MARK DUBOIS'NIN TÜRKİYE'DEN, MUDANYA'DAKİ DÜNYA GÜNÜ 2002 TÖRENİNDEN VERDİĞİ DÜNYA GÜNÜ 2002 MESAJI

Merhaba.

I am so honored visiting your beautiful ancient land once again. I first fell in love with your country as a traveler when I was twenty and again in 1992 for a river-saving conference. I am especially pleased to be here to share Earth Day with you. As you participate in "protecting our home" this Earth Day, this week, you are being joined by millions of neighbors in 184 countries who are also drawn to protecting their part of our home and celebrating the 33rd Earth Day.

I would love to share with you three things: a little history of Earth Day; some context for our times; and the challenges and opportunities ahead.

By the late 1960s, people were becoming aware that with our growing population and developing technology, we humans were causing detrimental impacts to the planet. In 1970, Denis Hayes dropped out of law school to organize the first Earth Day. Twenty-five million Americans demonstrated, protested and picnicked. The US environmental movement was launched! Then in Stockholm, two years later, the global environmental movement was officially launched. But by the late 1980s, political commitment to the environment had waned. Denis sensed that it was an important time to organize again. I joined him for the twentieth anniversary of Earth Day, as the first international coordinator. Nine months after mailing our invitation, 200 million people in 143 countries around the world participated in Earth Day 1990, celebrating the Earth and demanding a better environment. Two years later in Rio de Janeiro, the largest gathering of heads of states ever assembled came together while at the same time tens of thousands of citizens convened. Again, 200 million people celebrated Earth Day 2000, this time in 184 countries. On every continent, in every country, people realized the importance of saving our home for our own sake, for all our children of the world, and for our children seven generations into the future.

So, where are we now? We are at a very historic turning point in human history. Three thoughts capture where we are and where our fate lies.

First, it is worse than you can imagine. It is worse than some of the best experts can tell you. While the media covers bad news, journalism rarely covers the gravity of our environmental situation and human condition. A few examples:

1. Extinction of species. Evolutionary biologists tell us there have been several great extinction epics in our planet's history. Cataclysmic natural events, from asteroids to volcanoes, have caused these extinctions. Another extinction epic has begun, this time caused by human activity, from deforestation, over-fishing, over-grazing, etc.

2. Climate change. As we strip-mine and burn fossil fuels, we release tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Most scientists agree that we have begun to trigger global warming, with dramatic consequences for all life on Earth.

3. Pesticides and other poisons, genetically modified foods, endocrine disrupters in plastics and depleted-uranium bullets are samplings of other "inventions" we have released into our environment without understanding their long-term impacts.

So much for a feeling for the bad news.

Secondly, it is also much better than you can imagine. Under the media’s radar, there is a powerful force also flowing through our times. All over the planet there are people striving for a flourishing, just and sustainable planet. They are calling attention to the problems with our short-term inventions, and are focusing their creativity on developing life-affirming solutions. Here are some samples of the good news:

A. While the Davos business leaders were meeting a few months ago in New York to set their international agenda, 60,000 citizens were also meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil to say that "another world is possible" With workshops and seminars, with song and dance, they spotlighted social and environmental solutions showing up around the world.

B. The European Union is saying it is not yet ready to gamble with genetically modified foods.

C. In Bolivia, the public rose up and forced the World Bank and Bechtel Corporation to undo their privatization of citizen's drinking water.

D. In Soweto (in southern Africa), communities are reforesting their land and creating jobs with recycling businesses.

And change is occurring in many other sectors, as well.

E. Many business leaders are discovering they can make more money and help the environment by getting rid of waste. Natural Step and the book Natural Capitalism have many examples of such companies.

F. Governments are filled with more and more dedicated staff working to implement emerging local and national environmental laws.

G. And more and more individuals are choosing to make better choices in their lives. In my country, more individuals are understanding that we vote every time we spend a dollar. Some are choosing to buy organic food, so they are healthier and the soil and water are not poisoned. Others refuse to buy fashions made with sweat-shop labor.

There is very much good news. But this strong current of good news is not yet strong enough or lasting enough to counter the destructive trends. Yet.

So where do we go from here? It is up to you and me. We co-create the world we have every day with the choices we make. Many choices are unconscious. Now we will need to make conscious choices every day to co-create a world that preserves our heritage and begins to restore the bounty of our natural systems. We humans have proved our success at accomplishing what we focus on. As an example, in many places since the first Earth Day, some rivers have gotten cleaner. We have gotten rid of chemicals that caused the most obvious holes in the ozone. We can be successful when we need to be.

Several tools can assist us along the way:

1. Patience and tenacity. Things of quality take time, and we must be persistent if we really want something. Gandhi's vision of freedom from colonialism took more than 50 years to attain.

2. Responsibility and accountability. We each need to hold ourselves to a higher standard, and we must do the same for our friends and communities. We need to get better at looking in the mirror first, before we point fingers.

3. Who says you can’t change the world? The critical times we are in invite us to speak up and work for the dreams and visions we hold.

4. Get more connected. We must get more connected to the miracle of nature that surrounds us, plus all of our neighbors. There are no "thems" or "enemies." We will all need to collaborate!

Turkey has long been at the crossroads and the center of history. Turkey has also bridged two worlds for ages. So I have a special invitation for you.

Now the world is at a crossroads of whether we can live with this miraculous fragile planet, and all the species we share it with, and whether we can live in peace with each other. Your ancestors used their creative genius, ingenuity, and hard work to build beautiful monuments that still draw people from around the world. Now you too can use your creativity and hard work to build a world that will leave future generations in awe, with a flourishing legacy of protected heritage and a restored rich environment.

Our world greatly needs your bridge-building skills, as well. Turkey can easily pioneer ways to further link the antiquities with the modern. As Turkey's musical tradition does so successfully, the need to bridge and harmonize East and West has never been more urgently needed. The world will gain immeasurably with Turkey's leadership stepping to the middle of history again.


I am also very impressed by the perfect synchronicity that Earth Day was established exactly 50 year minus one day from Turkey's Independence Day and from Ataturk's vision of Children's Day entrusting the future in the hands of the youth. The future is in all of our hands, especially the young, as they will be with it much longer than the rest of us,

Bucky Fuller noted that we all live on Spaceship Earth. There are no passengers! Only crew! I look forward to working with you to co-create a flourishing, just and sustainable planet for ALL!

Tesekkir ederium.

Mark Dubois