[E-rundbrief] Info 549 - G8 - Ecological Debt
Matthias Reichl
info at begegnungszentrum.at
Fr Jun 1 18:33:25 CEST 2007
E-Rundbrief - Info 549 - Linus Atarah (IPS): G8:
Sailing Against Ecological Debt. Ergänzung zur Homepageliste G8.
Bad Ischl, 1.6.2007
Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
www.begegnungszentrum.at
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Ergänzung zur Homepageliste G8:
Alternativ-TV: www.g8-tv.org
(in Englisch und Deutsch)
Die Site berichtet vom 2.6. bis 8.6. jeden Abend live aus Rostock.
Aber schon jetzt gibt es dort eine Menge von Kurzvideos zum Thema "G8" zu
sehen.
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G8: SAILING AGAINST ECOLOGICAL DEBT
by Linus Atarah
HELSINKI (IPS) - As leaders of the world's eight
richest countries prepare to meet in Germany's
Baltic resort of Heiligendamm next week, a Fair
Trade ship has left the shores of Finland and is
on the high seas heading towards the summit venue.
Estelle's crew of 17 activists say their central
demand is for the Group of Eight (G8) leaders to
address the issue of ecological debt owed to the
developing South by the industrialised countries
-- and they have set sail to Germany for the Jun.
6-8 summit to call attention to that goal.
Driven mainly by wind power, the sea voyage will
take up to a week, depending on the weather conditions.
"The problem of developing countries' debt has
featured prominently in every G8 summit since the
1990s, but we do not want to speak of Third World
debt exclusively in monetary terms," said Teppo
Eskelinen, of Friends of the Earth Finland.
"All the debts of the developing countries have
already been paid, because the northern models of
consumption and production are built on the
exploitation of cheap resources from the global
South. Our lifestyle causes destruction of local
livelihoods in developing countries due to waste,
pollution, degradation of ecosystems and climate
change" said Elina Toivonen, the tour coordinator sailing with Estelle.
"The debt question is more meaningful when we
ask, how much we, the industrialised countries,
owe to the global South for the environmental
destruction we have caused," she added.
When the issue of debt is examined in monetary
terms alone, it glosses over the fact that large
portions of these loans were meant to promote
efficiency in the use of natural resources to be
transferred to the North, according to Eskelinen.
"And when they became indebted, these countries
were forced by the G8-controlled World Bank to
export more of their natural resources in order
to pay off the debt, which further causes severe
ecological burden on them since they have to over
exploit their natural resources," Eskelinen told IPS.
At the last G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland two
years ago, the issue of the developing world's
debt was the focus of a massive international
campaign, contributing to a write-off of about 40
billion U.S. dollars owed by 18 countries, mostly
in Africa. It saved them about 1.5 billion
dollars of debt repayments each year.
But, said Eskelinen, "the logic behind third
world debt should be turned on its head. It is
the North who should pay back the developing
countries and not the other way round as has been the practice", he said.
The G8 -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany,
Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States --
together represent about 65 percent of the world economy.
However, Estelle is not a creation of the G8
Summit. The idea of using a sailing ship as a
campaign vessel for development activities was
conceived in 1985 by Jyrki Pölkki, a musical
instrument designer who wanted to demonstrate a
fairer way of trading between the North and South.
The ship would convey goods to the South and in
return bring back processed, value-added
commodities from the developing countries instead
of raw materials. It will be powered by wind instead of fossil fuel.
Estelle is a steel-hulled 53-metre ship
originally built for North Sea trawl fishing. The
70-year-old trawler was almost a wreck before
acquired by the activists, but was transformed
into a sailing ship using recycled material, with
the work done entirely by volunteers, most of
whom had little knowledge of ship building.
In 2002, Estelle sailed to Angola with a full
cargo of humanitarian aid and returned to Finland
with handicrafts and various assortments of local
goods produced by Angolan micro-entrepreneurs,
Jyri Jaakkola, organiser of the G8 activities here, told IPS.
Promoting fair trade and environmental protection
remain core driving principles of Estelle's, activists, he said.
During the northern hemisphere summer, Estelle
will undertake a tour of major European cities in
Poland and the United Kingdom to spread the idea
of fair trade to a wider audience, said Jaakkola.
"We would like to show the linkages between fair
trade and environmental protection. We find that
there is a close connection between social
justice and environmental sustainability", he added.
"When producers get a better price for their
products they can also protect the environment,
because it is in their interests to do so. But if
they need to produce as cheaply as possible they
cannot think of these because their main concern
would be to exploit large quantities of raw material," Jaakkola said.
While the G8 leaders are engaged in negotiations
at the official summit, an estimated 100,000
activists are expected to gather in nearby
Rostock for parallel sessions of their own. There
will be over 120 seminars, and Estelle's
300-cubic metre hold will provide space to some
of these workshops, Jaakkola told IPS.
One issue likely to feature prominently in the
summit deliberations, he said, is the move
towards renewable energy resources and "we would
like be a practical demonstration of that".
"We have filled our tank with biodiesel procured
from small-scale Finnish producers. We consider
the use of biofuel as one possible solution to the problem of climate change".
However, according to Eskelinen biofuel per se is
not an end-all solution because ultimately it is
not sustainable. Instead of biofuel controlled by
large transnationals who perhaps have driven
people off their land and established monoculture
plantations, it should come from smaller local
producers whose needs are adequately met.
"So when talking about the use of biofuel it
should be not the North once again buying
indiscriminately large quantities from the South
in order to have a clear conscience," said Eskelinen.
"Transporting large quantities of biofuel from
the South is not an efficient way of fighting climate change," he said. (END)
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Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
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