Quote:
We have the technology to power our future in ways that don't threaten our health or poison our planet. -- Denis Hayes, Earth Day coordinator
|
|
Plans for Earth Day 2000 Are Already Underway
Ambitious plans for Earth Day 2000 will build a coalition of leaders in business, government, media and education and focus on appropriate energy technologies for the new millennium.
Start Date: 4/25/99
Preparing to marshal an international citizens' movement that will generate "New Energy for a New Era," the Earth Day Network kicked off its Earth Day 2000 campaign with a nationwide round of events and activities during this year's Earth Week, April 18-24. Leading up to next year's Earth Day, an intensive program of education and activism will focus on how energy is produced and used, and its impacts on human health, air, water, land use, and wildlife. Organizers say the campaign will culminate in a fast-paced month of global telecasts, transcontinental town hall meetings, and worldwide grassroots mobilization during April 2000.
"We shouldn't fuel the future with the polluting methods of the past," said Denis Hayes, National Coordinator of the first Earth Day in 1970 and Chair of Earth Day Network. "We have the technology to power our future in ways that don't threaten our health or poison our planet. Let's choose to use it."
Among last week's events marking the launch of the yearlong initiated were:
-- a broad coalition of students, faculty and administrators unveiled a clean energy plan for Harvard University which will serve as a model for universities nationwide;
-- the U.S. Department of Energy dedicated a photovoltaic clean energy system on the roof of DOE headquarters in Washington, D.C.;
-- Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme and U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, among other dignitaries, joined Earth Day Network head Denis Hayes at United Nations headquarters in New York City on April 22 to kick off the Earth Day 2000 Worldwide campaign.
"The month of April 2000 will provide an unprecedented showcase for the clean energy options available to individuals, businesses and the government," said Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day founder and current Counselor of The Wilderness Society. Among the goals outlined in a new Earth Day Clean Energy Agenda are:
-- accelerate the transition to clean, renewable energy sources;
-- encourage and reward more efficient use of energy by utilities, vehicles, appliances, homes, buildings and businesses;
-- level the playing field for renewable technologies by ending public policies that keep the price of outdated energy sources artificially low; and
-- demonstrate U.S. leadership in international efforts to reduce the pollution that causes global warming.
More information on the Earth Day Clean Energy Agenda and the Earth Day 2000 campaign is available at www.earthday.net.
 Excelsior, Michael Lindemann's new novel (written under the pen name Michael Paul), depicts a wholly plausible near future in which human cloning is both widespread and widely abused; terrorists have access to target-specific biological weapons; recreational space travel is commonplace; and mounting pressures of global climate change, environmental decline, population growth and civil unrest inspire radical new approaches to urban security.
|
Built by Frontier on a Macintosh on 6/17/00; 12:01:46 PM.
Web Comments  -
Produced by Larry Lowe
Served 1241 times since 4/25/99.
|
A Vision of a Coming Age of Prosperity
In 'The Long Boom,' author Peter Schwartz and colleagues argue that economic and social conditions could get steadily better for the majority of Earth's people in the years ahead.
Water Shortages Threaten Food Supplies and Peace
In much of the world, producing adequate supplies of food increasingly depends upon unsustainable levels of irrigation. Methods exist to use available water much more efficiently, but time is running short.
World May Be on Edge of Environmental Revolution
There are growing signs that the world may be nearing an environmental revolution comparable to the political revolution that swept Eastern Europe a decade ago, according to the Worldwatch Institute.
Anniversaries: U.S. Recalls Two Historic Disasters
During the last week of March, 1999, the U.S. looked back on the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster of 20 years ago, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster ten years ago.
Revolt Against Genetically Modified Foods Gains Force
In recent months, a consumer backlash against genetically modified (GM) foods has exploded across much of Europe and now threatens to stop the GM industry in its tracks.
Nuclear Industry Faces Slow Slide to Oblivion
According to the Worldwatch Institute, the nuclear power industry is at its peak of power capacity now and will start declining within two years, toward eventual extinction sometime in the mid-21st century.
The Future According to Gordon-Michael Scallion
Do the startling predictions of this 'Latter-Day Nostradamus' make sense? Some actually do -- but many others don't.
Iraq, Balkans Unrest Raise Danger of Nuke Mistake
A top Russian defense official said on March 2, 1999 that Russia's disputes with the West over Iraq and Yugoslavia could increase the chances that Moscow would retaliate after a false warning of a missile attack.
Biogenetics Treaty Talks Stall in Cartagena
UN-sponsored talks in Cartagena, Colombia, aimed at curbing proliferation of genetically altered foods, fell apart in mid-February, 1999 in the face of resistance from the United States and several other nations.
Searching For God in Cyberspace
Call them info-mystics: cutting-edge religious scholars and theologians say the Internet has the potential to be redemptive, carrying humankind to higher levels of consciousness.
|
|
