WWF Leaders Urge Quick Action to Save the Arctic
Copyright 2001 Reuters
September 7, 2001
TORONTO (Reuters) - Quick action to save the fragile environment of the Arctic was urged on Friday by a summit of World Wildlife Fund leaders from eight Arctic nations.
The Arctic is seriously threatened by global warming and oil and gas development and nations with Arctic regions must act quickly to halt the damage before it's too late, said WWF leaders from Canada, Russia, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark/Greenland meeting in Toronto.
Singled out for criticism were U.S. government plans to allow oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Brooks Yeager, the WWF's U.S. representative, said that proponents of the Arctic drilling are basing their hopes on false pretenses.
``The amount of oil produced will not lower prices or reduce the need for the U.S. to find new ways to conserve,'' he said.
Also stressed at the meeting was the need for cooperation in the face of climate change in the Arctic, where, said Igor Chestin, director of the WWF Russian Program, the effects are most severe.
``Sweden is a small country, and we need to team up,'' said Lars Kristoferson, chief executive of WWF-Sweden. ``We have the chance to do something before we're up against a wall.''
Monte Hummel, president of WWF-Canada, said he had lunch with former Canadian prime minister John Turner on Thursday, and he quoted Turner as saying ``this is really the last chance for humanity to get it right.''
``The Arctic region pops out as having some of the last pristine and unfragmented areas of wildlife in the world,'' Hummel said. ``The WWF can't do all of this, but it can have a key role in insuring that it gets done.''