permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

www.truthout.com

Reaction of Senator Patrick Leahy to UN Ambassador John Bolton's
Bid to Strike "Respect for Nature" from Draft UN Statement of Principles
t r u t h o u t | Statement
Friday 26 August 2005
News Item: (Excerpt from an article today, Friday, August 26, in The 
Washington Post.)

"The Bush Administration, whose pro-business policies on climate
change have long rankled environmentalists and UN delegates, has done
it again. The United States is pressing to scrap a proposal to have
world leaders gathering in New York next month express 'respect for
nature.'
"That phrase was included in a draft statement of principles to be
agreed to by 175 heads of state and government attending a Sept. 14
United Nations summit on poverty and UN reform. The statement invited
leaders to embrace a set of 'core values' that unite the
international community, including respect for human rights, freedom,
equality, tolerance, multilateralism and respect for nature.
"The offending phrase would place no fresh legal or financial burdens
on US taxpayers, but the Bush Administration voiced concern that it
would distract attention from the main goal: reforming the United
Nations."

     Statement of Senator Leahy:
"It didn't take long for Ambassador Bolton to find ways to further
erode our leadership in the world and our standing as a moral
authority. In his tantrum over this straightforward reference to the
environment, Ambassador Bolton does not speak for most Americans, and
I count myself among them.
"We are blessed with a planet that sustains life and the comforts we
enjoy, but in so many crucial ways we are destroying the delicate
fabric of life that supports us. The phrase that Ambassador Bolton
finds offensive is an understated reference to some of the most
urgent challenges we face, and they are challenges that we can't
handle by ourselves. We need cooperation from other nations. US and
world opinion are far ahead of ideologues like Ambassador Bolton in
recognizing that far more needs to be done to improve our stewardship
of the environment, which today is under siege on every continent -
from pollution and over-fishing of the oceans, to the destruction of
forests and of wildlife biodiversity; and from the lack of potable
water, to the pollution of our water sources by poor sanitation and
industrial waste. The world has been slow to rise to these
challenges, and acknowledging them at least is a first step.
"This is clearly a time for the Bush Administration to step in with
the adult supervision they hinted that John Bolton would be getting
as our UN representative."

     Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), a leader on environmental policy in
the Senate, is also the ranking member of the Senate appropriations
panel that handles the Senate's work in writing the annual budget
bill for the State Department, including the US contribution to the
UN. Leahy is a member of the US delegation to the UN during the
current session, nominated last year by President Bush and
unanimously confirmed by the Senate.