earthday2000

FoE CELEBRATES EARTH DAY 2000

Friends of the Earth groups everywhere will celebrate the first Earth Day of the new millennium on 22 April 2000. "Our activities on Earth Day will be as colourful and varied as our member groups and the communities they work with," said Friends of the Earth International Chair Ricardo Navarro from El Salvador. "But all Friends of the Earth groups will be spreading our common message of the need for an urgent shift towards environmental sustainability and social justice."

Here is just a sampling of the Friends of the Earth activities taking place around the world:

• FoE Argentina will hold an Earth Day clean-up in a Buenos Aires park.

Contact: Manque Mapuanayarg; t el: 54 11 4773 5947; e-mail: manque_mapuanayarg@uol.com.ar

• FoE Australia is helping to coordinate a series of happenings in Sydney including a downtown car-free event with a welcome from and apology to indigenous people, a debate on sustainable transport, a cyclathon and a donation of bicycles for East Timor. In Melbourne, indigenous, anti-nuclear and environmental groups will hold an anti-nuclear gathering during the national convention of Australia's governing party.

Sydney contact: Chris Barry; fax: 612 9517 3902; e-mail:ogoni@foesyd.org.au

Melbourne contact: Dave Sweeney; tel: 613 9926 6708; e-mail: d.sweeney@acfonline.org.au

• FoE Bangladesh will hold street demonstrations on April 15 ^th and 18 ^th and a "children's traffic action" to block a busy Dhaka street on Earth Day to protest against dangerous traffic and air pollution in the city.

Contact: Ameer H.C.; tel:880 2 831 5394; e-mail: iedsfoeb@accesstel.net

• FoE Brazil will organize a clean-up in downtown Porto Alegre on Earth Day, preceded by a photo exhibit on Atlantic Forest deforestation (April 18 ^th ), a public meeting about FoE Brazil's activities (April 19 ^th ) and a slide show about a voyage aboard the Peace Boat.

Contact: Lúcia Ortiz; tel: 55 51 332 8884; e-mail: luciaso@zaz.com.br

• FoE Canada will challenge offices to switch to certified "green" coffee -- organic, biodiverse, solar dried and fairly traded -- on Earth Day.

Contact: Kathleen Kelso; tel: 1 613 241 0085; e-mail: kkelso@intranet.ca

• FoE Cyprus will lead a nature walk in the Amathus hills.

Contact: Kika Kapela; tel: 357 5 347042; e-mail: foearth@spidernet.com.cy

• FoE Georgia will hold a demonstration against radiation pollution in Tbilisi, as well as activities highlighting climate change including tree planting, a children's drawing exhibition, and a workshop for NGOs and policy makers.

Contact: Manana Kochladze; tel: 99532 95 20 33; e-mail: gagreens@greens.org.ge

• WALHI/FoE Indonesia is sponsoring the creation of a human chain along the Indonesian archipelago that will involve 60,000 people from all over the country. In Surabaya there will be a mass action to shut down all petrol stations along parks and green areas. A massive "healing the earth" festival will take place at the site of a failed project in a peat swamp in Central Kalimantan. Local FoE groups in Indonesia are involved in a variety of Earth Day festivities including a poster design contest in schools, reforestation of urban parks, an environmental art market and river expeditions.

Contact: Nur Hidayati; tel: 62 21 7919 3363; e-mail: yaya@walhi.or.id

• FoE Macedonia will hold a meeting with more than 1,000 people to support the country's Environmental Ministry, which is under threat of elimination.

Contact: Pandora Nikuseva; tel: 389 91 128075 ; e-mail: bimadem@mt.net.mk

• FoE Middle East will hold an information day on the situation of the coral reefs in the Gulf of Aqaba at the Aqaba Eilat border crossing between Israel and Jordan. Children from both countries will hand out pamphlets, stickers and postcards addressed to the relevant authorities to the 5,000 people expected to cross the border on the Earth Day weekend.

Contact: Dori Meshil; tel: 972 7 6347024; e-mail: info@foeme.org

• The local group of FoE Netherlands in Groningen has organized a secret action with the theme "Noah's Ark". The local group in Utrecht will lobby consumers to buy "eco-eggs" for Easter.

Groningen contact: evert.hassink@antenna.nl; Utrecht contact: utrecht@milieudefensie.nl

• FoE Nicaragua will hold a seminar for non-governmental organizations and affected workers on 'Human Rights and Pesticide Usage' that will address the health risks of agro-chemicals.

Contact: Magda Lanuza; tel: 505 292903; e-mail: humboldt@ibw.com.ni

• FoE Nigeria, national secretariat of the global Earth Day Network, will coordinate activities ranging from lobbying for legislative bills to regulating the mining industry, rallies, school debates, tree planting, television and radio talk shows, earth fairs and carnivals. The route of one protest march includes a toxic waste dump site proposed by Shell and the site of an Elf gas plant project.

Contact: Jaye Gaskia or Nnimmo Bassey; tel: 234 84 236365; e-mail: oilwatch@infoweb.abs.net

• The youth branch of FoE Spain is organizing an environmental youth festival with music, theatre and poetry beginning April 19 ^th .

Contact: Xulio López; tel: 34 91 313 4893; e-mail: centroiris.info@retemail.es

• FoE United States will inflate a 10-metre Earth Balloon near the White House where passers-by can meet actor and FoE US board member Ed Begley, Jr. and receive a free T-shirt.

Contact: Mark Whiteis-Helm; tel: 1 202 783 7400 x102; e-mail: whiteis@foe.org

• FoEI affiliate Project Underground will work with FoE Nigeria to promote awareness of communities resisting oil development and advocating a transition to clean energy.

Contact: Danny Kennedy; tel: 1 510 705 8981; e-mail: dannyk@moles.org

INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS:

Ann Doherty, FoEI Secretariat, Amsterdam,: tel: 31 20 622 1369; e-mail:

Ricardo Navarro, Chair, Friends of the Earth International; tel: 503 220 0046; e-mail: foeichair@navegante.com.sv

Founded in 1971, Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is a global federation of 61 non-governmental environmental organizations from as many countries.