Re: No agenda for the Second Earth Summit

Dear Elohim
there are Agendas and hidden Agendas, as always.
I feel we systems people should work on a virtual agenda to put things on
the agenda what much too often people and politics try to avoid, tend to
ignore.
Anyway we are doing it here in Berlin. We have just celbrated the 10.
anniversary of the INTEGRAL AGENDA models (1.-2. Juni 1992 in Rio) at our
Pr�sident Johannes Rau's PALAIS BELLEVUE in BERLIN will hand it over to our
ENVIRONMENTAL MINISTER Trittin to bring with him to
Jo'burg.
http://benking.de/raft/integral-raft-english.html
please see also at:
http://www.benking.de/Global-Change/global-integral-agenda.html
1992 INTEGRAL AGENDA and SHADOWY ROUND TABLE see UIA Brussels
CONTENDING GLOBALLY and CONFIGURING LOCALLY
(inter-sectoral Dialogue - UNCED Center for Our Common Furure May 1992
and Transformative Approaches Project and Global Strategie Project see
also T. JUDGE, UIA
Parallel to Jo'Burg we will have at our RIO+10 Berlin - Brandeburg many such
"Bucky-Balls" raising to the skies, maybe reaching other places like Vienna
or Jo'Burg.
Please see our FLYING AGENDA initiative and the pictures I will upload onto
the web.

Maybe you enjoy the systemic and embodied approach to the matters at hand?

Heiner

, trying to

> June 2002
>
> No Agenda could be prepared in Bali for the Second Earth Summit
>
> Recently ended the Conference attended by 114 ministers for the protection
> of the World Natural Environment. They had intended to prepare the draft
> of
> the Agenda for the Second Earth Summit. The Conference took place in the
> island Bali (Indonesia). It had been expected that the exchange of views
> would produced a document with objectives to attain in relation to the
> need
> of reducing the poverty all over the world and about the protection of the
> natural environment everywhere.
>
> It was assumed that the Second Earth Summit would be the real start of the
> Sustainable Development against the prevailing developmentalism that has
> continuously disregarded the need to control actions that deteriorate the
> natural environments. Many participants have thought that the Conference
> in
> Johannesburg - ten years after the First Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro -
> would confirm the urgent need of Agenda 21. "...blueprint for action that
> calls for improving the quality of life on Earth by using natural
> resources
> more efficiently, protecting global commons, better managing human
> settlements, and reducing pollutants and chemical waste".
>
> It did not happen what it was expected. The President of the Conference in
> Bali, Emil Salim - previous minister of the Natural Environment of
> Indonesia - expressed his disappointment saying that sufficient goodwill
> was missing in several participants. He commented that "...till the last
> moment we try to reduce the differences" and added that it was evident how
> seriously divided is the world when the interpretations of the poor
> countries about the future of humankind are confronted to the
> interpretations of the rich countries.
>
> One of the main reasons of disagreement is the position of the
> representatives of U.S.A. who claimed that the aid for development was
> conditioned by the efforts against corruption that would be implemented by
> every country. Another difficulty was the demand of developing countries
> asking the rich nations to open their markets to trade and transference of
> technology. Instead of an open discussion on these and other questions,
> Lynn Schloesser, member of the US delegation declared that his country
> would do nothing beyond previous offers made in the two previous meetings
> hold in Monterrey and Doha. He even claimed that "Commercial and financial
> representatives from all over the world have agreed a Program and it must
> be allowed its continuation without interferences."
>
> Salim openly recognized that the failure in Bali means that the Summit in
> Johannesburg will be necessarily difficult, however he still said that
> "...it is not the end of the road, and is not yet a disaster." ONU remains
> claiming that the Second World Summit must generate clear objectives,
> concrete measures and dispositions and precise commitments in time.
> �������������������������
> �
>
> The Path to the Johannesburg Summit
>
> Curtis Runyan
> Magnar Norderhaug
>
>
> World leaders will meet August 26 for the World Summit in Johannesburg,
> South Africa, to address once again, the multitude of environmental
> threats
> destabilizing the planet. The question at the top of the agenda: what
> progress have countries made in the past 30 years to halt environmental
> hemorrhaging, and where will we go from here?
>
>
>
> In the 1960s, many people around the world began to face critical
> environmental issues in their communities: forests were being destroyed by
> acid rain, rivers poisoned beyond use by industrial wastes, cities choked
> by pollution from automobiles and industry, Rural farmers hit by famines,
> and once-rich resources reserves wearing thin.
> A few scientists began to speak out about the global
> interconnectedness of these problems, and they warned that we humans were
> quickly becoming victims of our own success-that we now had the ability to
> entirely despoil the earth that sustains us.
> In 1972, at the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment in
> Stockholm, Sweden, delegates from around the world came together to
> address
> these warnings. while the conference produced a series of recommendations
> for government action, environmental turmoil continued.
> Twenty years later, leading up to the U.N. Earth Summit in Rio in
> 1992, the Royal Society of London and the U.S. National Academy of
> sciences-two of the world's most prominent scientific bodies-issued a
> joint
> declaration calling for action. "The future of our planet is in the
> balance. Sustainable development can be achieved, but only if irreversible
> degradation of the environment can be halted in time: The next 30 years
> may
> be crucial."
> The scientific warning have continued to grow in severity and
> urgency, but progress on making change since the Stockholm conference has
> remained painstakingly slow. And new international challenges-terrorist
> attacks, military responses, and mounting tensions around the world-have
> threatened to sidetrack the building momentum to address chronic
> environmental problems. At the forthcoming Johannesburg World Summit,
> environmentalists will aim to refocus the world on some of the most
> critical threats to global security. That will mean seriously responding
> to
> environmental tragedies and rapidly building on hard-won gains of the past
> four decades, which are summarized in the following chronology.
>
> 1962
> Marine biologist Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring, calling attention
> to the threat of toxic chemicals to people and the environment
>
> 1967
> The Torrey Canyon oil tanker hits ground and spills 117,000 tons of oil
> into the North Sea around Cornwall in the United Kingdom. The massive
> local
> pollution helps prompt legal changes to make ship owners liable for all
> spills.
>
> 1968
> Paul Ehrlich publishes The Population Bomb describing the ecological
> threats of a rapidly growing population
>
> 1968
> Experts from around the world met for the first time at the U.N. Biosphere
> Conference to discuss global environmental problems, including pollution,
> resource loss, and wetlands destruction
>
> 1970
> The first Earth Day is held in the United States. Millions of people
> gather
> around the country to demonstrate against environmental abuse, sparking
> the
> creation of landmark environmental laws including the Endangered Species
> Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.
>
> 1971
> 2,200 scientists, gathered for a conference in Menton, France, present a
> message to the U.N. stressing the need for environmental action.
> "Solutions
> to the actual problems of pollution, hunger, overpopulation, and war may
> be
> more simple to find than the formula for the common effort through which
> the search for the solutions must occur, but we must make a beginning".
>
> 1972
> Economist Barbara Ward and microbiologist Ren� Dubos publish Only One Eart
> h
> for the Stockholm Conference. The book warns that human actions are
> undermining the Earth's ability to support us.
>
> 1972
> Participants from 114 countries come to Stockholm, Sweden for the U.N.
> Conference on the Human Environment. Only one environment minister
> attends,
> as most countries do not yet have environment agencies. The delegates
> adopt
> a set of 109 specific recommendations for government action and push for
> the creation of the U.N. Environment Programme.
>
> 1972
> The Club of Rome, a group of economists, scientists and business leaders
> >from 25 countries The Limits to Growth, which predicts that the Earth's
> limits will be reached in 100 years at current rates of population growth,
> resource depletion, and pollution generation.
>
> 1972
> Researchers report that three-quarters of the acid rain falling in Sweden
> is caused by pollution originating in other countries.
>
> 1973
> Women living in Himalayan villages in Northern India begin the Chipko
> movement to protect trees from clearing by commercial logging, which has
> begun to cause severe deforestation, soil erosion, and flooding in the
> region
>
> 1973
> Arab country members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
> (OPEC) reduce oil exports to Europe and initiate an oil embargo against
> the
> United States for its support of Israel in a war with Egypt and Syria.
> Ineffective policies to reduce oil dependence leave industrial countries
> vulnerable to Iran's 1979 revolution and subsequent reduction in oil
> production sparking a second energy crisis.
>
> 1973
> The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
> and Flora (CITES) restricts trade in roughly 5,000 animal species and
> 25,000 plant species that are near or threatened with extinction. While
> the
> treaty has a broad mandate, inadequate enforcement in the following years
> allows a billion dollar black market in wildlife trade to flourish.
> 1973
> The Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL)
> restricts the release of pollutants from ocean-going vessels. It regulates
> dumping and accidental spills of oil, garbage, plastics, and sewage.
>
> 1974
> Chemists Sherwood Portland and Mario Molina find that chlorofluorocarbons
> (CFCs) can destroy ozone molecules and may threaten to erode the Earth's
> protective ozone layer
>
> 1976
> The U.N. Conference on Human Settlements in Vancouver British Columbia,
> Canada, drafts 65 recommendations for countries about how to best to
> provide shelter. Conference participants agree that adequate shelter is a
> basic human right.
>
> 1977
> Indigenous protestors in the Philippines force the World Bank to withdraw
> the financial backing for the construction of four large dams along the
> Chico River. The effort to block the projects energizes a global movement
> to protect rivers and resist new dam building
>
> 1979
> The reactor core at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in
> Pennsylvania partially melts down and releases radiation into the
> surrounding communities.
>
> 1979
> The Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution helps combat acid
> rain and regulate pollution traveling across national borders. A number of
> protocols have been added to this "framework" treaty, which regulate
> emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur, heavy metals, persistent organic
> pollutants, and several other pollutants
>
> 1981
> The AIDS virus is detected in clinical studies. Within the following two
> decades the virus has rapidly spread throughout the world and has killed
> millions of people and undermined development efforts in many countries.
>
> 1982
> Mexico and other developing and Eastern bloc countries come close to
> defaulting on $250 billion in international loans sparking a debt crisis.
> Lenders extend additional loans to these countries to prevent default,
> setting the stage for future debt disasters
>
> 1982
> The Law of the Sea provides a comprehensive framework for ocean use and
> contains provisions on ocean conservation, pollution prevention and
> protecting and restoring species populations
>
> 1982
> The UN Environment Programme organizes a special Stockholm + 10 conference
> in Nairobi. The attendees agree to a declaration expressing "serious
> concern about the present state of the environment," and establish an
> independent commission to craft a "global agenda for change", paving the
> way for the release of Our Common Future in 1987
>
> 1983
> The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. National Academy of
> Sciences publish reports finding that the build-up of carbon dioxide and
> other "greenhouse gases" in the Earth's atmosphere will lead to global
> warming.
>
> 1984
> An estimated 10,000 people are killed and many more are injured when Union
> Carbide's pesticide plant in Bhopal, India leaks 40 tons of Methyl
> Isocyanate gas and sends a cloud of poison into the surrounding city of 1
> million.
>
> 1985
> Scientists discover a "hole" in the Earth's ozone layer, as data from a
> British Antartic Survey show that January ozone levels dropped 10 percent
> below those of the previous year.
>
> 1986
> One of the four reactors at the Soviet Union's Chernobyl nuclear power
> plant explodes after a botched "safety test" and completely melts down.
> The
> explosion sends radioactive particles as far away as Western Europe,
> exposing hundreds of thousands of people to high levels of radiation.
>
> 1987
> The World Commission on Environment and Development publishes Our Common
> Future (The Brundtland Report) which concludes that preserving the
> environment, addressing global inequities and fighting poverty could fuel,
> not hinder, economic growth by promoting sustainable development.
> "Attempts
> to maintain social and ecological stability through old approaches to
> development and environmental protection will increase instability."
>
> 1987
> The Montreal Protocol, which has been strengthened since its inception,
> now
> requires industrial countries to phase out production of a number of
> ozone-depleting chemicals by 1996, and developing countries by 2010.
>
> 1987
> The Basel Convention controls movement of hazardous wastes across borders
> and now outlaws exports of wastes from developed to developing countries
> for final disposal.
>
> 1988
> Biologist E. O. Wilson publishes Biodiversity, a collection of reports
> from
> the National Forum on BioDiversity in the United States. The book details
> how humans are rapidly undermining the Earth's ability to support its
> diversity of species.
>
> 1988
> Brazilian labor, and environmental leader, Chico Mendes is murdered by
> rural cattle ranchers. Representing 70,000 rubber tappers, Mendes had
> advocated using Brasil's forests sustainably as extractive reserves rather
> than clearing them for timber and grazing. The killing brings
> international
> attention to the widespread liquidation of tropical rainforests around the
> world.
>
> 1989
> An inexperienced crewman runs the Exxon Valdez oil tanker onto a reef in
> Alaska's Prince William Sound, dumping 76,000 tons of crude oil. The
> spill,
> the largest ever in the United States, covers more than 5,100 kilometers
> of
> pristine coastline with oil and kills more than 250,000 birds.
>
> 1991
> The Iraqi army, retreating from its occupation of Kuwait, destroys
> tankers,
> oil terminals and oil wells, setting many on fire. The fighting and
> sabotage leak approximately 1,25 million tons of oil, the worst oil spill
> in history.
>
> 1992
> Bringing together 1,575 scientists from 69 countries, the Union of
> Concerned Scientists issues its World Scientists' Warning to Humanity,
> which states that "human beings and the natural world are on a collision
> course".
>
> 1992
> The Convention on Biological Diversity mandates that countries formulate
> strategies to protect biodiversity and that industrial countries help
> implement these strategies in developing countries.
>
> 1992
> Most countries and 117 heads of state participate in the groundbreaking
> U.N. Conference on Environment and Development, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
> (The Earth Summit). Participants adopt Agenda 21, a voluminous blueprint
> for action that calls for improving the quality of life on Earth by using
> natural resources more efficiently, protecting global commons, better
> managing human settlements, and reducing pollutants and chemical waste.
>
> 1992
> The Convention on Climate Change sets non-binding CO2 reduction goals for
> industrial countries (to 1990 levels by 2000). The final treaty calls for
> avoiding human alteration of the climate but falls far short of
> expectations, largely due to lack of support from the United States.
>
> 1994
> The World Conservation Union (IUCN) publishes a revised Red List of
> endangered and threatened species, creating a world standard for gauging
> threats to biodiversity. Current versions list 11,000 threatened or
> extinct
> species out of about 1.75 million documented species (The Red List
> estimates that the total number of species on Earth is about 13 to 14
> million).
>
> 1994
> 183 countries send delegates to the Conference on Population and
> Development in Cairo, Egypt, where they set up a decades-long plan to
> stabilize and reduce population growth-a plan that emphasizes the
> importance of women's education and access to reproductive health care.
>
> 1995
> Writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa is hanged in Nigeria for leading the
> Ogoni people's protests against environmental destruction of their lands
> by
> Royal Dutch/Shell, Chevron, and other international oil companies.
>
> 1995
> The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), a group of hundreds
> of prominent climate scientists assembled by the U.N. in 1988, releases a
> report concluding that "the balance of evidence suggests that there is a
> discernible human influence on global climate".
>
> 1995
> Representatives from 180 countries meet at the Conference on Women in
> Beijing, china, to draft an agenda to improve the lives of women and
> girls.
> The resolution includes calls for taking action to reduce soil erosion,
> deforestation, and other forms of environmental degradation which often
> leave women and their families impoverished.
>
> 1996
> Theo Colborn, John Myers, and Dianne Dumanoski publish Our Stolen Future,
> which warns of reproductive threats to animals-including humans-due to the
> release of billions of pounds of synthetic chemicals into the environment,
> many of which mimic and disrupt natural hormones.
>
> 1997
> Forest Fires around the world burn more than 5 million hectares of forests
> and other lands. More tropical forests are burned in 1997 than in any
> other
> year in recorded history
>
> 1997
> The Kyoto Protocol strengthens the 1992 Climate Change Convention by
> mandating reductions of 6 to 8 percent from 1990 emission levels by 2008
> to
> 2012 for industrial countries. But the protocol's controversial
> emissions-trading scheme and debates over the role of developing countries
> cloud its future.
>
> 1998
> The ozone hole over Antarctica grows to 25 million square kilometers (the
> previous record, set in 1993, was 3 million square kilometers)
>
> 1999
> Massive protests in Seatle help shut down international trade negotiations
> and spotlight the environmental and social shortcomings of the World Trade
> Organization.
>
> 2000
> The Biosafety Protocol implements a more precautionary approach to trading
> genetically altered crops and organisms, and requires exporters to receive
> prior consent from destination countries before shipping genetically
> altered crops.
>
> 2000
> The Treaty on persistent Organic Pollutants requires the complete phase
> out
> of nine persistent, highly toxic pesticides and limits the use of several
> other chemicals, including dioxins, furans and PCBs
>
> 2001
> U.S, President George W. Bush announces that the United States will not
> ratify the Kyoto Protocol, saying that the country cannot afford to reduce
> CO2 emissions
>
> 2001
> The $3 billion Humane Genome Project reports that the human gene count is
> only about 30,000-about the same as that of a weed or a mouse-not 100,000
> as expected. News of the finding adds to the concerns about the wisdom of
> current efforts at genetic manipulation, including inserting genes into
> food crops and re-engineering animals or humans.
>
> 2001
> The IPPC releases a new report citing "new and stronger evidence that most
> of the observed warming of the last 50 years is attributable to human
> activities". The new study projects that at current rates, temperatures
> will increase by 1.4 to 5.8 degrees by 2100.

-- 
please enjoy my updated: 
http://open-forum.de      http://benking.de
see up-date: "we are building a symbol or AGENDA21" 
10. anniversary of the eve of Rio seminar June 1st. 1992
for Rio+10 und Jo'burg 2002 
http://www.benking.de/raft/integral-raft-english.html 
and "Bahro":
http://www.agrar.hu-berlin.de/wisola/fg/ress/bahro.html#akt
and the "ongoing debate" this week: 
http://www.mdpi.net/fis2002/index.php
http://www.mdpi.net/ec/papers/fis2002/141/index.htm
or some events in July which are dear to me:
VIRTUALITY and REALITY of the MONTAINS 
http://www.inst.at/berge/konferenz_2002_7.htm
Ethics in knowledge representation and organization
http://www.ugr.es/%7Eisko/isko2002/program.htm
or the exchanges re: Rio+10 or JoBurg 2002:
http://fsw.kub.nl/globus/conference/contributions/benking1.htm
http://www.benking.de/Global-Change/lifeonline_ES2002.html
http://benking.de/Global-Change/for_DESAI-ES2002-
Sept2001.html
GMX - Die Kommunikationsplattform im Internet.
http://www.gmx.net