycott the Earth Summit.
He sent negotiators flanked by big business to Johannesburg to
destroy it. And Bush had other help as well. He had lots of
support from ordinary folks back home. Average Americans are
destroying the planet with their fossil fuel lifestyle. And they
don't seem to care how it affects the world around them.
The tiny island
of Tuvalu in the South Pacific has given up hope.
It's evacuating its population of 14,000 to New Zealand. The
16-square-mile island is sinking into the ocean due to rising
sea levels caused by global warming. The world is under assault
by catastrophic floods, fires, and droughts. And most people
are blaming the United States.
Oh sure, other countries
also contribute to climate change.
But given that the U.S. is responsible for 25% to the world's
carbon dioxide emissions while representing only 4.6% of the
population...we are clearly leading the way. And although
it's common practice to place all the blame at the feet of
America's corrupt corporations and spineless politicians,
that becomes increasingly difficult when SUVs now account
for 23% of all new car sales nationwide and 47% in California
alone.
So what's the world
to do? How can foreign peoples and their
governments make an impression on apathetic Americans?
More talks? More summits? Not now. The Earth Summit just
showed how easily it can be sabotaged. Short of violence,
which is commonly used for good and ill by American presidents
both past and present, foreign governments and individuals
could expand on a three-part strategy already in limited use
- sue, boycott, and get 'personal' with Americans.
Let's start
in reverse order. First...get personal...man-to-man.
Let Americans you meet hear your outrage. Violate our comfort
zone.
You're not asking for less consumerism from Americans, just clean
and green rather than coal and oil...or at least cars that get
over 20 miles per gallon for Pete's sake. Many countries are
forging ahead with substantial wind, solar, and fuel cell
projects, while George Bush promotes coal, oil, and nuclear
energy. And Americans let him get away with that.
Next...boycott
American goods and services. Don't prop up our
economy with your investments and consumer spending. Already
there's a fairly successful boycott in many parts of the world
against (mostly U.S.) genetically modified crops. And boycotts
certainly worked to liberate South Africa from apartheid.
Capitalism responds when business takes a hit.
And...for the
final and third strategy...foreign nations
and individuals can sue America. There's growing interest
in international environmental litigation. And the island of
Tuvalu may lead the way. It’s considering lawsuits against
the United States and Australia for refusing to ratify the
1997 Kyoto protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions to
prevent global warming.
Europeans are also
up in arms after a summer of catastrophic
floods, and they're blaming America, reports Paul Martin of
the Washington Times. He writes, "Gallus Cadonau, the
managing director of the Swiss Greina Foundation for the
preservation of Alpine rivers and streams, has urged that
a punitive tariff on imports from the United States be
imposed to force cooperation on greenhouse gas emissions."
That's not a lawsuit or a boycott, but it's coming close to both.
For the first
time, Americans are suing our own institutions
for causing global warming. Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace,
and the city of Boulder, Colorado, filed the suit against
the Export Import Bank (ExIm) and the Overseas Private
Investment Corporation (OPIC), alleging that these taxpayer
funded lending institutions illegally provided more than
$32 billion in financing and insurance for oil fields,
pipelines and coal-fired power plants without assessing
their contribution to global warming and their impact on
the U.S. environment as required under key provisions of
the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). It's about time.
International environmental
law was the focus of a meeting of
more than a hundred judges and lawyers at the Earth Summit in
Johannesburg. The "Johannesburg Principles on the Role of
Law
and Sustainable Development" were adopted at the Global Judges
Symposium organized by the United Nations Environment Program
(UNEP). It states, "the fragile state of the global
environment requires the Judiciary, as the guardian of
the Rule of Law, to boldly and fearlessly implement and
enforce applicable international and national laws ..."
Nice words and it's a start, but without U.S. support
The Johannesburg Principles will certainly have rough going.
Americans live in geographic
and cultural isolation.
Getting their attention is a tough assignment. Getting
them tuned-in to saving the planet may be even tougher.
But the time for politeness is over. People and
nations
around the world are in a battle of survival largely because
of American reliance on fossil fuels. And if foreign countries
and their people have to get in our face, or boycott our
businesses, or sue us in order to save themselves, then
so be it.
If these strategies
don't work, the case for violence
will be made. For the peoples of the world, protecting
the environment is a question of life and death, not
comfort or convenience.
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