I would like to welcome you all here, footsore and weary as you are.
Weary, too, to be at the American Embassy yet again. I fear we may take root here over the next few weeks and months, such is the desperate situation we are in.
I know that many Americans are grateful for our support in the struggle to make the US administration see sense and that includes the American Green Party. It is only too easy to picture George Bush sleeping easy at night as Iraq burns and the world as a whole also gets hotter.
We have to learn that war cannot guarantee the security of your energy supplies. Reliance on fossil fuel, particularly oil, is a destabilising factor in the world.
We have only to look at the contracts being signed to construct the oil pipeline from Baku to Ceyhan to see the risks. These are monstrous contracts drawn up for BP by one of America's largest corporate law firms. Some of the officials signing these contracts for Azerbeijan and Georgia have not read them in their own language and speak little English. Turkey has to guarantee the security of the pipeline - a nice job for the army! These contracts sign away future rights for current cash - a recipe for instability.
The Bush Government runs on fossil fuel and such corporate power.
Exxon has invested $47 million in lobbying officeholders over the last five years. Last year, they landed a contract for $47.8 million dollars (a small return on their investment!) to supply gasoline, diesel fuel and motor oil for US and NATO forces. I assume they expect to make even more over the next few weeks and after the invasion.
This week, Alan Larson (US under-secretary for economics, business and agricultural affairs) was in Brussels. He told his audience in answer to a question, that the US was really committed to Kyoto - the Protocol, not the city. What was needed was a transformation of energy economies, such as hydrogen or nuclear. (FT. Friday 28/3/2003) This from a Government worried about terrorist attacks.
No. If the US is serious about Kyoto, serious about reducing its emissions (up 20% since 1990) and serious about security of supply it needs to:
1. Sign up and be counted. The Kyoto Protocol provides government with a supportive club to help make improvements, a sort of "weightwatchers" for obsessive greenhouse gas emitters.
2. Reduce energy demand
3. Increase energy efficiency
4. Invest in renewables: they are more decentralised and make less of a target. Bush has to embed renewables, not journalists!
5. As they can't act responsibly, Bush has to kick out the corporates.
6. Become a world leader in sustainability: this increase equity and reduces threats.
7. SAVE YOUR ENERGY! SIGN UP TO KYOTO.
We are facing the end of the world as we know it. We can make a better future if we choose to do so. Co-operation through Kyoto offers more hope than unilateralism and war. Make the positive choice to be a real world leader.
JL
29.3.2003