Call goes out in ugent effort for environment

Call goes out in ugent effort for environment

UNITED NATIONS (AP): Despite improvements in the last 30
years, efforts to keep the globe eco-friendly remain the world's
"urgent, unfinished agenda," the deputy United Nations chief said
on Wednesday.

In a speech to environment ministers attending a UN conference
on sustainable development -- the term for environmentally sound
economic growth -- Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette
called for a new ethic of conservation and stewardship to guide
development in the 21st century.

"There is no denying the environmental achievements of the
past three decades," Frechette said, listing the creation of
government environment ministries and landmark treaties on
climate change, biodiversity and the depletion of the ozone
layer.

"However," she said, "we must acknowledge the presence of an
urgent, unfinished agenda: humans continue to plunder the global
environment, unsustainable practices remain deeply embedded in
the fabric of our daily lives, and despite some honorable
exceptions, our responses to the challenges of sustainability
have been too few, too little and too late."

The environment conference of the UN Commission on Sustainable
Development is meeting at UN headquarters to prepare for the 10th
anniversary of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, where world leaders
adopted a broad agenda to protect forests, clean up water,
reverse atmospheric pollution, alleviate poverty and address
other problems.

The environment group Greenpeace pointed out that the
conference was occurring at U.N. headquarters at the same time as
a monthlong review of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

"In one room, the rich few will argue that they have no money
to spare for sustainable development, in the other they will
struggle to maintain and further develop their multi-billion
dollar nuclear arsenal," said Remi Parmentier, head of
Greenpeace's international political unit.

"If only a portion of what is spent by the nuclear weapons
states to maintain and further develop their nuclear weapons was
re-routed towards the protection of the environment, sustainable
development could become a reality," Parmentier said in a
statement.