Activists Disrupt Trade Conference to Save Amazon
11/6/97
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Headline: Activists Disrupt Trade Conference to Save Amazon
Source: Amazon Watch and EarthCulture
ATOSSA SOLTANI
AMAZON WATCH
20110 ROCKPORT WAY
MALIBU, CA 90265
EMAIL: asoltani@igc.apc.org
TEL: (310)456-1340
FAX: (310)456-0388
Rick Spencer, Programs Director
EarthCulture
PO Box 4674
Greensboro, NC 27404
Phone & Fax: 910-854-2957
e-mail: earthcul@nr.infi.net
Date: 11/6/97
AMAZON WATCH
For Immediate Release: November 6, 1997
Contacts: Daphne Wysham, (202) 234-9382, x 208
Atossa Soltani via cellular phone (404)272-0469
Environmentalists Disrupt Trade Conference in Atlanta
US Government: Don't "Fast-Track" Destruction of the Amazon & Our Climate
ATLANTA, November 6 - Demanding an end to "fast-track" destruction of the
Amazon and the Earth's climate, environmentalists today disrupted a US
government sponsored conference designed to promote US investment in Latin
America. In protest of Clinton's request for "fast-track" authority,
activists unfurled a banner and sounded off alarm bells inside the
conference room this morning at the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel. The
vote on fast-track is scheduled for Friday, November 7.
The US Trade and Development Agency-sponsored conference "Infrastructure
Opportunities in South America" held at the Westin Peachtree Hotel in
Atlanta November 5-7, is promoting $6.4 billion in new gas production and
$8.4 billion in new oil production for Latin American countries. Among
the projects being showcased in Atlanta are at least five with serious
impacts on the Amazon rainforest including the Camisea gas fields and
pipeline (Peru); the Bolivia-Brazil gas pipeline (Brazil and Bolivia); the
Petrozuata heavy crude facility (Venezuela's Orinoco River Basin); the
Lajeado Dam (Brazil); and the Tocantins-Araguaia Waterway (Brazil).
With "fast-track" authority, corporations cutting deals at the Atlanta
conference will have even more government backing to drill new oil and gas
reserves, dredge and dam rivers, and destroy the Amazon with no meaningful
environmental safeguards. "Clinton's "fast-track" leads to Amazon
destruction and accelerates climate change. What we need to fast-track is
the transition to clean renewable energy and the protection of carbon
sinks such as the Amazon," said Atossa Soltani, director of Amazon Watch,
one of the participants in today's protest.
The Amazon is the largest rainforest on the planet and acts as a vital
"sink" for greenhouse gases, slowing the pace of climate change.
Deforestation and unbridled exploitation of fossil fuels are two of the
leading causes of climate change. Clinton has called climate change one
of the most important challenges of his presidency while a unanimous
resolution passed by the Senate calls on developing countries to also
reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
"If President Clinton really cares about climate change--and wants
developing countries to reduce their emissions--then why is he greasing
the skids for more oil and gas drilling in Latin America? Why is he
condoning, with US taxpayer dollars, the destruction of the Amazon
rainforest?" asked Daphne Wysham of the Washington-based Institute for
Policy Studies.
The directors of the Inter-American Development Bank, the US Export-Import
Bank, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation will be attending
the Atlanta conference; as providers of government-backed financing. "This
conference reveals who the real winners will be if Clinton gets 'fast
track' authority: the oil companies, and other wealthy corporations" said
Soltani. "The Amazon rainforest, US taxpayers, and future generations
will be the biggest losers in a dangerously warmer world."
Amazon Watch, the Institute for Policy Studies, Project Underground, and
the Rainforest Action Network are jointly calling on the US Government to
stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry and instead support forest
protection initiatives and the transition to clean energy.
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ATOSSA SOLTANI
AMAZON WATCH
20110 ROCKPORT WAY
MALIBU, CA 90265
EMAIL: asoltani@igc.apc.org
TEL: (310)456-1340
FAX: (310)456-0388
_________________________________________________
Rick Spencer, Programs Director
EarthCulture
PO Box 4674
Greensboro, NC 27404
Phone & Fax: 910-854-2957
e-mail: earthcul@nr.infi.net
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