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Enviromentalists announce new plan to 'save the earth': Earth
Legacy Campaign 6/10/04 Environmentalists and "foreign policy luminaries" have announced a new plan to save the earth, "the Earth Legacy Campaign." The plan was announced at a luncheon in San Francisco last week where San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and United Nations dignitaries met to make plans for World Environment Day, June 5, 2005, a day that also marks the 60th anniversary of the United Nations. The promoters plan to urge the U. S. Congress to step up U.S. global environmental leadership and establish a committee to review the state of the global environment. The campaign's declaration states the world's population will increase to nine billion by mid-century and, horrors, cause "spreading industrialization, increasing urbanization and rising consumption." "Without urgent action to reverse current trends the degradation of the Earth's environment will undermine our public health, national security and economic interests," the declaration read. The Earth Legacy Campaign is backed by a coalition of 19 environmental and foreign affairs groups, including Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Worldwatch Institute, Defenders of Wildlife, and Citizens for Global Solution. The goal of the campaign, said co-chairman Jacob Scherr director of the International Program at NRDC, is "to stimulate a national discussion about what sort of planet we want to leave to our children." RELATED STORY: Environmentalists Launch Earth Legacy Campaign
The campaign's declaration states in part, "World population expected to grow from six to nine billion by mid-century, spreading industrialization, increasing urbanization, and rising consumption are creating enormous pressures on the air, water, and land of our small planet." "Without urgent action to reverse current trends," the declaration states, "the degradation of the Earth's environment will undermine our public health, national security, and economic interests." The campaign was announced Friday at a luncheon where San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and the United Nations launched plans for a major celebration of World Environment Day on June 5, 2005, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. "We need a new consensus and foundation upon which to build a renewed U.S. commitment to protect the global environment," the campaign declared. The Earth Legacy campaign is backed by a coalition of 19 environmental and foreign affairs groups, including Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Worldwatch Institute, Defenders of Wildlife, and Citizens for Global Solution. The campaign is co-chaired by Jacob Scherr, director of the International Program at the NRDC, and Harry Blaney, president of the Coalition for American Leadership Abroad. "The dramatic decline in U.S. leadership on global environmental issues is not only an environmental issue, but it is now clearly an acute concern for the foreign policy community," said Blaney. The goal of the campaign, Scherr explained, is "to stimulate
a national discussion about what sort of planet we want to leave to
our children.”
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