Earth Day observed with calls for actions

Earth Day observed with calls for actions

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Makassar/Semarang

Buried beneath the political headlines about a certain party in
mustard yellow, the 34th annual Earth Day on Thursday came and
went without much fanfare in the media, but environmentalists
called for more concrete action.

Mother Nature also seemed to be sending us all an Earth Day
memo with her angry storms that resulted in more flooding and
landslides. The Cililin, West Java landslide left at least 12
people dead.

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) in Jakarta
lamented the fact that neither the current administration nor the
presidential hopefuls had environmental problems on their
platforms.

"We haven't seen any significant efforts from the government
to remedy the worsening destruction, additionally, none of the
current candidates have brought these issues up," said Ridha
Saleh of Walhi after opening a four-day commemoration of Earth
Day here on Thursday. It features a photo exhibition and
discussions finishing on April 26 at Blok M Plaza, South Jakarta.

Meanwhile the executive director of Pelangi (Rainbow) Agus P.
Sari said that this year's commemoration was a good time to
remind the public to vote for future leaders with an educated
insight on the environment.

Also on Thursday, activists from environmental organizations
demonstrated in front of the World Bank office in Central
Jakarta. They blamed international financial institutions'
policies of privatization and liberalization for the destruction
of Indonesia. In Makassar, South Sulawesi, environmentalists
insisted that the government cut off its dependency from the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

At the United States Embassy, the University of Indonesia
medical students conducted lead tests for several staffers,
including Ambassador Ralph Boyce. All were found to have normal
levels of lead, or under 25 micrograms per deciliter for adults
and under 10 micrograms/deciliter for children, said Budi
Haryanto of the University's School of Public Health.

Antara quoted Budi, who led the team, as saying that this year
200 students from 20 elementary schools in Jakarta will be
examined to measure lead levels in their blood. Children under 12
are the most vulnerable to lead poisoning, 85 percent of which
comes from the air, he said.

The Jakarta administration started a phasing-out lead movement
in 2001. "We want to see what the effects have been so far," said
Budi when asked about the aim of the testing. Past studies have
shown high lead levels among bus terminal workers, who breathe a
lot of bus exhaust.

In Semarang, West Java, around 30 Diponegoro University
students cleaned streets and held an exhaust-free campaign by
blocking all vehicles from entering the campus compound.

Earth Day was first marked in 1970 by Californians Gaylord
Nelson and Denis Hayes. They buried a giant gas-guzzling Cadillac
automobile in Santa Cruz, California to symbolize the movement.
Their website (www.earthday.net) claims the network has grown to
include at least 5,000 organizations in almost 200 countries.