Rio Summit Flutters: Cleaner Air, or Hotter? : Bush Administration has everyone wondering

The Earth Summit, which gets under way today in Rio de Janeiro, is not off to an auspicious start. President Bush’s recent environmental declarations may have demoralized the conferees even before the formal proceedings began.

Last week, Bush announced that the United States will refuse to sign a treaty to preserve the world’s plants, animals and natural resources--one of the centerpieces of the 160-nation summit. Another centerpiece was to be a strong pact to slow global warming, but the Administration said earlier this year it will not agree to a treaty with strict limits.

On Monday, two days before the conference opened, Bush announced that the United States will spend more on international forest protection. But, understandably, many observers see Bush’s statement as a last-minute effort to divert attention from the Administration’s intransigence on habitat and global warming. Nonetheless, the President, who dallied before even agreeing to attend the Earth Summit with 100 other heads of state, is still in a position to determine whether progress will be made at Rio.

The Earth Summit is the second major international environmental meeting. It is being held on the 20th anniversary of the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment, which met in Stockholm just as the United States’ first clean air and water laws were taking shape.

The world of 1972 was only beginning to realize the danger of toxic waste, deforestation and the effect of man-made chemicals on the protective ozone layer--all seen today as major threats.

And few understood in 1972 the extent to which all the world’s peoples and their environmental problems are inextricably interconnected.

For that reason, the goal at Rio is nothing less than to change the way 5.5 billion human beings live on this planet.

The 11 days of discussion, involving about 40,000 people, will attempt to find international solutions to common--and accelerating--problems such as ozone depletion, wildlife extinction, ground and water pollution and deforestation.

It is a fundamental mistake to cast this summit as anti-growth: The goal is to light a path toward sustainable growth, meaning growth that will put food in the mouths of people everywhere, and clothing on their backs, without further fouling the Earth’s air, land and water. Sustainable growth is, in fact, the only real growth possible in the long term. Without it, all are doomed to eventual ecological--and therefore economic--demise.

That’s why Bush can still salvage much that is positive from the Rio summit despite his pre-conference negativism.

Specifically, the President should not just sign the framework treaty on climate control but he should also unilaterally act to further reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide production in the United States.

In addition, Bush should rethink his opposition to the biodiversity treaty and continue trying to negotiate an agreement. He should not only sign the 800-page, non-binding Agenda 21 document, a blueprint for environmental protection in the next century, but should also commit the United States to constructive participation in its implementation.