Johannesburg, South Africa •• Aug. 21, 2002 •• SolarQuest® iNet News Service ••
As a university student studying Environmental Science and Politics, the Earth Summit 2002 is of great interest to me, as it encompasses much of what I envision my future career to be. Being such a large scale meeting and assimilation of some of the world's most important and influential people, The Earth Summit comes as an exciting opportunity not to be missed. The Earth Summit has many discussions, debates, events and directions, and attempting to unravel what the main thrust of this conference will be can be confusing and chaotic. In an attempt to discover what it's actually all about, one must examine the roots of sustainable developent and global environmental concern.In Stockholm 1972, the UN held its first Environmental Conference: here it was decided that a conference on the state of the environment should be held every ten years in an attempt to monitor our world. In 1987, after the 1983 Brundtland Commission, the Brundtland report was published. This report was the first to bring in the concept of maintaining our resources, protecting the earth and providing adequately for ourselves - not only for our own good, but so that future generations will still be able to survive and live off our planet - Sustainable Development. A means of implementing Sustainable development was created in the concept of Agenda 21: an "act local think global" action plan to be implemented world-wide, on both a national, international and grassroots level. The next step was to hold another World Environment Conference to ratify Agenda 21, discuss the concept of sustainable development, and decide on concrete action plans to implement these new philosophies: so came the 1992 Rio de Janiero Earth Summit. Looking ahead to Johannesburg 2002, the suitable 10 year conference period has been fulfilled and it is time to look at the empty promises of Rio, the lack of complete global commitment to sustaining our world, and to the modifying of our concepts to suit our changing times. The main task of the World Summit 2002 will be to find action plans that are doable, agendas that are realistic agreements that are concrete and countries that are committed - no easy task. Will those with knowledge finally succeed in impressing upon those with influence the gravity of our global situation if no action is taken? Time will tell. Robyn Leslie is a second year BSc student at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and will be part of the INet News team attending the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development.
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