wfn.org | Failure on Agenda 21

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (184
notes).

Note 181 by UMNS on June 26, 1997 at 16:30 Eastern (4463 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Bloom                        369(10-21-65-71B){181}
          New York (212) 870-3803                    June 26, 1997

EDITORS NOTE: A sidebar accompanies.

U.S. not keeping commitments
made at Earth Summit, panel says

     UNITED NATIONS (UMNS) -- The U.S. government has done little
to implement commitments made at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro, a panel of nongovernmental organization (NGO)
representatives charged during a June 25 press conference.
     The press conference occurred during a weeklong assessment
here of progress towards the goals of Agenda 21, the document that
emerged from the United Nations' summit in Rio.
     Liberato Bautista, an assistant general secretary with the
United Methodist Board of Church and Society, was among people
voicing disappointment over the failure to take action on Agenda
21.
     "The churches and nongovernmental organizations have worked
for protections that governments should be providing through their
adherence to Agenda 21 and other U.N. instruments," he declared.
"Through this process we can begin the healing that will lead to a
new global system based on valuing justice, sustainability,
participation, solidarity and life."
     John Dernbach, a professor at Widener University School of
Law in Harrisburg, Pa., pointed out that Agenda 21 was conceived
on the premise that the real work of the Rio conference would take
place after it occurred.
     But a study conducted by Dernbach and students in his seminar
on law and sustainability this past spring showed the United
States "has achieved relatively little on the major new issues
raised at the Earth Summit" and has "no coherent overall
commitment to sustainable development." In addition, the U.S. has
not educated the general public about the need for sustainable
development, the study found.
     "There are some actions on some issues, but nothing that
connects them all together," Dernbach said.
     Barbara Bramble, director of international programs for the
National Wildlife Federation, noted that the President's Council
for Sustainable Development wrote a nice report about Agenda 21,
but said there was little follow-up on the council's
recommendations.
     Sustainable development, according to Agenda 21, is a way of
integrating environmental and development concerns to better
protect ecosystems and improve living standards for all.
     Bautista pointed out that sustainable development is really
about sustaining community -- both humans and the ecological
community around them. He quoted from the 1996 United Methodist
Book of Resolutions, which states that "we are called to a global
sense of community, solidarity leading to a new world system of
international relationships and economic/environmental order."
     At present, however, the need for a new way of living is
being ignored. "In the name of economic well-being, we have broken
the covenant of creation care and stewardship," he said. "In the
name of development, we have sacrificed natural and cultural
heritages. Every day, the sin of environmental racism and classism
is perpetuated upon the most vulnerable and politically
disenfranchised members of the human community."
     Barbara Dudley, executive director of Greenpeace USA, accused
the United States of cowardice in the face of environmental
disaster. "If armies were pillaging our forests and our fisheries
the way transnational companies are today," she charged, there
would have been a call to arms.
     Victor Menotti, International Forum on Globalization, charged
that business interests have been a "restraining force," not only
preventing action on Agenda 21, but also leading a further decline
in environmental efforts.
     The Board of Church and Society, Bautista said, calls upon
the U.S. to eliminate environmental racism and challenges all
governments to live up to its commitments and obligations under
Agenda 21.
     The study by Dernbach and his students recommends the U.S.
adopt "an overall sustainable development strategy;" educate the
public about sustainable development; fully address new issues
raised in Rio; expand its efforts concerning environmental
protection and enhance efforts on social and economic issues.
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