US Voters Hold
The Key
By AFP
13 October, 2004
Agence France Presse
NAIROBI -
American voters hold the key to ending the war in Iraq and can help
revive a UN treaty on global warming which was rejected by President
George W. Bush, Kenyan ecologist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari
Maathai, told reporters.
"There are
very many Americans who are not for the war (in Iraq) and who are wishing
that this war could come to an end," Maathai said at the United
Nations offices in Nairobi.
"In a country
like America, there are lots of people who would prefer that their government
ratify the (Kyoto) protocol, who would gladly change their consumptive
lifestyle, especially the rate at which they consume fossil fuel, so
that they are not polluters of the environment," Maathai, who is
Kenya's deputy environment minister, said.
The Nobel laureate
urged US voters "to make a decision" in the November 2 election,
both on the US-led war in Iraq and on the Kyoto protocol on climate
change -- the UN pact that was approved by 159 countries in 1997, and
which Bush rejected shortly after taking office in 2001.
"We make our
decisions at the national level through elections," 64-year-old
Maathai said, implicitly throwing her weight behind Bush's Democratic
challenger John Kerry when she urged US voters to elect a leader who
would rapidly wrap up fighting in Iraq.
Kerry has pledged
to muster more international troops for Iraq so the United States could
start withdrawing its forces next year.
"Americans
will be given an opportunity to reassess their presence in Iraq and
reassess their approach in dealing with terrorism in the world, and
maybe make options that will ensure that we have peace in the Middle
East," she said.
"I am quite
sure that those who decided to go in there didn't know what was lying
ahead," she said of Iraq.
"I am sure
they thought they could get out of it as soon as they were able to remove
one person they thought was responsible for violations of human rights
in that country," Maathai added, referring to ousted Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein, who Bush claimed had weapons of mass destruction and
had to be forced from power.
Maathai also appealed
to industrialised nations to consider changing their lifestyles in order
to cut down on pollution.
"Not to do
that is to put the burden on the poor... who do not consume as much,
but who also suffer from that pollution," she said.
"There are
quite a few countries that encourage us (developing countries), for
example, to restore our forests so that we can provide the carbon sink...,
but this is not enough, it is also important for them to change their
lifestyles," Maathai added at the fringe of the African women's
environment assembly in Nairobi.
"By far the
largest number of people in rich countries are responding because they
want to retain this high consumptive lifestyle that is costing us our
lifestyle," she added.
Swedish Environemt
Minister Lena Sommestad told the same press conference that the Kyoto
protocol is the best tool to combat carbon pollution.
"We know that
there are lots of people, lots of politicians in the US who support
the protocol," she added.
The charter commits
39 industrialised signatories to bring annual global emissions of six
greenhouse gases, the main one being carbon dioxide (CO2), to below
1990 levels by a timeframe of 2008-2012.
To achieve that,
they will have to restrain the burning of oil, coal and gas, the carbon-bearing
sources that sparked the Industrial Revolution and remain the foundation
for economic life today.
© Copyright
2004 AFP