Saving the environment is saving ourselves

The US’s unilateral position on going to war in Iraq had ignored the Security Council, and this had relegated the UN’s position to one of less importance. The world is in danger of being split again and there are signs suggesting a new arms race.

We have to ask ourselves what enemy does the US want to fight?

Trillions of dollars are spent on weapons of war when less than half that money would address many third world problems in a few years.

Poverty, hunger, a lack of fresh water supplies and sanitation are creating a time bomb in many countries, “Where there is despair, there is fertile ground for terrorism and many people still live in a humiliating position.

“You cannot expect things will be nice and quiet when people are being humiliated.”

Fundamentalism is a “great danger and menace”, but it is erroneous to believe fundamentalism in religions, including Islam, causes terrorism. Religions, after all, are based on the idea of peace “and we should distinguish between terrorism and peaceful fundamentalism”. Mr Gorbachev thought discussions should include all religious leaders and for them to contribute to international co-operation and he believed that was already happening.

“Nuclear power (for domestic energy supply) is not really economic, considering not only production but also disposal of waste.” Even thought the US, China, Russia and other countries are planning to build nuclear power stations because they need the energy, he believes nuclear power plants should be a last resort. Alternative sources have not been developed precisely because not enough research has been carried out.

Green Cross has put forward a solar proposal to establish a US$50 billion global solar fund to develop solar photovoltaic systems and work to drive down the costs of such systems: to promote energy security and stability for a peaceful future and to reduce existing and future greenhouse gas and air emissions.

The sotto message of the weekend - having the facts and figures of the dangers the world faced presented so clearly - was to stress how little time the world has left to try to reverse the conditions that mankind has unwittingly brought upon itself and that only an international coming together, as opposed to separate answers by nation states, could meet the global warming challenge. Peace was necessary to save the environment and as Mikhail Gorbachev said passionately, “Saving the environment is saving ourselves”.

The most moving moment of the weekend came when hundreds stood to applaud Iran’s Dr Shirin Ebadi, one of the Nobel Peace Laureates, a lawyer, former judge, writer and political dissident, a leading human rights activist and devout Muslim, who has faced imprisonment, threat of assassination and family humiliation. Her message was to wish others “a share in the fate we wish for ourselves” and “wish each other kindness, the only commodity that will not be depleted by its expenditure”.

It was a remarkable conference. Several overseas speakers travelled many kilometres to contribute and people here turned up in their hundreds - to talk about humanity. How often does that happen?