Heard at the ’92 Global Forum…

Surviving like rats is not what we should bequeath to out children and grandchildren. If neither scientists agronomists nor oceanographers can help solve the consequences of an exponential population growth ……….the demographic tsunami is everybody’s business.

Jacques Cousteau
Oceanographer

Instead of presenting a radical program of action that is desperately required in order to prevent the wholesale destruction of the Earth’s forests, governments have instead used the forest issue as a political football in order to gain leverage for other negotiations.

Tony Juniper
Friends of the Earth International

May be tens of thousands or thousands of years ago, when man was born he was first struck with wonder. He did not know what this Sun, this Moon and Nature meant to him. He had a brother and both set out to find nature in different directions. One went West and the other went East. The one that went West thought he could conquer nature. The one that went East thought he could live with nature. The Western brother conquered nature to a certain extent. He got more and more enthusiastic and he started to exploit nature to an extent where nature started revolting. When nature itself started to revolt he did not know what to do. The other brother went to live with nature and was contented with whatever nature gave him. And to the extent he exploited nature, he gave it back to her. So he established a balance, an equilibrium with nature by living with it ….. The meaning of the story is that man is part of nature and should not consider himself a conqueror. In this coexistence lies the key to the progress of man and the future of humanity.

P. V. Narasimha Rao
Prime Minister of India

The media, advertisers tell us to consume more and more, be sexier. In a dead planet, there is no sex. May be hat will get their attention.

David Brower
Founder of Friends of the Earth

I think its time to abandon this sham, it’s time to admit it is a total failure (on UNCED & ’92 Global Forum).

Danny Kennedy
Member, Youth Panel

We have to teach our children to dialogue with their world. We need a moral revolution and should learn form indigenous people who have success fully integrated our species into the entire symphony of nature.

Jose Lutzenberger
Former Brazilian Minister of Environment

The agricultural revolution began some 10,000 years ago and the industrial revolution has been underway for two centuries But if the enviornmental revolution is to succeed, it must be compressed into a few decades …. If our generation does not succeed, future generations may not even have a chance.

Lester Brown
President, Worldwatch Institute

I don’t think anyone is over-confident about what they (governments ) will attain. He most we can expect is that they come together in Rio, and talk about and address important issues. For me, personally the hope lies in what is going on at the Global Forum …. It is the people who will change the course of the plant’s destiny.

Wangari Matthai
Kenyan Environmentalist

The ’92 Global Forum is a bit like the trade fair with a string of ice-cream stands- people just go from stand to stand picking different flavours for instant gratification. Yet it is worthwhile, because people are being sensitized to the issues. It’s an in between stage of a long process.

Michael Brown
Director, Private Volunteer Organisation

It is unacceptable to write the (UN) Conference off. The challenge during this critical period is to make sure that it won’t be said later that we were omissive, that we didn’t do our part. It fear that NGOs might take on the qualities of the governments and not question. We need to be more responsible from now on.

Fabio Feldmnann

Biodiversity is the law of the universe. It’s not just the name of a treaty being negotiated here in Rio, it’s the law of the universe and its has be signed by every human being.

Tom Hayde

A tiny fraction, $200 million per year- one tenth of the cost of a single B-2 bomber…. Would cover the costs of inoculating all the world’s children, preventing 3 million deaths per year.

Some say expectations for this conference have been too high. They cannot be too high. Saving the Earth and making it a better place, a more hospitable place for present and future generations is an achievable goal – And it has to be achieved.

Maurice Strong

Women are a powerful force for change and so must be included in international decision-making. I believe women will change the nature of power.

Bella Abzug

Bush is the representative of the transnational corporations who don’t give on goddamn whether we live or die. There is no morality in the transnational corporations, they are soulless.

Helen Caldicott
Founder & Head of Physicians for Social Responsibility

India may not be one of them, but many forested countries perceive their forests as a resource to earn hard currency. To be fair to them, it is inconceivable why the forests alone should be a globalised commodity, while crude oil, which is the most crucial resource in any industrialised society today, should not be similiarly globalised.

Kamal Nath
Indian Minister of State for Environment & Forests

So much U.S. bashing is joining on here, it’s not useful and it’s becoming a real turn off because it’s unfair. We don’t criticize other governments – and that doesn’t mean there aren’t things we could criticize ….. why can’t these countries clean up their water so that their children don’t die? More than hundred years ago, people learnt that if you put water through a sand filter, people don’t get sick. You don’t hear any criticism of the undeveloped countries, but people feel free to make all kinds of wild charges against the U.S.

Peter K. Mueller
Electric Power Research Institute, California

In Rio, the flame of hope was flickered on and off …. UNCED has fallen short of the expectations of the world community. However, the UNCED process has led to a strengthening and broadening of the role and capacities of NGOs international negotiations. An important contribution has been made by NGOs, not only in the official process but also in the parallel events, including the International NGO Forum.

Trees are the physiological lungs of the planet. The Earth is living on one lung and is in danger of losing the other.
Helen Cladicott
Founder & Head of Physicians for Social Responsibility

The ’92 Global Forum was an exercise in futility. I can’t understand why the World Bank is exhibited here, these institutions have destroyed the evironment …. The governments are not representative, they are elite and don’t represent the people. It is a failure, a circus, there are good intentioned people here and in the end, it is the people who will bring the changes in the world.

Veronica Villamor
League of phillipine Students

UNCED is the brainchild of citizen groups who pushed their governments into doing something about the environment. Governments asked for the Stockholm Conference in response to the demand of the people, out of which came UNEP.

Dr. Moustafa Tolba
Executive Director, UNEP

At least at the intellectual level, the link between environment and development, has been made. The fact that the North has been able to isolate the Americans is really something new. I remember when the Americans used to say "no", and that was the end of everything - no discussion. Not this time. So there have been some achievements.

Julies Nyerere
Former President of Tanzania


Compiled by Renu Jain

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