Draft Call for Ecology Responsibilities – New York Times
STOCKHOLM, June 6—The concept that countries have new international responsibilities toward each other for actions affecting the environment received strong support today as the United Nations environmental conference got down to its first full day of business.
The concept, embodied in draft declaration that the 112‐nation conference is considering, was endorsed in turn by spokesmen for Canada, the United. States and Sweden and tacitly approved by a number of other speakers.
But in presenting the Swedish position, Premier Olof Palme, who has long been critic of United States policy in Vietnam, also raised the Vietnam issue by charging that “ecological warfare” was being waged in Southeast Asia.
Without mentioning the United.States by name, Mr. Palme said:
“The immense destruction brought about by indisoriminate bombing, by large‐scale use of bulldozers and herbicides is an ‘outrage sometimes described as ecocide, which requires urgent international attention. It is shocking that only preliminary discussions of this matter have been possible so far in the United Nations.”
Mr. Palme asked that the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment “unequivocally proclaim” that the large‐scale channelling of resources into armaments should be stopped.
Russell E. Train, chairman of the United States delegation and of the Federal Council of Environmental Quality, said of the draft declaration on the environment:
“In particular we support its important provisions concerning the responsibility of states for environmental damage and the obligation of states to supply information on planned activities that might injure the environment of others.”
Rival Declaration Issued
Meanwhile, a rival declaration on the environment, this one signed by 29 natural and social scientists from 24 countries, was issued today by one of the unofficial environmental forums being held here simultaneously with the United Nations conference.
The declaration, presented by the Dai Dong Interdependent Conference on the Environment, attributes the environmental crisis to an “interaction between the social and natural systems on this planet.” Dai Dong, a peace movement organized by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, is to present its statement before the United Nations conference on Thursday.
Unlike the United Nations draft, the Dai Dong declaration insists that “there is a fundamental conflict between traditional concepts of economic growth and the preservation of the environment.”
It calls for “a technology review and surveillance system to assure that any new technology is ecologically compatible and will be used for human survival and fulfillment.”
At the United Nations conference, the richer countries were criticized at committee sessions, a Tanzanian delegate, for example, complaining that the preparatory material did not “strike a proper balance” between concerns of developed and developing nations.
An Iranian suggested that the affluence of the advanced nations was at the bottom of global environmental troubles. An Algerian said the poor nations were entitled to ‘reparations” for the inroads the industrialized countries have made on world resources.
However, a more dominant theme, voiced most Strongly by the advanced nations but also by others, was that sound economic development and environmental quality were not only compatible but inextricable.
“We are learning that it is far less costly and more effective to build the necessary environmental quality into new plants and new communities from the outset than it is to rebuild or modify old facilities,”
Mr. Train told the conference. “The time to do the job of environmental protection is at the outset, not later. This holds true for every country at every state of development.”
India’s Minister for Planning, Shri C. Subramaniam, referring to his country as “povertystricken,” said that nevertheless the world situation “calls for collaborative research on technologies to avoid industrial pollution in the first instance.”