Time for Change [antikvár]

Preface The U.S. Citizens Network on the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) grew out of a meeting of some 200 representatives of U.S. non-governmental organizations (NGOs) held in Washington, D.C., in October 1990. With less than two years left before the U.N. meeting in Rio, which many felt to be the most important gathering of its kind in our time, it w^as clear that the NGO community could benefit from sharing its views on the many vital issues to be addressed at the Earth Summit, and from presenting these views to the government and as broad a range of people as possible. The Rio meeting has been the focus of a great deal of interest in much of the world, but the American public knows little of its import yet. In part, this is due to the little substantive attention it has received from the U.S. government and its many agencies, all of which should be concerned about their impact on our environment and development Riture. Since its enthusiastic launch in late 1990, the Network has worked with hundreds of groups around the United States to bring the Rio meeting to the public's attention and to let the U.S. government know the fiill range of views on issues to be addressed there. It has participated in the five Round Tables held by the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality to discuss the draft of the government's report to the UNCED. More important, perhaps, it has brought together groups from around the country who did not realize how much they had in common, or how much they should. In that sense it is truly a network, not a lobbying group on single topics or just a discussion group on the U.S. government's report. Cooperation and learning about each other's viewpoints is what the Network is all about. That work will continue through the Earth Summit in June 1992, and will no doubt forge new alliances to ensure that