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.