Military Toxics
MeetingWashington D.C.7 November 1993
At Green Cross International we want to focus on environmental problems
that really require a global focus. One of these centers on exploring
the new values on which we want to build our future. When we first met
in Kyoto to launch Green Cross International we stated that our existing
global civilization, even though so obviously in conflict with nature,
has been able to provide a more or less decent standard of living to only
one third of the population of the world. In response to this situation
we would like to build an international communications and media network,
and are currently in touch with people like Ted Turner, and with various
Italian, Latin American and Russian communication experts in order to
try and build a network that will help shape and hopefully spread a new
environmental consciousness. We hope that this global network will also
help to increase awareness of the need for changes in the educational
system.
Our second focus is the development of international ecological laws
which we hope will become a kind of international environmental code of
conduct. Added to this, Green Cross International will be able to do practical
things by interacting with national environmental organizations and national
Green Cross chapters to do specific work. A national chapter has now been
established in Japan. In Russia, the shaping of a national Green Cross
organization is now in it's final phases, and of course we very much would
like to see the formation of a national Green Cross organization in your
country. This will be the subject of the meeting I will address later
this morning.
We are carefully selecting a few global environmental projects for Green
Cross International. One of these projects I understand you have already
been discussing here, and I would like to add my remarks to that discussion.
I have here with me material that summarizes the situation regarding the
ecological consequences of the Cold War, and indeed these consequences
are extremely severe.
A wide variety of toxic wastes are the environmental legacy of the Cold
War. And here the United States and Russia hold first place. There are
several regions in both the United States and Russia that are second to
none when it comes to toxic waste as a consequence of the Cold War. And
because it was thought that such matters involved national security, both
our countries kept this information very secret until recently. While
in your country already in the early 1970's people began to challenge
this, in our country it was only with perestroika and the related democratic
process that people began to question this situation and to look at the
problem. My appeal to you is to support our initiative in this direction
and to take part in the Green Cross Military Toxics Project. Let us do
it and let us do it together.
My second point is that I believe that as a first step in the Military
Toxics Project, we should prepare an authoritative international conference
under the auspices of Green Cross International to consider this problem.
At that conference we should hear the reports and the analysis of experts
and seek to develop constructive proposals addressed both to governments
and to the business community.
However, before we hold this conference and begin to draw conclusions
and recommendations we should be doing something. For my part I am going
to write personal letters to heads of state and government of various
countries. I hope we can generate publicity around these letters to help
highlight the problem. Another step that can be taken now through Green
Cross International is to develop a human network to monitor the situation
to that we have access to information and ideas so that we can balance
the information we receive governments.
A number of media networks and organizations have expressed a willingness
to cooperate with us and I think from the very start of our collaboration
with them it is important for us to emphasize that our strategy is not
confrontational in regard to governments. We want to be partners with
governments in doing this work. That does not mean that we will blindly
follow their lead, and indeed I think it is quite possible that we will
sometimes use public opinion to put pressure on governments. All of this
is of course very introductory and I would ask that you take it as my
invitation to you to join us in working on this project.
I have looked at the geography of the post Cold War toxic waste sites.
I have looked also at the fact that still military industries are operating
and as a result of this my conclusion is that the challenge is enormous
geographically and otherwise. Let me cite just two examples, one from
this country and one from our country. Rocky Flats Arsenal near Denver,
Colorado has stored for thirty years 125 types of toxic wastes. Nerve
gas and pesticides were also processed there. The site has been called,
"the most polluted square mile on earth." In Dover, New Jersey,
the ground water in one location has over 5,000 times the permitted levels
of trichlorethylene. In Russia, there are even worse sites. Since 1952,
near Lake Karichai in the Urals, liquid wastes were stored, eventually
spilled, and traces of the wastes are now found in the Arctic Ocean thousands
of miles away. By 1988, thermal energy produced by wastes resulted in
the evaporation of an entire lake. 120 million curies of radioactive waste,
2_ times that released in the Chernobyl accident, were released. Now that
lake has been covered with a thick layer of concrete. These are the extreme
examples, but we can also look at the former locations of US military
bases in West Germany and Soviet military bases in East Germany.
I think there is every reason to call this a very important project,
and one which represents a major challenge. The toxic legacy of the Cold
War effects the health and the lives of millions and millions of people.
And now I would like to hear your ideas as to how this project can be
implemented.
Mikhail Gorbachev
President of Green Cross International
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