Subject: [cwj 23] Okinawa G8 Summit: INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL NGO FORUM
From: Corporate Watch in Japanese <cwj@corpwatch.org>
Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 12:30:51 -0700
Seq: 23
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL NGO FORUM Okinawa- Japan, 13-17 July 2000 The year 2000 G8 Summit Meeting is to be held in Nago-City, Okinawa, next July. This summit is the last summit of this century. A consensus is likely to be sought among participating super-powers on the direction of the world political and economic order for the coming century. However, we cannot leave everything related to the destiny of mankind in their hands. It is impossible to achieve world peace and justice through institutions like governments and international organizations alone. Much less through a handful of governments, even though they may be economic super-powers. To be more correct, it is simply unbearable to be forced to accept the G8 made concept of "justice". We cannot open the door for a bright future if we depend entirely on the politics of the super-powers. The recent achievement of NGOs in the drafting of the Anti-Personal Mines Convention, the establishment of the International Criminal Court and the organization of the Hague Appeal for Peace Citizen's Conference showed eloquently that it is NGOs and global citizens who can achieve peace and justice in the 21st century. It is therefore indispensable to counterbalance the opinions of G8 Summit concerning world peace and justice with those of NGOs. For this reason, Okinawa Environmental Network, an environmental NGO located on Okinawa Island, has decided to organize an international environmental NGO forum just before the G8 Summit with the aim of presenting NGOs' views to G8 governments. The Forum will be held in Naha-City, the Capital of Okinawa Prefecture, and Nago-City, to which a US military base is planned to be transferred in exchange for Nago-City being chosen as the venue of the G8 Summit Meeting. Nowadays we face various types of environmental problems that are threatening local and global environments. One of them is the problem of peace and the environment, namely the environmental problem caused by military bases. This problem should not be neglected in the coming summit because 75% of US military bases in Japan are located in Okinawa while the Prefecture occupies only 0.6% of the total territory of Japan. G8 Summit will not discuss this problem because their interest is to maintain the status quo by military means. There is, therefore, no other choice but to heighten pressure on G8 leaders by NGOs' voicing "Protect the coral sea of Henoko, the sanctuary of dugongs, from the relocation project of Futenma US Military Base to Henoko" and by acquiring support from people all over the world. It is also very important to disseminate as widely as possible the fact that the ongoing process in Okinawa is not the downsizing of US bases but their concentration and intensification. In addition, it is necessary to send out a message to the people of the Japanese main land, Asia and all over the world that the public construction works to be carried out in compensation for the military base relocation would aggravate even more the environmental destruction in Okinawa through, for example, the accelerated erosion of red soil. Regarding global environmental problems, the responsibility of G8 member countries is very serious because they consume the greater part of natural resources and energy in the world. Nevertheless G8 members headed by the US do not change their "production first" stance and are quite reluctant to implement the agreements of the Kyoto COP3 Meeting for the control of global warming. Through our daily observation, we, the members of Okinawa Environmental Network, are painfully aware of the environmental fragility of sub-tropical Okinawa Islands and their vulnerability to careless human activities. This is the reason why through this NGO Forum we intend to amplify the voices of people who live in small islands, such as the islands in the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, and counterbalance the opinions of G8 leaders with those of NGOs. We especially hope to convey the messages of the people who live on the tiny islands that stand on the brink of disappearance due to the probable rise in sea level. Through the Forum, we want to send islanders' messages to the governments, industries and consumers of industrialized countries that do not intend to change their 3M lifestyle (mass production, mass consumption and mass wastage). For more information, contact Secretariat of International Environmental NGO Forum, Okinawa Environmental Network C/o Professor Ui, Okinawa University 555 Kokuba, Naha, Okinawa, 902-8521, Japan E-mail: ui@mail.okinawa-u.ac.jp Fax?+81 98 832 2962 Attn: Kaori Sunagawa ------------------------------------- Corporate Watch in Japanese Transnational Resource and Action Center (TRAC) P.O. Box 29344 San Francisco, CA 94129 USA Tel: 1-415-561-6472 Fax: 1-415-561-6493 Email: cwj@corpwatch.org URL: http://www.corpwatch-jp.org ------------------------------------- ______________________ The Corporate Watch in Japanese http://www.corpwatch.org/japan (CWJ) mailing list is a moderated email list in English designed to connect activists campaigning against Japanese corporations and investments around the world. * To unsubscribe from the CWJ mailing list, send an email to majordomo@jca.apc.org with text "unsubscribe cwj". 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