Peer Reviewed

Title:
Editorial - Grassroots International Environmental Activism

Journal Issue:
Electronic Green Journal, 1(15)

Author:
Hayes, Denis

Publication Date:
12-01-2001

Publication Info:
Electronic Green Journal, UCLA Library, UC Los Angeles

Permalink:
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/4hq3v0ht

Citation:
Hayes, Denis. (2001). Editorial - Grassroots International Environmental Activism. Electronic
Green Journal, 1(15), . Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/4hq3v0ht

Abstract:
<p>A call for new institutional framework-perhaps a World Environmental Organization.</p>

eScholarship provides open access, scholarly publishing

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 Editorial: Grassroots International Environmental Activism1

Denis Hayes
Earth Day Network, USA
.....................................
Our species has always altered its immediate environment. Unwise irrigation
practices by ancient farmers converted the Fertile Crescent-the fabled
Babylon-into the desert wastes now known as Iraq. From the Dust Bowl to
Chernobyl, we have fouled a lot of nests. But only in recent years did we
acquire the capacity to modify the entire planet. In the last half of the 20th
century, Homo sapiens became a geophysical force. We are now changing
the climate and having a planetary impact on extinction.

The United States National Academy of Sciences and the United Kingdom's
Royal Society issued a joint paper in 1992 that stated "The future of our
planet is in the balance. Sustainable development can be achieved, but only
if irreversible degradation of the environment can be halted in time. The
next 30 years may be crucial." 2 This, and scores of similar warnings, are not
cries of wolf from overwrought extremists but carefully phrased warnings
from some of the world's finest scientists. These scholars are trying to call
public attention to the fact that the world has entered a dangerous new era.
Global warming, a worldwide epidemic of extinction, the population
explosion, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, desertification, the
loss of rain forests, and other international threats pose unprecedented
challenges to our embryonic global institutions. Avoiding irreversible
planetary calamity is the primary moral obligation of our era. This profound
mission is what makes the modern environmental movement more than
"just one more special interest."

The modern U.S. environmental movement, and similar movements in other

countries, grew out local concerns. American environmentalists worried
about the impacts of toxic incinerators, polluted lakes and rivers, endless
sprawl, and the clear cutting of nearby forests. They found ways to use
politics, lobbying, litigation, boycotts, and other instruments to influence
local and national decisions. Their impact has been astonishing. Just 30
years after the first Earth Day, virtually all Americans believe they have a
right to a clean, healthy environment, and we have enacted powerful laws to
achieve these ends. In the international arena, however, environmental
values have generally been sacrificed on the altars of sovereignty and
Mammon. Although the international community has banned ozone-
depleting chemicals, restrained international trade in endangered species,
and begun establishing restrictions on certain persistent toxic chemicals,
these have been exceptions. On most global issues, environmental progress
has been modest at best. More commonly, environmental problems have
just grown worse and worse.

The debate swirling around international trade expansion provides a good

illustration of the difficulties in creating and sustaining international
environmental values. Although caricatured as pro-trade versus anti-trade,
the trade dispute is really more nuanced. Virtually no one is "anti-trade."
Most environmentalists appreciate coffee, bananas, and Toyota Priuses. The
dispute at World Trade Organization (WTO) demonstrations in Seattle and
elsewhere has been between those who wish to use trade to improve the
environment and to enhance the well-being of working people versus those
focused exclusively on the near-term bottom line for one industry, or even
one company.

Environmental values are not represented in any meaningful way at the WTO
or in other international decision-making forums although the failure to
incorporate environmental values is dangerous and shortsighted.
Environmental problems are the among most vital international security
issues in the world today. In part because environmentalists are excluded
from participating in international forums, environmental leaders are
beginning to seek ways to replicate globally what has worked inside
individual countries-building a broad base of support from the grassroots up.
They aspire to forge a global majority around environmental values.
However, to be successful on the global stage, environmentalism must place
new emphasis on becoming a truly inclusionary movement. This is of special
political importance in global campaigns. The poor are a minority in America,
but they are a large majority in the world. According to World Bank figures,
81% of the world's population would qualify for food stamps if they lived in
the United States. The 50 nations of sub-Saharan Africa (minus South
Africa)-with a combined population more than twice that of the United
States-have a combined gross domestic product of $198 billion, roughly that
of the State of Virginia. 3 Rich Americans need to find ways to make common
cause with poor Tanzanians if the African environment is to be saved.

What the world really needs is nothing less than a new institutional
framework-perhaps a World Environmental Organization to parallel and
regulate the WTO (much like the International Labor Organization). If
international treaties are to mean anything, some agency, such as the
United Nations Environmental Program, must be given the power to
investigate and enforce compliance. This would be a fitting topic for
discussion for the heads of state who plan to assemble in Johannesburg at
the 2002 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development-the
successor to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. But such major
structural change will not be on the agenda. Once again, environmentalists
are seeking ways to lead their leaders.

Far-reaching changes inside nations have almost always been the result of
grassroots, bottom-up pressure. Powerful economic interests have a big
stake in the status quo, and they naturally do their best to make sure that
nothing changes very much. Environmentalists learned that only broad,
democratic impulses have the power to overcome political inertia. In the
end, this may also be true in the international sphere. The Earth Day
Network (EDN), is pioneering a new model of international engagement,
creating Internet links among diverse environmental groups around the
world. Most of these groups continue to focus their principal attention on
local or national issues, but they seek to be tied in to the global
environmental community. One day each year, they come together to focus
on a unified theme. Earth Day has thus become the first secular, theme-
oriented, global holiday (Hayes, 2000).

Each Earth Day affiliate-there are now more than 5,000 affiliates in 184
countries-celebrates Earth Day in ways that are appropriate to its culture,
politics, and economic circumstances. The network operates cooperatively,
rather than hierarchically. In computer speak, it has far more horizontal
links than vertical links. This is the first small step on a very long journey-
much as Earth Day 1970 launched this process in the United States. Earth
Day Network is beginning to seek a global grassroots consensus over how
best to address environmental problems that transcend national borders. As
part of this dialog, EDN is attempting to enlist a broad range of participants
over the next several years. Libraries (along with schools, zoos, botanical
gardens, museums, and so forth) have been, and will continue to be, core
vehicles for what has always been Earth Day's central missions-putting
accurate environmental information into the hands of the public and
introducing new generations to the principles of ecology. Libraries could play
a particularly valuable role in this effort, in addition to their traditional role in
community-oriented environmental education.

Hundreds of libraries across the United States take part in Earth Day every
year, and in 2002 many of them will use the brand EarthDay@YourLibrary.
Participating libraries typically sponsor special displays of books and
periodicals around the Earth Day theme that is being emphasized that year.
Some sponsor local environmental activities, such as essay contests,
children's art displays, and tree planting campaigns. EDN welcomes
librarians to log onto www.earthday.net in February or March every year to
register activities that they plan to conduct on or around April 22 for Earth
Day. Libraries could play a larger role in the globalization of environmental
education and public participation. For example, librarians could encourage
their patrons to log into the EDN site (www.earthday.net) on library
computers to see what is being planned in their areas and encourage them
to check out EDN's award-winning electronic 'zine (www.gristmagazine.com)
to get a brief, daily, global environmental news summary and superb
background articles. Libraries could also encourage patrons to use the Earth
Day Network website to see what Earth Day activities are planned around
the world. Those additional efforts would advance the goals of putting
information in the hands of the public and in the globalization of
environmental values.

Endnotes
1
Based on presentation for the Task Force on the Environment during
American Library Association annual meeting in San Francisco, July 2001.
2
Citation is from Royal Society and National Academy of Sciences. (1992).
Population Growth, Resource Consumption and a Sustainable World. London;
New York: RS; NAS. The quotation is also available at:
http://csf.colorado.edu/pop/royal-society_92.html
3
Mead, Walter R. (September, 1999). How America Got Rich. Worth
Magazine. Available at:
http://www.worth.com/content_articles/ZZZLSHJU9FC.html

Reference

Hayes, Denis. (2000). The official Earth Day guide to planet repair.
Washington, DC: Island Press.
.....................................
Denis Hayes is chair of the Earth Day Network <www.earthday.net>, 1616 P
St., NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036-1493.