This is truly reprehensible, since the Bush administration had a bet of sorts with the young people of America.In April, SustainUS, the US youth organising committee for WSSD teamed up with the Green Ribbon Pledge to bet the US govvernment that U.S. youth (ages 26 and under) could save 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide through energy use reduction. In return they asked that young people have five places on the US delegation to the summit, and that President Bush attend. As of July 30, a day before the deadline, U.S. youth had pledged to save over 21,800 tons! And they succeeded! The other side of course has not kept its part of the bargain. Read more on (http://www.hogspace.org/rio/bet.php3)
What is more disturbing, however, is that some Conservative activists are praising President Bush's apparent decision not to attendthe once-a-decade summit himself as his father did in 1992. "We applaud your decision not to attend the summit in person," said an Aug. 2 letter to Bush from Fred L. Smith Jr., president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and 30 other conservative activists who support Bush.
The letter cautions of the likelihood of anti-U.S. sentiment among the participants at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Other signers include Paul M. Weyrich of Coalitions for America, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform and David A. Keene of the American Conservative Union. "Your presence would only help to publicise and make more credible their various anti-freedom, anti-people, anti-globalisation and anti-Western agendas," they write. "We also strongly support your opposition to signing new international environmental treaties or creating new international environmental organisations at the Johannesburg summit."
Summit leaders such as John Chrétien, Tony Blair and Jaccques Chirac say they will try to solidify commitments made over the past year to open markets to developing countries and increase financing to them. They also refer to challenges such as 2 billion people living on $2 or less a day, more burning of fossil fuels blamed for climate change and damage to a quarter of the world's coral reefs, as being particularly pressing. The EU is expected to play a dominant role in the movement towards sustainable development, even if it means going against the US. Gone are the days of appeasement, and thank god for that!
Other environmental leaders view this year's summit as a last, best chance to convert high hopes into deeds. "There is a real sense of urgency," U.N. Undersecretary-General Nitin Desai, who will chair the summit, told reporters this week. "In many cases we are talking about slipping back." In the weeks leading up to the summit, Desai has campaigned to sow seeds of hope while also warning that disappointment will only confirm widespread pessimism about the world's ability to deal with what he says is a growing crisis.
The uncertainty about U.S. participation reflects deeper questions in the environmental community about Bush's approach to global challenges in the wake of his rejection last year of the Kyoto climate treaty. "People around the world are seriously concerned that the Bush administration is undermining the World Summit instead of working with other countries to benefit everyone," Sierra Club director Michael Dorsey said.
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