NOAH in "Stop Bush" demonstration

NOAH - FoE Denmark was among the organisers of a demonstration, "Stop Bush - another world is necessary", when George Bush visited Denmark on the 6th of July just before he went to the G8 meeting in Scotland. Between 15.000 and 22.000 people participated. The demonstration went from the US Embassy to the Danish Parliament.

NOAH protested against Bush's environmental policy under the slogan " Bush - wanted for environmental crimes", and Kim Ejlertsen from NOAH gave the following speech in front of the US Embassy:

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Hello everybody,

I was asked to say a few words about George Bush´s policies for the environment - and there is a lot to be said about that!

From NOAH's American sister organisation we hear that Bush just within the single year of 2004 accomplished 150 impairments of the environmental legislation in the United States.
It is proven that the legal regulations concerning polluting enterprises have been weakened markedly under the Bush administration. Now time has come for 24 million hectares of nature reserves to be opened for road building, wood cutting, mining and oil investigating.

The US also plays a leading role in a WTO-case against the EU, with the aim of forcing us Europeans to buy genetically modified food from the US.

More grotesque than anything is the role of the US in the international climate negotiations.

When George Bush later today meets with the rest of the G8 countries, climate change and global warming is high on the agenda. Tony Blair has brought up this issue. It happens in the light of rising temperatures, melting glaciers, rising water levels at sea, more extreme weather and the prospects of loss of species due to the changed conditions for plants and animals.

Day by day the scientific evidence is growing that, what we are witnessing is climate change induced by human activities.
In spite of this Bush says that the scientific data are inadequate and that American interests must have priority over the fight against climate change. Bush listens first and foremost to his friends from the oil industry.

He neglects the environmental, global security, employment and economic advantages which can be achieved by focusing on energy savings and renewable energy.
And he neglects the fact that the consequences of delayed action against climate change will result in unbelievably high economic, ecological and social losses.
Moreover, he neglects the fact that the US only counts for 4% of the world's population. Yet it is responsible for as much as 25% of global emissions of greenhouse gasses.

Leaked documents before the G8 meeting tell us that Bush at the meeting continuously will try to create doubt about the scientific foundation, and that he on no conditions will accept binding targets on CO2 emissions that have the faintest resemblance to Kyoto targets.
At the same time, Bush has announced that it is about time that the US gets the building of new nuclear power plants going!

One is grieved to think of how the US - by an enormous lobby-effort - succeeded in watering down the targets of the Kyoto Protocol and in introducing the so-called flexible mechanisms. Subsequently, the US however still refused to sign!

All over the world environmental organisations reject the Bush administration's short-sighted, ignorant and immoral policy. A policy that, first and foremost, harm the world's poorest and weakest.

We demand climate justice - meaning that all human beings and nations have equal rights to the global environmental space of CO2-emissions. The rich are responsible for the misery - therefore, the rich must walk in front with the solutions to the problems.

For countries like Denmark, G8 and most EU countries, climate justice implies that we shall cut down CO2-emissions by 80 to 90% over the next decades. At the same time, developing countries must be offered assistance to follow a less environmentally destructive path than the one we have followed, and still follow.

The Kyoto Protocol did not come into force until Russia's ratification in February this year. This left the US isolated - and it now causes domestic resistance. More than 150 mayors - representing more than 32 million Americans from all over the United States - will not accept that the US neglects its global climate responsibility, and they have now adopted CO2-reduction targets similar to the Kyoto targets.
Bush and his government are beyond pedagogical reach in the climate discussion.

Therefore, there is no reason for the other G8 countries to give in and enter into watered-down compromises with Bush - compromises concerning the lack of CO2-targets and increased use of nuclear power. NOAH, as well as our international network Friends of the Earth International, therefore urge the G8 assembly to isolate Bush and join those countries - including China and India - who see the need for action now.

As a minimum, there is a need for:
An agreement that the global average temperature must not exceed 2° Celsius above the pre-industrial level.

An agreement to reach this goal by adopting the necessary national targets for reductions of greenhouse-gas emissions and a time schedule for its accomplishment.

An action plan to meet the targets by energy savings, development and increased use of energy efficient products and renewable energy sources.

and finally:

Agreements about immediate help to those poor countries that already suffer from the consequences of climatic changes.

Thank you for your attention.