Environmental campaign really about power

Environmental campaign really about power

JAKARTA (JP): The campaigns for environmental preservation
will gradually gather strength and become more a political power
issue rather than merely a moral issue, former minister of
environment Emil Salim said.

He gave the optimistic prediction for the future of
environmental causes in a lecture yesterday, commemorating Earth
Day, which falls on April 22, in answer to some gloomy questions
posed by his audience.

He acknowledged that the world is facing increasingly greater
risks of destruction due to over-exploitation and over-
consumption of natural resources. However, he believed that
certain bodies, especially non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
and environmentalists, will play a dominant role toward finding
the solutions.

"We're facing a world and society which is increasingly
becoming global, but there won't be any dominant, global
government because there's the trend of dispersed power centers,"
he told about 100 participants.

"Instead, we'll have global NGOs, gathering power and strength
as they come together," he added. "In this condition,
environmental issues will become a power issue, rather than just
a moral issue."

The lecture was organized by the Indonesian Student
Association for International Studies and the Center for
Information and Development Studies.

The association's president, Fadli Zon, said the association
is leading a campaign asking the public to turn their air
conditioners off on Earth Day tomorrow, "as proof that we care
for the earth". Air conditioners contain chlorofluorocarbon,
which destroys the protecting ozone layer in the atmosphere.

In his lecture, entitled Our Earth Now and Tomorrow, Emil
called on the government and policy makers not to repeat the
mistakes of the developed countries, whose development patterns
were grossly exploitative of the environment.

"If the conventional pattern of development, which neglects
the environment, is adopted by the developing countries, then
we'll have a doomsday, a global environmental destruction, by the
21st century," Emil said, who is an economist by training.

He blamed the developed countries' excessive "consumerism" of
the past decade, which has "plunged the world into global
environmental destruction".

This destruction takes the forms of, for instance, urban air
pollution, sea water intrusion, reduction of water quality,
deforestation, reduction in biodiversity, acid rain, an increase
in the earth's temperature, waste problems, and the destruction
in the ozone layer.

"In order to prevent the earth from deteriorating even
further, the government should implement a sustainable
development pattern, which is in harmony with the environment's
carrying capacity," he said.

He suggested that policy makers incorporate five factors into
any policy they establish: population control, control of the
consumption pattern, the implementation of energy-saving
technology, redistribution of income, and the implementation of
pollution charges.

He said that by the year 2050 the world population will reach
a staggering, insupportable 11 billion. "We definitely need to
control population growth," he said.

Population charges can be imposed on whoever pollutes the air
and creates waste, he said, adding that this policy will also
benefit the state's income.

He also suggested a number of environment-wise development
strategies, including resource management, and the integration of
various scientific disciplines, in order to create more
environmental-conscious people.

"Indonesia needs to implement these strategies, in order to
ensure the livelihood of our children in the future," he said.

Earth Day is commemorated mostly in the United States and was
initiated by an American senator, who was very concerned about
the current state of destruction the earth is facing.

Environment Day, on the other hand, is celebrated every June 5
and originated from the United Nations' Conference on the
Environment, held in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972. (swe)