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Action Alert from the Environmental
Association for Great Lakes Education
Posted 08/12/2002
The
World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg
Action
Alert Protect World's Freshwater/ Protect the Great
Lakes!
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Dear President / Prime Minister,
I am writing to you with regard
to the World Summit on Sustainable Development
in Johannesburg. I am profoundly concerned by
the worsening of our global problems of environment
and development in the years since Rio. As the
world's population increases, ever-increasing
demands are being placed on our limited freshwater
resources, and a larger number of people than
ever lack access to clean water. United Nations
embraced data reveals that at our current rate
of consumption, by 2015, there simply won't be
enough freshwater to satisfy the needs of the
world's population. This water crisis is precisely
why WSSD will have a particularly strong focus
on the world's freshwater.
As you know, the Great Lakes hold
a full 1/5 of the world's surface freshwater and
95% of the U.S. supply. Over 32 million people
currently rely on the Great Lakes for everyday
water needs. Accordingly, this region is in dire
need of serious international discussion in regards
to long-term protection. The International Joint
Commission has made a variety of valuable recommendations
for protecting this resource, and WSSD would serve
as a prime catalyst for developing global means
of generating funding for implementation of these
protective measures.
If we simply continue our current
approach to these problems, when our current approach
is so clearly failing, the results could be disastrous.
I urge you to go to the conference with concrete
proposals for improving our global capacity to
protect our limited supply of freshwater. I encourage
you to state (or re-state) our Country's support
for the Hague Declaration, in which national leaders
called for a new global environmental decision-making
body to protect the atmosphere. Such a body should
cover not only the atmosphere, but also the world's
freshwater supply.
We cannot always wait for almost
200 governments to reach consensus before taking
steps to protect our environment. The record of
the last few years only confirms that major changes
are necessary if we are to solve the global problems
that threaten our future. I look forward to your
response.
Sincerely,
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