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)