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Asia "Key to planet's environment salvation"
ARTICLES, SPEECHES AND OTHER READING
CAVEMAN'S MEDIA
ASIA "KEY TO PLANET'S ENVIRONMENT SALVATION"
The Nation, June 1994
Reuter, MANILA - The battle to save the planet from
environmental destruction will be won or lost in Asia, a top conservationist
has told a conference on biodiversity conservation in Manila.
"Asia has become the primary engine of world growth," said Maurice Strong,
secretary-general of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. "But there is
a real danger that many Asian nations will repeat the patterns of
environmental destruction which characterized [the West's] industrial
revolution." This, he said, would be "patently disastrous".
There is little hope of a global shift towards development that pays
attention to environmental concerns unless Asia does so. "But any visitor to
[the Asia-Pacific region] today could not help but be concerned at the lack
of any great evidence on the ground of this increasing awareness and
commitment at the policy level," Strong said. "It would be no exaggeration
to say that the battle to save our planet - will be won or lost in Asia," he
said.
Strong, currently chairman of the Earth Council set up after the Rio summit,
was speaking during a Three-Day Asia Pacific Conference on Biodiversity
Conservation at the Asian Development Bank headquarters in Manila. He said
there was little evidence, at least at the level of governments, of any
major changes since the Rio conference. The fundamental shift in attitudes
necessary to stop the world from dying has not taken place, he said.
"Fundamental change does not come quickly or easily," he said, adding that
there were still grounds for hope. However, he added that more progress has
been made outside government circles. "There has been less progress than we
wanted from governments, but more than we expected from citizens, " he said.
Sea Canoe figured out the above in 1985, and relocated to SE Asia in 1989.
We selected Thailand for the Kingdom's 12% GNP growth rate, ideals of
democracy and free speech, existing pollution and limestone sea caves. (The
hongs were unknown until after Caveman arrived.) The Malay Peninsula is the
world's classic land bridge, creating the biological phenomenon of the Sunda
Shelf. Numerous endangered species reside in the region. |
