Comments Rob Wheeler has made

Kerry's Opportunity - Environment & 2008 Elect

It is wonderful that Senator Kerry and his wife Teresa are putting such a focus on environment right now. However, I cannot stop thinking that what they are doing is just not enough. Unfortunately, when John Kerry ran for President he did not put enough of a focus on the environment and on the need for sustainable development to make it a primary issue in the campaign; and personally I believe it cost him the Presidency. And it will probably cost our country far more than that over the long run too.

But it is not too late for the two of them to help us turn our country around. For the past five years I have worked on the development of a US Campaign for Leadership on Sustainability, based on the idea that we all need to join together to figure out how we can make a rapid transition to a fully sustainable future before it is too late. I went to Boston for the Democratic Convention to try to get Senator Kerry to embrace this effort, but with no success.

During the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002 all of the UN Member States agreed not only to create National Strategies for Sustainability but also to begin to implement them by 2005. The Clinton Administration took some first steps in this direction in response to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit with the work of the President's Council on Sustainable Development, but nothing has been done on this since. I thus spoke with John and Teresa's son Andre in Boston and asked him to talk with them about this commitment and make it a part of Senator Kerry's Presidential Campaign.

Unfortunately, it never happened; but it may not be too late now. If Senator Kerry would introduce a bill in Congress that would require the US government to create and implement a National Strategy for Sustainability and to fulfill the Bush Administration's global commitment, then we may be able to make this an issue in the Presidential Campaign and be able to get a good number of the candidates to agree to support and work on it. Certainly John Kerry has the stature and visibility to put this matter on the table now; and to be able to convince the people, as well as the politicians, that it is something that we just have to deal with.

If anyone is willing to help me work on this, you contact me, Rob Wheeler, at rob@wmgd.net and robineagle@worldcitizen.org or call 717-264-5036.

Thank you,

Rob Wheeler
US Citizens Network for Sustainable Development
World Movement for Global DemocracyOn John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry chat about their new environmental book posted 2 years, 8 months ago 20 Responses