Speaking for the people

HERALDED in with drums, the fortnight-long Global Forum, held parallel to UNCED, was probably the largest ever gathering of NGOs in the world. It forced the world to sit up and recognise that governments don't always speak for all the people.

Opinions

Our position is that USA is the biggest culprit in the world. ---Environment minister Kamal Nath on the eve of his departure to Rio We cannot permit the extreme in the environmental movement to shut down the United States. We cannot shut down the lives of many Americans by going to the extreme on the environment. ---US President George Bush defending his not signing the biodiversity treaty

Stockholm and Rio: Bigger, but was it better?

IN JUNE 1972, I was in Stockholm, at the UN Conference on the Human Environment. In June 1992, I was in Rio de Janeiro for the UN Conference on Environment and Development. What was the difference? Rio was bigger. In Stockholm, every meeting was within ten minutes' walking distance. Except, that is, for Hog Farm, an eco-hippy commune on a disused airfield, which one visited by taking a free 20-minute ride on a black bus -- fuelled, so they said, by chicken shit.

Time for green gadgets

WHAT DIRECTIONS are science and technology going to take now that UNCED has put environment on the political agenda? Though they were not very much in the spotlight, many scientists were present in Rio to stress that while the development of science and technology has been held responsible for the present ecological crisis, the solutions too lie in arnessing of science to meet the ecological needs of today.

Diary of a political carnival

June 1

The vital statistics of Rio

Source: Centre for Science and Environment.

A very summary preparation

THE SUB-CONTINENT, judging by these three reports, went prepared to Rio. In fact, the first report, prepared by a Sri Lankan NGO, chides UNCED for trying to save the earth without even consulting its people. The three reports focus on the major environmental problems of these countries. They draw attention to the state of the life support systems -- land, water and biological resources -- and the pressures on them.

The minister's manifesto

The minister of state for environment, Kamal Nath, had some radical words to say in Rio. "I don't understand why people here are talking about forests being national or global resources. In my country, they are more community resources," he told an interviewer. Surely, that statement will gladden the hearts of many non-governmental organisations and environmental activists who have been pleading, for years, for greater community rights on forests.

Did Riocentro learn anything from Flamengo park?

THE RECENT environmental carnival at Rio was an extremely enlightening and educative experience for me being, perhaps, the largest gathering of NGOs, on the one hand, and that of heads of governments, on the other.

Commission of omissions

THE ONE lasting reminder of the Rio conference will be the Commission on Sustainable Development, which is to be set up under the aegis of the United Nations to supervise the implementation of Agenda 21.