SM meeting outlines issues
By TRAVIS PURSER Special to the Daily Press
A town hall meeting planned to prepare environmentalists for the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development drew hundreds of people to Santa Monica this weekend.
This summer marks the anniversary of the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where 10 years ago countries from around the world set ambitious recommendations for achieving worldwide sustainable development.
The summit has inspired both celebration and disappointment. World leaders publicly acknowledging and discussing environmental problems raised awareness, said Irving Sarnoff, founder of Friends of the United Nations, a local advocacy group. He declared the summit a success.
Others saw it as little more than a public relations ploy. Because it ignored economic and corporate globalization, which are key factors in determining the quality of human rights and the environment, the summit was a failure, said environmental watchdog Mike Dolan.
Now, the U.N. plans a follow-up World Summit on Sustainable Development Aug. 26-Sept. 4 in Johannesburg, South Africa. And environmentalists’ expectations are higher than they were in 1992. They want commitments for action, not just recommendations.
Environmentalists met at the Crossroads School at Olympic Boulevard and 18th Street Saturday for the day-long meeting. Mayor Michael Feinstein, a Green Party member, spoke about measures Santa Monica has taken to protect the environment.
Wearing his trademark ponytail and sandals, Feinstein declared that sustainability is the “underpinning” of Santa Monica’s municipal policies.
“It is good for the economy to do the right thing,” he said. “As long as you plan and set your goals in a responsible manner, the economy can flourish” under principles of sustainability.
He outlined Santa Monica’s achievements: 75 percent of city vehicles run on alternative fuels; 55 percent of paper and yard waste is recycled; city buses run on natural gas; a city purchasing program prohibits the buying of toxic cleaning materials and an urban runoff facility treats street waste before it reaches the ocean.
“The fundamental way to achieve development, and to achieve sustainable development,” is to invest in health and education and to address poverty, said Hecht, who is an associate director for sustainable development at the White House. He said that is the Bush administration’s focus.
Hecht said he was not surprised when the crowd made hostile comments to him about president Bush’s record on protecting the environment.
The environmentalists attacked him on a wide array of Bush actions from repealing president Clinton’s roadless initiative for protecting wilderness to declining to sign the Kyoto Treaty on reducing greenhouse gases.
Hecht said he is not an expert on the entire scope of environmental issues.
“But in my view, we have to learn to do more with less,” he said, prompting a brief applause. “The problem is huge. But the solution is not to put a cap on growth, because growth is needed to generate resources.”
“The problem is huge. But the solution is not to put a cap on growth, because growth is needed to generate resources.” — —ALLAN HECHT White House Council Environmental Quality
Friends of the United Nations, which organized the meeting, invited Hecht to speak on how the Johannesburg summit would fit into the Bush administration’s agenda.
Hecht said the administration would help “reinforce existing policies” and plans to be a “positive contribution” to water, poverty and energy policies. He also said the administration would help build partnerships among non-governmental organizations, civil societies and faith-based organizations.
He added that he expected a “concrete, action-oriented agenda” to come out of Johannesburg.
Dolan is skeptical, however. The San Francisco-based western director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, expressed his anarchist leanings with more than just the green Doc Martin boots he wore under a gray business suit.
“It seems to me Johannesburg will be a failure, unless it explicitly names economic and corporate globalization!” he shouted. “It’s going to be frustrating!”
One speaker acknowledged that the “scope of what we’re trying to get our intellect around is daunting.”
ChoQosh Auh’Ho’Oh, a Native American Chumash elder, addressed that concern in her opening ceremony during which she invoked the help of Father Sky and Mother Earth.
“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” she said. “The obstacles are the path.”
Quote: “The problem is huge. But the solution is not to put a cap on growth, because growth is needed to generate resources.”—Allan Hecht of the White House Council on Environmental Quality
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 1, 2002. Read the original PDF.