How To Get from Here
to There
Friends of the Earth groups worldwide are
sick and tired of transportation that uses
unsustainable and excessive energy. They
have no more patience for cars, cars and
more cars and the road networks zigzagging
entire continents that squeeze out funding
and support for buses, trains and other
public transportation. They deplore the new
and expanding airports that send more and
more greenhouse gas emissions skywards.
Friends of the Earth activists are fed up
with oil and gas exploitation and pipelines
that invade protected areas and indigenous
peoples lands. They have run out of
patience for world leaders who promote
nuclear power and hydroelectric dams as
answers to rising CO2 emissions, and evade
their responsibilities to kick their fossil
fuel additions.
But Friends of the Earth campaigners
don’t just look at the gloomy side. They
are busy calculating how to internalize the
external costs of transport and other
unsustainable forms of energy use. They are
working on the certification of green
electricity, and popularizing ecological
taxes by showing the public that conserving
energy saves money. They are creating
solar-powered villages, and forming
coalitions with chimney sweeps to educate
the public about energy-saving measures.
They are declaring "oil exploration free
zones" and blocking road schemes all over
the world.
This issue of LINK gives a glimpse at
some of the energy and transport
campaigning that is taking place in a wide
variety of countries. We also revisit the
World Economic Forum and its counterpart,
the first-ever World Social Forum, both of
which took place earlier this year, and
leap into the future with a discussion
starter on Rio+10 which will happen in
2002.
Ricardo Navarro,
FoEI Chair
