CNS News
U.N.'s Earth Summit a 'Gathering to Attack Wealth'
Marc Morano, CNSNews.com
Thursday, Aug. 29, 2002
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – An American free-market advocate calls the Earth summit under way in South Africa "a collection of advocates gathering to attack wealth."
Chris Horner, an analyst with Competitive Enterprise Institute, said it was obvious that after two days, delegates to the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development view wealth "as the root of evil behind environmental problems, when in reality, all evidence is to the contrary."
Horner told CNSNews.com the summit participants have referred to economic growth using terms such as "greed" and "rapacious," and those who seek wealth as having the "mind-set of cancer cells."
'Wealth Eradication'
Horner, who is attending the summit, sharply disagreed with a U.N.-sponsored forum suggesting that less wealth would mean less poverty. (The U.N. forum was titled "Wealth Eradication: Directly Tied to Poverty Reduction.")
According to Horner, the only solution to environmental woes is a wealthier planet. "Wealthier is healthier and cleaner," he said.
Population problems and resource limitations are a result of countries being unable to create enough wealth to support their residents, Horner said. "Population problems only come from poor countries that don't make anything but people," he added.
'Hypocritical Attack'
A report Tuesday in the London newspaper The Sun detailed how delegates to Earth summit are staying at posh hotels and feasting on gourmet foods while they hold meetings on eradicating poverty and famine. That report did not surprise Horner.
"It is a hypocritical attack on wealth because the U.N.'s own sustainability seems to be their number-one objective," he quipped.
Healing Africa
Reinhild Niebuhr, author of the book "Young Africa," decried the lack of economic opportunities for Africa's youth and called on the summit participants to increase development opportunities for them.
"A majority of people in Africa are under age 25, and they are not able to fulfill their potential, Niebuhr told CNSNews.com.
Niebuhr disagreed with the position of environmentalist Gar Smith of Earth Island Insitute, who told CNSNews.com earlier this week that electricity should not be introduced to African villages because it could harm the culture.
"Regardless of whether anyone thinks the introduction of electricity is negative or not, it is happening. People see electricity and want the benefit of electricity," Niebuhr said.
"You can respect culture and you can develop. You can don't have to stay in an environment which is making your life difficult."
'Bury the Summit'?
The summit negotiations have caused some environmental groups to lose their enthusiasm for the proceedings.
One event called "Don't Bury the Summit Yet!" was aimed at calming the anger of disgruntled environmentalists who are fed up with what they see as big business's hijacking of the summit.
The event's sponsors included World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.
"The resources of Mother Earth are being sold off," stated Anuradha Mittal of the Indian group Food First.
Mittal was referring to summit compromises on agenda items ranging from pollution prevention to developing a sustainable fisheries industry.
The green groups also are upset that access to the Sandton Center, where the summit is being held, has been restricted to environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) due to space limitations.
Secretary General Nitlin Desai, the head of the U.N.'s Earth summit, reacted to the green groups' grumbling, telling South African Public Radio, "This conference will be different."
Good News on Tropical Forests
In marked contrast to the dire environmental picture painted by international green groups, one event at the summit brought hopeful news regarding tropical forests.
The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), a timber industry advocacy group, held an event on the sidelines of the conference showing that the world's tropical forests are regenerating and that new technologies are lessening the impact of logging on the environment.
Manoel Sobral, the executive director of ITTO, told CNSNews.com that deforestation pressures on tropical forests were lessening because of the emerging "plantation forests" that grow timber in controlled, farm-like settings that allow for rapid regeneration, greater efficiency and lower costs.
"Forget about the natural tropical forest as a timber producer. They are not competitive," Sobral said.
He cited the Amazon rainforest as an example of how plantation forests are helping to relieve deforestation.
"In Brazil there are 360 million hectares of dense natural forest, but 70% of the industrial timber comes from the 5 million hectares of plantation forest," he told CNSNews.com.
Other actions at the summit Tuesday included calls for the U.S., Western Europe and Japan to eliminate their domestic farm subsidies to allow the developing world's agricultural economies to better compete.
Bush Urged to 'Fight Back'
Horner believes that President Bush should fight back at the anti-U.S. sentiment permeating the summit.
"Mr. Bush, it would seem, had best learn when to nip outrageous, mendacious rhetoric in the bud before he nurtures it by his silence," Horner said.
"Barring such leadership ... the U.S. faces a grim future in this community and among easily led peoples everywhere."
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