REFLECTIONS AND
CHALLENGES
FoE Activists on the New
Millennium
What will be the greatest challenges
for Friends of the Earth and for the wider
environmental movement in the coming
period? The FoEI Executive Committee
(ExCom) and other activists from the
network look into their crystal balls
...
FIRST STOP CLIMATE CHANGE
At the global level,
climate change will impact humankind the
most. If we don't stop climate change,
climate change will stop us. But we also
can't stop campaigning on other urgent
issues, including water, air, forests,
wastes, biodiversity and
genetically-modified organisms.
Ricardo Navarro, FoEI
Chair, El Salvador
TRANSFORMING VALUE SYSTEMS
I see two fundamental
challenges. One is to deal with the
profound global environmental changes that
currently manifest themselves in thousands
of forms. We are unprepared, and do not
know how to save what can still be saved.
Secondly, the human psyche must adapt to
the idea that we are here not to dominate
the earth but to be a part of it. This
involves a rapid transformation of basic
value systems in the developed world. This
sounds difficult, but we should keep this
paradox in mind when we campaign: Be
realistic, demand the impossible!
Jozsef Feiler, FoE
Hungary
RE-OUTFITTING GLOBALIZATION
In the old millennium,
globalization was often understood simply
as an economic affair. More and more, and
most recently in Seattle, globalization has
been stripped naked. The challenge in this
millennium is to create a new globalization
based on equity and justice. To that end,
we in Friends of the Earth need to learn to
communicate in a global way. We need to
filter information in order to make it
digestible and relevant, and learn how to
talk North-South and East-West. Globalized
communication is a prerequisite for
globalized solidarity.
Otto Sieber, FoEI ExCom,
Switzerland
DEFUSING THE CLIMATE BOMB
Some scientists no longer
think of climate change as a gradual
warming of the globe, but as a quickly
approaching 'impact'. A tremendous amount
of new information has been dug up
indicating the presence of big 'bombs'
embedded deep in the planetary climate
system that will result in the nearly
complete, rapid destruction of forests and
other ecosystems when they go off. The
'triggers', pulled by humans, will set off
chain reactions of irreversible events. It
is believed that some of these bombs will
explode thirty years from now. The
punchline is that what is emitted now will
determine what happens in the coming
decades. Some calculating can help us
determine how many years we have left
...
Yuri Onodera, FoE
Japan
REPAYING THE ECOLOGICAL DEBT
For Accíon Ecológica/FoE
Ecuador, the most pressing issue is the
recognition and payment of the ecological
debt - not in cash, but in the recovery of
destroyed land and resources. Secondly, as
environmentalists, we should reflect on our
involvement in power structures. Now, more
than ever, struggles must be waged at the
local level.
Ivonne Yanez, FoEI
ExCom, Ecuador
SHARING OF RESOURCES AND KNOWLEDGE
I am really worried about
the abundance currently enjoyed by people
in rich countries. Beyond overconsumption
and the depletion of natural resources, the
mentality that the rich prosper due to
superior economic systems is being exported
to poor countries and messing up local
development efforts. It is difficult to
convince people here that self help is the
basis for development; they want only to
'plug in' to the careless lifestyles of the
North. In the long run, few local people
have the skills to develop their countries,
and overseas 'experts' are hired 'to get
the job done'. In this way, rich countries
monopolize knowledge and developing
countries are forced to buy it from them.
In the Antilles, Dutch experts come and go
from one well-paid contract to another,
producing reports that are sometimes
useless and poorly written, and continue
living their happy and careless lives.
Local professionals become second-rate
citizens, there is no substantial growth of
knowledge, and the funds spent on research
and advice flow back to Holland.
Lloyd Narain, FoE
Curacao
PEACE, PARTICIPATION AND GENDER
EQUALITY
Our challenge is to
coordinate our efforts with those of other
social movements worldwide. We also must
achieve gender equality, and ensure
people's participation in decision-making
at all levels and in all matters affecting
them. Peace on the entire planet is a
necessary step for sustainable development.
And finally, we need to put forth a vision
that embraces local realities as well as
intercultural differences.
Carmen Tomé Valiente,
FoEI ExCom, Spain
TACKLING POVERTY
The greatest challenge that
environmental activists - and the world -
face in the next century is rectifying the
enormous and ever-growing gap between the
'haves' and 'have nots'. Poverty is one of
the greatest threats we face, but it cannot
be addressed until the rich in the world
significantly reduce their often gross
overconsumption. This means that
environmentalists will need to change
peoples' mindsets and the way that
'well-being' and 'entitlement' are
viewed.
Carol Welch, FoE United
States
CORPORATE CHILL-OUT
Our challenge is to act
against the power of TNCs. The threat of
McCulture is omnipresent. Civil society
must regain its role of shaping cultures
and lifestyles. Biotechnology and nuclear
technology present the biggest risks to the
environment in the near future, but not for
long! The nuclear industry is on its
deathbed, and the biotech sector is
currently being destroyed by social
movements. We must keep up the spirit, and
continue to strengthen the FoEI
network!
Stefan Rostock, FoE
Germany
NECESSITIES FOR NORTHERN NGOs
In the new millennium,
environmental activists will need to ensure
that their campaign activities are truly
international in focus. In this era of
globalization, environmentalists cannot
afford the luxury of dealing with issues
only at the local or national levels.
Northern groups will need to focus on the
behaviour of corporations from their
countries operating in other parts of the
world. They must also greatly increase the
levels of practical and campaign support
they offer to activist groups in the South.
Finally, as the environmental movement is
well placed to articulate positive visions
for the future that embrace social justice
and environmental sustainability, we will
need to work more closely with all
progressive sectors in society to achieve
long term and lasting change.
Cam Walker, FoEI ExCom,
Australia
STRENGTHENING CIVIL SOCIETY
The current political and
economic situation in Macedonia has
resulted in the weakening of environmental
and other non-governmental groups. Indeed,
the entire existence of NGOs in our society
is threatened. Fortunately, cooperation
with international NGOs continues, and we
still have a great deal of motivation to
move through this difficult period.
Daniela Stojanova, FoE
Macedonia
AVOIDING THE AMERICAN WAY
The biggest challenge that
we all face is economic globalization. The
'American Way' is not the way for everyone
- and many people in the US are not too
keen on it either. But most of us seem
incapable of presenting alternatives to the
current belief that what is good for big
companies is good for us all. We have to
start debating creative alternatives to
economic globalization, and this discussion
must be popularized.
Julian Manduca, FoE
Malta
CREATING MEANINGFUL JOBS
Unemployment will be the
most pressing challenge of the 21st century
due to the rapid replacement of humans with
computers and machines in every area from
agriculture to manufacturing. Unemployment
both in the traditional meaning - reduced
opportunities for people to secure their
livelihoods - and also in a wider sense, as
the inability for people to manage their
free time will be a major problem. The
challenge for environmentalists is to
create new jobs and new forms of human
activity that are not in contradiction with
the principles of sustainable
development.
Krzysztof Kamieniecki,
FoE Poland
BREAKING DOWN POWER STRUCTURES
The greatest challenge is
to tackle and overcome the unequal
distribution of power in our societies. The
capital - both financial and political -
invested in existing destructive power
structures explains our failure to
translate the universal awareness about the
environmental crisis into effective action.
The men in Davos, for example, can nominate
'climate change' as the key challenge for
the future. But, due to their financial
interests, they will happily continue to
administer a rapid expansion of the global
economy that the planet simply cannot
sustain. FoEI must continue to challenge
existing power structures. We must ask
fundamental questions and work for a
paradigm shift, even as we pragmatically
extract the best possible deals for the
environment from our leaders on a
day-to-day basis.
Daniel Mittler, FoE
Edinburgh and FoE Germany
ERADICATING CONSUMERISM AND
INDIVIDUALISM
'Predators' - people,
organizations and nations with incredible
appetites for consumption, oppression and
the obscene accumulation of capital and
goods - continue to set up mega-structures
for the radical alteration of the earth as
we know it. The grip of individualism is a
huge threat. We are in danger of forfeiting
our humanity and dignity unless we act
now.
Nnimmo Bassey, FoE
Nigeria
ENCOURAGING THE ENVIRONMENTAL
MOVEMENT
In Estonia, the challenge
is to maintain the momentum of the
environmental movement. Business and
government are increasingly understanding
the power of environmental NGOs and the
social sector in general. After several
years of relative silence, Estonian
environmental groups are again vocal in
public debates. This is an indication that
better times are coming for FoE Estonia. We
cannot afford to stay passive in
discussions around the integration of our
country into regional bodies such as the
European Union and NATO.
Peep Mardiste, FoE
Estonia
MOVING BEYOND ECO-EFFICIENCY
The most serious challenge
we face over the next century is the
significant reduction of energy and
materials flows, and the ultimate use of
resources according to the concept of
environmental space. This involves an 80
percent reduction in atmospheric emissions
and a 90 percent reduction in natural
resource use by the rich countries so that
the rest of the world has a chance to
emerge from poverty. We believe that this
is only possible if we move beyond the
'eco-efficiency' approach and consider more
political actions such as the immediate
cancellation of the external debt of Third
World countries and the moral recognition
of the ecological debt. Technically, this
is the only way to avoid social and
environmental disaster during this
century.
Gabriel Rivas-Ducca, FoE
Costa Rica
CREATING SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES
The biggest challenge for
FoEI, for FoE Uruguay and for myself is the
following: to build an ecological and
participatory society in which humans are
able to decide upon every aspect of their
lives and are responsible for their impact
on nature and other people. This will be a
free and just society, in which people can
develop to the best of their capacities,
meet their basic needs and enjoy their
leisure time. Nature and knowledge will no
longer be privatized, nor will power and
money continue to accumulate in just a few
hands. We must promote the empowerment of
communities, and support their struggles
and resistance. Our partners should be
carefully chosen: those in both South and
North engaged in defending livelihoods and
cultures, in reclaiming power, and in
fighting for the right to be.
Karin Nansen, FoE
Uruguay
REDRESSING THE BALANCE: SUSTAINABILITY
VS. TNCs
Multinational corporations
are becoming more and more powerful. The
institutions standing for sustainability -
such as family, governments and churches -
are becoming weaker. We must focus on
promoting sustainability, equity, fairness
and environmental protection.
Theo Anderson, FoEI Vice
Chair, Ghana
CURBING TRAFFIC AND GAINING
INFLUENCE
In the environmental arena,
global warming is one of the greatest
challenges, and particularly the increase
of traffic-related contributions to climate
change. Another worrying trend is the
reduced influence that citizens and NGOs
have over decision making. Decisions are
being taken at higher and higher levels,
and power is being shifted from elected
governments to industry.
Paul de Clerck, FoE
Netherlands
BEWARE OF POWER AND 'PROGRESS'
The challenge for our
organizations in the coming years is to
confront the unlimited political power and
ambitions of the big economic powers around
the world. We must also beware of new
methods of exploiting natural resources and
human beings in the name of 'progress'.
The FoE Nicaragua
staff
DARING TO DEVELOP ALTERNATIVES
As a movement of people
working for fundamental change towards an
ecologically sustainable and socially just
future, I think our biggest challenge is to
be effective. The ecology movement, with
all its diversity, is the only movement
that poses any threat to global industrial
capitalism. One of the great strengths of
capitalism is its ability to incorporate
and co-opt resistance movements in order to
effectively neutralize them. Our challenge
is to stay clear in our politics, to resist
this colonization, to stop the
centralization of economic and political
power and to actively build parallel
economic, social, political and cultural
institutions and paradigms. We need to dare
to develop and implement visions for a
future worth living.
John Hepburn, FoE
Brisbane, Australia
POPULATION, CLIMATE CHANGE AND
BIODIVERSITY
The biggest challenges
facing the world during the next hundred
years are threefold. First, how to come to
terms with the reality that human beings
are too numerous, with the result that
almost unbearable pressures are being
placed on all the earth's natural systems.
Second, we must kick our addiction to
fossil fuels and find ways to provide
energy services using various forms of
renewable, zero-emission energy. This means
that the entrenched power of the fossil
fuel industry must be systematically
undermined and the power of alternative
energy companies enhanced. Third, if we
want to leave future generations a
reasonable array of biodiversity, we must
take dramatic steps during the next twenty
years or so to curtail human encroachment
on many different ecosystems.
Jim Barnes, FoEI
RIGHTING THE WRONGS OF
GLOBALIZATION
Unfettered globalization is
contributing to environmental destruction
around the world, creating new social
disparities and inequities between people.
We must right the wrongs of globalization
in order to achieve sustainable
societies.
Andrea Durbin, FoEI
ExCom, United States
SETTING LIMITS FOR TECHNOLOGY
One of the many challenges
we will face in the new millennium is the
growing gap between rich and poor,
'developed' and 'developing' (although it
is not clear whether the development is
forwards or backwards). Another challenge
for humankind will be the setting of
limits. How far can new technologies go?
What are the limits for experimenting, for
speeding up life, for playing God? These
questions will have great environmental
relevance.
Magda Stoczkiewicz, CEE
Bankwatch network and FoE Europe
Secretariat
RESTORING NATURAL HARMONY
Our challenge for the new
century is to stop inequities, to fill the
gaps between rich and poor, between and
within countries, and to do this in harmony
with nature. We must strive for a world,
for countries, and for communities that
know how to live well with less, and that
understand that we can take from nature but
cannot take nature over.
Hernan Verscheure, FoE
Chile
GLOBALIZATION OF LOVE
The main challenge in the
coming centuries will be dealing with a
deficit in resources - material, energy,
financial, information, and even human -
due to unfair sharing and unbalanced
consumption patterns. The environmental
movement must consolidate against
selfishness, against the estrangement of
people from their cultures, against
environmental colonialization, and against
the deadly division of people and countries
into fortunate and unfortunate. We must
develop our own globalization to counter
that of TNCs, a globalization of love to
counter the globalization of hatred.
Victor Khazan, FoE
Ukraine
EMPOWERING PEOPLE TO ACT
Societies and the natural
environment have been pushed to a
terrifying breaking point over the past
centuries due to the concentration of
economic power in search of ever-increasing
profit rates. Either we change now, or
there will be no future. We must reshape
global society by empowering people to act
together and make decisions that will
determine their destinies. We must live up
to this for the sake of life on earth - it
is our challenge and our
responsibility!
Giselda Castro, FoE
Brazil
STRENGTHENING THE SOUTH
Poverty is the world's
greatest challenge, as it is a main factor
in both environmental degradation and debt.
As for FoEI, our challenges are to build
our southern capacity, and to become a true
network of friends who can rely on each
other. Another challenge for our network,
as well as for the entire environmental
movement, is to be regarded as advisors
rather than as enemies by decision
makers.
The FoE Togo
staff
BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS
Any environmental survey of
the globe will show the extent of
deforestation, loss of biodiversity and
climate change. As these problems are most
pronounced in poor countries, we must break
down barriers between strong and weak, rich
and poor, North and South in order to work
together for the survival of the planet.
Together we must tackle the global giants
who have no respect for environmental
space. By the next millennium, our
challenge is to achieve more equitable
trade, sustainable agriculture, and the
best possible use of natural resources.
Aldrin Calixte, FoE
Haiti
LIVING BETTER THROUGH HAVING LESS
The concept of
well-being - which has come to mean
something more like 'well-having' - must be
transformed. It is clear that consuming and
acquiring more and more material goods is
not satisfying, and people are more often
turning to tranquilizers to calm their
anxieties. To emerge from the social and
ecological crisis into a sustainable
society, we will have to work less, produce
fewer but higher quality goods, increase
local self-production, and devote more time
to living better.
Ben Lefetey, FoE
France
AN ENLIGHTENED HUMANKIND
We have to overcome
consumerism and 'Americanization' by
opening people's hearts and minds and
souls. We have to encourage a humanity that
is responsible, caring, sharing and treads
much more lightly on this earth.
Lothar Luken, FoE
Ireland
WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE BUT NOT A DROP
TO DRINK
In Bangladesh, we are
terribly concerned about the lack of clean
drinking water. Indian industry has
polluted the great waterways of our region
with arsenic, and this toxic chemical flows
into Bangladesh via the Ganges and other
rivers. Flooding, caused by climate change,
is another ongoing and worsening problem.
Water is everywhere, but it is
life-threatening rather than
life-giving!
Chowdhury M.F., FoEI
ExCom, Bangladesh
