Food Dragging on Sustainable Development: Playing Games with
Fancy Words
Jack Freeman of the Earth Times News Service reports that "despite an
innovative format" which was "designed to promote genuine dialogue
among participants" in a attempt to overcome the tendency of having
wordy conferences that are devoid of substance, they ended with–
surprise –little more than meaningless formal posturings. To come up
with anything meaningful as a result of the seventh annual meeting of
the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) would have been
seen as threatening signal to the establishment environmentalists and
the corporations that they work directly or indirectly for. The
conference achieved little as we would have expected it to, ending with
very few new agreements to advance the implementation of the Earth
Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. They did however decide to
"establish an openended, informal consultative process... with the sole
function of facilitating the effective and constructive consideration of
matters" dealing with an integrated approach to all aspects of oceans
and seas.
Freeman, Jack 1998. Looking forward; sliding back: UN EcoMeeting
Ends with Little Fanfare. Earth Times News Service
A new initiative was launched at 1998 Davos, called "Trustees 21."
Pranay Gupte reports that it will unite the top 1000 elite global
decisionmakers in an "effort to develop new insights, organizations
and structures that will be needed to improve the state of the world in
the 21st century. "As we near the end of this century, human numbers
and the scale and intensity of human activities have reached the point
where they are now a decisive factor in shaping the human future," said
Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and President of the Forum. "All of
us, and particularly those who are in primary positions of leadership
and influence are literally 'trustees' for the future of mankind."
Maurice F. Strong, former Executive Coordinator of United Nations
Reforms and CEO of Hydro Quebec, has been appointed to run the
Forum's Trustees 21 program.
A broad rang of issues will be addressed in this new program Schwab
said, including peace and security; sustainable development;
employment and trade liberalization; combating corruption; quality of
education; the biotechnological revolution; controlling the spread of
communicable diseases; the growing role of civil societies; human
rights; and new geopolitical configurations.
The "Trustees 21" initiative features "linkages with major corporate
and political leaders around the world, the Forum would be able to
draw on the expertise of academic figures and nongovernmental
organizations.
Gupte Pranay. Maurice Strong, Executive Coordinator for UN
Reform.World Economic Forum ends meeting on upbeat note. Earth
Times News Service