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Records of the Council on Environmental Quality (Clinton Administration)
Kathleen McGinty's Files
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FOIA Number: 2012-0769-F
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This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the William J. Clinton
Presidential Library Staff.
Collection/Record Group:
Clinton Presidential Records
Subgroup/Office of Origin:
Council on Environmental Quality
Series/Staff Member:
Kathleen (Katie) McGinty
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2614
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June 12, 13, 14
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61
5
6
3
June
/childres
AWARD FOR MELISSA POE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL WORK
Mr. President, I am pleased to inform my colleagues that a
young Tennessean has been recognized for her work in helping to
promote the importance of our environment. Melissa Poe of
Nashville has been chosen to receive a "G.I. Joe Real American
Hero" award. Melissa, who became interested in environmental
concerns several years ago after watching an episode of "Highway
to Heaven" about the effects of pollution on the environment,
began a club for young people called Kids For A Clean Environment
(Kids F.A.C.E.). The purpose of her organization is to encourage
individuals to become more involved in the protection and
preservation of our environment. Melissa has spoken to
representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency, as well
as the United Nations, about her club's goals and activities. In
addition, her group plans to present next year to the U.N. Global
Environmental Forum in Brazil a resolution addressing the issue
of environmental destruction.
In the last few years, our society has become more
concerned about the environmental problems that confront us.
I am convinced that we face serious challenges, and for this
reason, I introduced legislation which is designed to confront a
host of environmental challenges and help prevent future damage
:
in this area. While this is an important initiative which calls
upon the federal government to develop a plan to promote
environmental protection, the individual efforts of people in
neighborhoods around the country are important. I believe
Melissa has contributed greatly to this effort and commend her
for her work in helping protect the natural resources we now
enjoy. If we do not wish to leave future generations wondering
why we allowed the destruction of our global environment, then we
must act now and encourage others to follow the fine example
Melissa Poe has set.
Melissa Poe, Age9
Please Help,
and the ozone layer.
this letter we will all die of pollution
Mr. President, if you ignore
p/o years 001 wo I I
11!+ dril of FUDM thoop
Please will you do something
Dear Mr. President,
Kids F.A.C.E:
P.O. Box 158254
MAGHVILLE $
Marianne Moore
Nashville, TN 37215
25
421
USA
1991
Poet 1887-1072
EURO
go
Senator AI Gors
ngo,
393 Russell Senate office
POO
u.s Senate
Washington DC
2:
20510 4202
KIDS F.A.C.E.
10J kids
clean
environment
Write to:
Kids F.A.C.E.
P.O. Box 158254
Nashville, TN 37215
Kids F.A.C.E. members don't pay any dues to he part of the club Kids FACE will accept donations from corporations or individuals 10 defray costs-
here's a girl in Tennessee named Melissa Poe. And even though she is just a kid, she is already very smart.
One day she was watching an episode of 'Highway to Heaven" that showed how pollution and garbage
are ruining the environment. Melissa knew she wanted to live on a healthy planet and she decided that she
and other kids could help save the earth. So she started a club just for kids called Kids For A Clean
Environment (Kids FACE) Kids F.A.C.E. members care about the environment. They help teach other kids
(and grown-ups) ways to reduce pollution so their towns can be beautiful and clean.
Because Melissa and all Kids F.A.C.E. members know that if everybody protects the
environment at home, all the communities in the world have a better
chance of becoming free of pollution. Then everyone, everywhere can live on a
healthy planet. Pretty smart, isn't it? The best part is that you can help too There's
probably a Kids F.A.C.E. Club in your town, and if there isn't, you can start your own
chapter. It's fun. And it's good for the earth.
choose
DUMP
PARK
MasonPoe
There are a lot of fun ways Kids F.A.C.E. helps clean up the environment. Like setting up recycling programs for
their classrooms. Planting trees and collecting water in a rainbarrel in their schoolyards. Getting
their classes to adopt an acre of rainforest. Keeping track of the energy they use in an "energy log." Making
birdhouses from old milk cartons. Growing avocados from seeds or pineapples from tops. Creating newsletters
about the environment for their friends. Or writing plays or commercials or
songs about the environment.
And Kids F.A.C.E. members can create their own programs for the envi-
KIDS
F.A.
ronment and share them with other kids across the country. Because every
(c:
Kids F.A.C.E. kid can help to make the world a cleaner place to live.
spix
for
clean
To learn more about Kids F.A.C.E. or to start your own chapter, write to: Kids FACE P.O. Box 158254. Nashville, TN 37215
choose
water
ployees
Grave card
any Rochefeller morning b
Reyes Oak WNT 266 6157 the 9th
Annie
Hotel
Hostel Bwdy
their
Collegio, Santa Theusa
206,
etex
6)245
5521-222-
1660,
) 252-5931 3932
ALBERT GORE, JR.
393 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
TENNESSEE
PHONE: 202-224-4944
United States Senate
WASHINGTON, DC 20510-4202
June 3, 1992
Ms. Annie Brody
Project Director
Children's Earth Fund
Dear Ms. Brody:
On behalf of Senator Gore, I would like to thank you for the
invitation and am pleased to confirm his participation in the Global
Children's Hearing in Rio on June 12. However, we need more
information. Could you please tell us who else has confirmed? We
also need to know the exact location and what will be expected of
Senator Gore. How much time will be allotted him for speaking? Also,
how many children will be present?
Due to the fact that the Senator will be leaving for Rio
tomorrow, a prompt reply would be appreciated. Please call either
Kandy Parson at 202-224-6459 or myself at 224-4283. A fax with this
information would also be acceptable. Again, thank you for the
invitation and we look forward to participating.
Sincerely,
Late Katie McGinty
Legislative Assistant
Lorking to puring you!
children's earth fund
May 21, 1992
katie
Ms. Marla Romash
Press Secretary
Office of Senator Al Gore
393 Senate Russell Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Marla,
On behalf of Kristin Eskelund, Coordinator for VOICE OF THE
CHILDREN, I am pleased to invite Senator Gore to participate in the
Global Children's Hearing in Rio on June 12.
As we discussed, details and background information is enclosed,
along with a videotape of the NICKELODEON spots and some recent
press clippings about Chris DiNero and John Hegrstand.
Please let me know is you need anything else.
Him-1:00
Best wishes,
3-5
Annie avnie Brody Brody
Project Director
Via Federal Express
contism
pls me
For who coub uned how evide
How
40 West 20th Street, New York,- NY 10011
Tel 212.727.4493
.
Fax.212.727.1773
RECYCLED PAPER
SENT BY SPEAR LEEDS & KELLOGG 5-20-92 11:45AM Cls FLOOR 587-8099-
= 1 1
'I'm angry that the treaties that they 're going 10 be signing are SO weak.
Christopher DiNero, 11-year-old Long Branch resident before his speech at the United Nations
Hoping
cooler
heads
preva
A Long Branch boy
wants more help in
reducing the gas that Is
warming our planet.
By TODD B. BATES
PRESS ENVIRONMENTAL WRITER
NEW YORK - He's given speech
to lots of influential adults. includi
ambassadors. U.S. senators and Was
ington journalists.
But yesterday, 11-vear-old Chris
pher DiNero of Long Branch got
chance to deliver his message to me:
bers of his increasingly green gene:
tion on the eve of the Earth Summit
Striding up to the microphone in i
huge General Assembly hall of :
United Nations. Chris told a Glob
Youth Forum on the environment is
the "CO2 Challenge Kids Coalitio:
has won pledges to curb 400.000 to
of carbon dioxide emissions.
Like Chris, a fifth-grader at We
End School. 400.000 children ha
pledged to slash carbon dioxide em:
sions by a ton a year aplece in an
fort to combat global warming Carb
dioxide is the leading greenhouse ga
and energy conservation helps redu
emissions of it.
"We think it really helps." SE
KFVIN P. COUGHLIN/Asbury Park Press
U.N. speech yesterday, Christopher DiNero, Long Branch, urged a cut in carbon dioxide emissions.
Please see Cooler, page A5
SENT BY SPEAR LEEDS & KELLOGG : 5-20-92 :11:48AM : 21st FLOOR 587-8099-
= 1
Cooler
efforts cannot possibly save the planet.
As hard as we try, you cannot expect
us to do it alone."
Jana Thompson, 17, a junior at
From page A1
Laccy Township High School,
attended the forum, sponsored by the
Chris, looking very businesslike in a
United Nations Environment Pro-
dark suit. "We're all hoping that you
gramme, with about 25 others from
are going to participate in the CO2
the school's biology club.
Challenge, and we'd really like you to
Asked what she thinks is the biggest
do so."
environmental problem, Jana said:
Chris, who wants to be an inventor,
"Just people being aware of the prob-
author, illustrator and "thinker," also
lems. A lot of people I don't think real-
outlined his next project: a solar food
ize that they do make a difference."
cooker.
"It's good to have such a young
His brief speech was warmly re-
crowd," she said. "A lot of kids are
ceived, especially when he announced
getting information about what they
he's from New Jersey.
can do, and we're teaching our par-
Small wonder. Hundreds of students
ents."
from New Jersey, including large con-
Noel J. Brown, director of the U.N.
tingents from Ocean and Monmouth
Environment Programme's North
counties, attended the 8th annual fo-
American Regional Office, said of the
rum.
upcoming summit: "There has never
All told, about 2,000 students up to
been an agenda like this one, but there
25 years old and from more than 40
has never been a time like this one."
countries participated in workshops,
"I don't think governments can,
listened to music and speeches and
plead ignorance for an excuse for inac-
watched vidcos.
tion," he said. "We have a moral re-
About 25 students gave presenta-
sponsibility to act on what we know."
tions focusing on ecological de-
"We cannot succeed until we design
struction and their efforts to save the
an Earth-smart society, and that is
Earth. Ziggy Marley and The Melody
within our capacity. People capable of
Makers were to give a concert near
building smart bombs are also capable
the end of yesterday's program.
of building
an eco-smart society."
As a group, the students intend to
"Earth-smart kids can produce an
send a deadly serious "declaration" to
Earth-smart society. You are the first
the United Nations Conference on
generation of Earth-smart kids," said
Environment and Development - the
Brown, drawing applause. "Carry on,
Earth Summit - in Rio de Janeiro,
my young friends, the future is on
Brazil, June 3-12.
your side."
"It is well-known that the ongoing
In an interview before his speech,
destruction of our environment has
Chris DiNero said he had mixed fecl-
affected children and youth more than
ings about what will be accomplished
any other group," the declaration
at the Earth Summit, considering
says.
President Bush has orchestrated a
"Politicians and leaders have begun
draft treaty setting no limits on green-
to tell us that the task of saving the
house gas emissions.
environment, of protecting the future,
"I think they have to do something
is on our shoulders, that we are the
more than what's been announced $0
ones who will have to make a differ-
far," he said. "I'm glad everybody is
ence.
going and people are meeting. I'm
"Not only ia this a delaying tactic on
angry that the treaties that they're
your part, it is also a frightening bur-
going to be signing are SO weak. We
den that we must carry
As long as
are
wasting that opportunity, I
1
you control the reins of power, our
don't understand that."
VOICE OF THE CHILDREN
INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN
КАМПАНИЯ голос
, := POWER
May i. 92
His Excellency Dalai Lama
LA VOIX DES ENFANTS CAMPAGNE INTERNATIONALE МЕЖДУНАРОДНАЯ ДЕТЕЙ
INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE AT THE GLOBAL CHILDREN'S HEARING
IN RIO DE JANEIRO 12. JUNE 1992
Your Excellency, Mr. Dalai Lama
During the Regional Follow-up Conference on Environment and
Development OUR COMMON FUTURE in Bergen, Norway 1990, a
children's public hearing was held. Norwegian top political
leaders were challenged by ten children (aged 12 to 15) about the
state of the world and the children's worries for the future. The
hearing was a great success, and 88 a result the International
Campaign VOICE OF THE CHILDREN was launched.
This campaign is now active in more than 40 countries, its main
objective being to give children all over the world the oppor-
Unity to meet their own political leaders, speaking their minds,
taking part in the democratic process. It is first and foremost
an educational and awareness raising campaign, but our aim is
also to make sure that the children's voices will be heard during
the Earth Summit. Children all over the world know a lot about
LA voz DE LOS NIÑOS CAMPAÑA INTERNACIONAL
the 1118 of the world, they are worried about the future. Through
this campaign children are yiven the chance to raise their
concerns with people in power, to present their visions and Ideas
but also their criticism and demands.
VOICE OF THE CHILDREN 18 a joint venture, run by FUNAM, an
environmental NGO based in Argentina, and the Norwegian Campaign
to Environment and Development in Norway.
As 13 culmination point the International Comittee has decided to
invite 20 children who are now active in the campaign in their
OWN countries to come to Rio in June to participate in the Global
Children's Hearing during UNCED 92. The children who have been
invited are coming from: New Zealend, Australia, the Philippines,
India, Nigeria, Rwanda, the Middle East, Uganda, Malta, France,
Nurway, Latvia, Ukraina, Canada, USA, Guatemale, Columbia, Chile,
Argentina and Brazil.
Their task will be to present children's own concerns to some of
the most influencial people in the world.
aball
We are hereby inviting you to take part in this Global Children's
Hearing in R1o the 12. June 92.
We have invited Gro Harlem Brundtland, Prime Minister of Norway,
Prime Minister John Major of the UK, President George Bush of the
USA, President Menem of Argentina, President Museveni of Uganda,
Prime Minister Mulroney of Canada, Prime Minister Rao of India,
President Havel of Czechoslovakia, Chancellor Helmuth Kohl of
Germany and the Mayor of Sao Paulo, Luiza Erondina.
President Museveni has already accepted the invitation and so has
the President of Argentina Mr. Menem. Gro Harlem Brundtland says
she would like to participate if her schedule will allow her.
General Secretary of UNCED Mr. Maurice Strong has given his
support to this campaign and to the Children's Hearing in Rio. He
says he wants to attend the event.
Your acceptance of this invitation to be present at the Global
Children's Hearing would demonstrate a significant acknowledge-
ment of the importance of children and children's feelings. It
would help highlighting what the Earth Summit is all about, the
Future.
Included in this letter you will find more information on the
International campaign VOICE OF THE CHILDREN, names of the people
on the International Committee and the Honorary Board.
You will also find letters of recommendation from
Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway
Maurice Strong, UNCED
James P. Grant, UNICEF
Federico Mayor, UNESCO
Mostafa Toba, UNEP
Matz Sandman, Norway
Herbert de Souza, IBASE, Brasil
A positive reply would please us very much!
Please contact ME if you would like more information.
On behalf of the VOICE OF THE CHILDREN
Sincerely yours
Kistin bheaut
Kristin Eskeland
Coordinator
МЕЖДУНАРОДНАЯ КАМПАНИЯ голос ДЕТЕЙ
SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER
Dear new friends.
We are very excitied about our trip to Rio and we are looking
forward to meeting you all. We think we are going to have a
wonderful and exciting time together. Lots of people call to
invite you as a group to participate in interesting things. I
have tried to enclude as many of the events as possible in the
program which is enclosed. But there may still be changes.
The Global Children's Hearing itself will take place on the
12. June from 1100 to 1300. The detailed program is not
finished because we feel that you as the main persons should
be involved in the planning process. We shall spend time
together in Rio working it out.
You should come with clear ideas as to what issues you would
like to raise in Rio. Bring the information you need. It will,
however, be up to the group which issues you will decide on
and who will be the spokesperson, most likely we shall not be
able to talk about all the things you would like to raise with
the heads of states.
We now know that the Prime Minister of Norway, Mrs. Gro Harlem
Brundtland and the President of Uganda Mr. Museveni and the
President of Argentina will be present. The General Secretary
of UNCED Mr. Maurice Strong will also participate, and we have
LA VOIX DES ENFANTS CAMPAGNE INTERNATIONALE
reason to believe that the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Rao as
well as the Mayor of Sao Paolo, Ms. Luiza Erondina will accept
LA voz DE LOS NIÑOS CAMPAÑA INTERNACIONAL
our invitation.
We have also invited President Bush, Prime Minister Mulroney
(Canada), Chanceller Helmut Kohl, (Germany), Prime Minister
Major (UK), the President of Chile, Mostafa Tolba (UNEP) and
Dalai Lama.
There will be a lot of television people and press so you will
have to get used to the idea of being interviewed. But we
shall try to cut it down so that it doesn't get to be too much
for you.
Here is some information as to what to bring and to be
prepared for:
Arriving in Rio.
Someone will be meeting each of you at the airport. You should
look for a person holding a Voice of the Children sign. If
something happens and you don t find anybody there, look for a
desk in the rport saying SPECIAL TAXI. You will pay for a
special taxi at the counter and get a receipt. (the price was
$28.00 US in February' '92.
Northern Secretariat
Southern Secretariat
NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN FOR ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
ENVIRONMENT DEFENCE FOUNDATION FUNAM
THE ADDRESS OF OUR HOSTEL IN RIO DE JANEIRO:
COLEGIO ASSUNCAO
RUA ALMIRANTE ALEXANDRINO 2023
SANTA TERESA
20.241 RIO DE JANEIRO, RJ
BRASIL
TELEPHONE: 55-21-222.3932
55-21-252.5931
TENTATIVE DRAFT PLAN FOR RIO.
28-31. May: The group arrives.
Transportation to Santa Teresa. (Maria Thereza Moura)
29.5 29.5-1.6: Getting to know each other, seeing some sights in Rio.
: 900 Learning Portuguese. Going to the beach.
Afternoon: Rocinha favela
30.5.
: Colegio Santo Inacio.
900-12 Meeting the students. 12-21. Visiting students'
homes. (or the 3. June for the visit, see below)
31.5.
: 1500-1800: Meeting with the Street Children Project at
Centro Joao. XXIII
1. June
: Morning: Reception: Ferngully the Last Tropical Forest.
2.6:
Morning: Visit to the beach, lunch at Cruzada do menor
1600: Gaia arrives Flamengo park.
1700: Official opening Global Forum, Fluminense Stadium.
3.6.
: 10.00: Official opening of the Earth Summit
1200: the children visit students at their homes
4.6.
: 1300: Opening of the Children's Exhibit at Museu de
Astronomia.
Meeting with French Television.
5.6
: 1200: Future Forum, round table debates, workshops,
creative work, preparing for the Global Hearing
1600-18: Open House with VIPs, Environmental Ministers
6.6.
: Afternoon Future Forum: workshops. = French boat
Evening: Children's debate, Future
7.6.
: Excursion "Terra de Educar"
8.6.
"
"
9.6.
: 1200: Building a solar cooker
10.6.
: Visit to Petropolis, lunch Community center
11.6
: 900-1200: Children's round-up workshops (org. by Centre
for International Cooperation
12.6.
: 1100-1300: Global Children's Hearing
13.or 14.6.
: Departure.
Howan
Global Children's Hearing in Rio
20 children from 20 countries have been invited
All the children will bring their own ideas and
to go. Unfortunately we could not invite all the
concerns, they are representing the children in
countries who are involved. We had to make a
their own countries and their regions. We want
selection to make sure that all the regions of the
to give them plenty of time to talk to each
world were represented. These countries were
other, to get to know each other and learn
chosen:
something about life in other parts of the world.
Australia, New Zealand, India, Uganda, Rwanda,
Nigeria, Latvia, Ukraina, Malta, Germany,
In order to have a genuine CHILDREN'S
Norway, France, Canada, USA, Guatemala,
hearing, they will need time to think through
Columbia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil.
the questions they want to raise and how they
We have kept two spaces open, one for the
want to do it. The adults will be there as
Middle East and one for South East Asia.
facilitators, interpreters and allies, not as
If your country is not on the list please
leaders.
remember that the important part of the
campaign is not what happens in Rio, but what
each of us does at home.
I would now like to talk about a sport that
is destroying the Maltese countryside thanks to
The 20 children will arrive in Rio at the end of
a few egotists on their jeeps. I am speaking
May. They will be staying together at a pleasant
about the Camel Rally in Malta. These
hostel at Santa Teresa, they will meet with
people do not care less about their country.
many other groups of children and youngsters,
They run over and destroy Malta's typical
street children, school children, slum children as
well as rich children. They will be meeting with
rubble walls, trees, flowers and reptiles. The
other international groups of children who are
natural environment belongs to everyone so
in Rio for the Earth Summit.
this rally must be prohibited. We have the
right to have our countryside and these few
The group will have fun together, visit Rio, go
adults must not be allowed to take it from us
to the beaches. But the main aim is of course to
and destroy it forever.
take part in the Children's Hearing.
Mario Aquilina, Malta
When the last leaf falls
When the last drop of water dries out
When the ozon layer is already destroyed
is it already too late to understand
that money is not going to save us?
Tove, Sweden
Backgrind
ЛАПБ
МЕЖДУНАРОДНАЯ КАМПАНИЯ голос ДЕТЕЙ
TRUTH to SPEAKING POWER
The International Campaign
VOICE OF THE CHILDREN, Speaking truth to power.
It is hard to believe that as the result of one event, the "Children's Hearing" in
Bergen, Norway 1990, comes a whole string of similar events all over the
world: Children are given the chance to speak their minds and to be heard by
people in power. For that is the idea behind VOICE OF THE CHILDREN,
behind the Children's Hearing in Malta, the impressive Kindergipfel in Frank-
furt and the series of Melas in India as well as all the other hearings that are
part of the international campaign: To open a channel of communication
between children and decisionmakers.
Children know a lot about the ills of the world. Many are deeply worried about the
future. It is time people in power get a chance to hear their voices, their visions and
their ideas, but also their criticism and their demands.
150 nations have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Heads of
LA VOIX DES ENFANTS CAMPAGNE INTERNATIONALE
States from all parts of the world have promised to listen to children and to take
them seriously. VOICE OF THE CHILDREN is one way of implementing all the fine
words and promises.
The first CHILDREN'S HEARING took place during the Regional Conference "Our
Common Future" in Bergen in May 1990.
LA voz DE LOS NIÑOS CAMPAÑA INTERNACIONAL JLibyl
The plan for the event was simple:
All children between 7 and 15 were invited through the schoolsystem to write us
letters with their ideas, hopes, questions or demands concerning the environment
in the broadest sense. In the course of two months we received about 6000 cards
with drawings, poems, statements and questions about development and
environment issues. Out of this material we put together a CHILDREN'S APPEAL
TO WORLD LEADERS, using the children's own words.
We then invited children's organisations in Norway to choose some of their most
active members between 12 and 15 years of age to come to Bergen to participate
in the Norwegian Children's Hearing. Ten children from different parts of the
country arrived in Bergen in order to challenge six of Norway's top leaders. We all
met in a big concert hall: 10 children, 6 leaders, a chairperson, two judges and an
audience of 1400 children and adults. The Norwegian "ombudsman" for children
aball
acted as the chairperson, to make sure the children wouldn't be patronized or
overpowered by the more experienced adults.
Northern Secretariat
Southern Secretariat
NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN FOR ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
ENVIRONMENT DEFENCE FOUNDATION FUNAM
Kristin Eskeland
Raul Montenegr~
Langes Gate 4. 0165/Osl6-1 Norway
Casilla de Correo 83. Correo Central - 5000 Cordoba - Arger
The children had in advance chosen which issue they would like to raise, according
to their own interests as well as to the list of concerns having been raised in the
children's letters.
The Children's Hearing was a great success. The children were wonderfully frank
and direct, they were able to tell the adults exactly how they felt and what they
wanted the decisionmakers to do.
The audience was active as well, booing whenever they didn't understand or were
displeased with an answer, clapping when they were happy with it. The culmination
point was when the Children's Appeal was handed over to the international
delegates.
The International Campaign VOICE OF THE CHILDREN was launched to give
children all over the world the same opportunity to speak their minds to
decisionmakers in their own countries.
The aim of the campagn is to organise Children's Hearings or Forums in as many
countries as possible. At these Forums the children will have the opportunity to
raise their concerns about their future and the future of the earth. Our experience
so far shows that children all over the world are concerned about these issues, the
environment, poverty, war and peace. Whether they are worried about their own
poverty, hunger and lack of clean drinking water or concerned about depletion of
the ozone layer, acid rain or questions on war and peace they should have the
chance to speak their minds directly to the people who make the decisions.
The first goal of the campaign is The Earth Summit in Brazil 1992. We intend to
invite a few children from each continent to go to the Conference on Environment
and Development to present their concerns to world leaders.
There are now more than 30 countries involved in the campaign, which means that
thousands of children in all kinds of societies are active telling decisionmakers in
their own countries how they see the world and the future. The children's visions,
ideas and demands will be collected and edited into one document, The Children's
Appeal to World Leaders, which will be handed over to the delegates at the Global
Children's Hearing in Brazil.
But the long term aim is more important than the Conference in Brazil. The real
impact of the campaign will come when this has been turned into a continuous
process. The goal is to have children's hearings in all local communities once a
year. It could be a part of the school curriculum or a part of the program of
voluntary organisations. When children know that they will have the chance to talk
with politicians and other decisionmakers in their own community regularly, they
can really plan for it. It would encourage them to pay attention to what is taking
place between the hearings and it would give them a chance to follow up on the
promises made the year before.
There are many ways of doing this, what is important is to choose a method which
seems right for the children in your culture in your society.
Here are some suggestions:
1.
Collect the children's own concerns.
Invite the children to write short letters or make drawings
Sit down and listen to the children
Invite groups of children to get together to present their visions,
questions, demands.
Make sure that whatever method you use, the children must not feel
coaxed, patronized or manipulated.
2.
Edit the concerns into a document using the children's own words. This
work could be be based on cooperation between children and adults.
3.
Invite children (between 10/12 and 15 years of age) to take part in a public
meeting where they are allowed to present their ideas and views to people
in power.
Do not select very special children. The idea is to present ordinary
children's viewpoints, not elite children who are able to act as little adults.
4.
Make sure the adults' answers and promises are properly recorded and
publicised. Invite journalists and other media people to be present.
5.
Follow up on the promises the following year: Have the adult leaders kept
their word? What has happened since the last Children's Forum?
6.
Encourage the children to think of ways in which they themselves can and
will contribute to a better future.
What exactly is a Children's Hearing?
A Children's Hearing or Forum can be organised in different ways. The main thing
is to give children the opportunity to meet powerful people in their own society to
tell them how they feel. The children's views may be presented through for instance
short plays, songs, poems, exhibitions of children's artwork, photoes etc.
The Forum will probably have most impact if such elements are combined with a
more formal hearing:
A group of children are chosen to be spokespeople. But the children in the
audience should also be encouraged to take part in the discussion.
It may be a good idea to have some experts present to act as judges in case
difficult questions arise.
The chairperson should be a person who is able to act as the children's ally
without dominating, to make sure the questions are properly adressed without
evasion or patronising.
The children on the panel should decide in advance how to devide
the tasks between them. In order to be prepared they need to know their own role.
To prevent this from being a show where elite children may dominate, the
chairperson needs to have an eye open for the children in the audience, they too
should have to opportunity to present their ideas.
A practical way of organising the event is to have the children sitting at one table
facing the adults being challenged.
The chairperson should be placed where she/he can see both the both the panels
and the audience, where she can facilitate without dominating.
Interspersed with the questions raised the audience may illustrate the children's
concerns with songs, poems, dances, plays etc.
VOICE OF THE CHILDREN
The childrens own tool
At this point nobody knows what questions the children will raise in Brazil, that is
entirely up to the children themselves. It is their own voices, their own opinions that
will be heard. My greatest fear has been that adults will use this campaign in their
own interest. It is vital to remember that the role of the organisers of Children's
Hearings is to facilitate, to acquire the children's own views without adult coaxing or
pressure. No matter how well organised a Children's Hearing may seem, it is a
failure if it may be said that it was a show staged to please the adults, or that the
children were only saying what their grown up leaders wanted them to say.
Will the campaign have an effect? Will politicians and other decisionmakers listen to
children? Will it make a difference on the decisions made in Brazil 92?
Although I am not over optimistic about the effect it will have in the short term,
children's voices should be heard because it is their future we are talking about.
And children can be very powerful because they are direct and honest. They are
not always right, but they need to be taken seriously and they need allies. VOICE
OF THE CHILDREN is an awareness raising campaign, it should be seen as a tool
for children to set words to their own fears for the future, to help them feel that they
have a role to play in the democratic process both now as children and later as
adults.
Kistin Erheland
Kristin Eskeland
Turf wars
Four activists dig in for a fight
to save their own piece of the planet
1
A
CHALLENGE/
Plymouth, Minn.
JOHN HEGSTRAND.
Teen battles global warming
A
T 5 FEET AND almost 1 inch tall, John
involved in projects such as recycling,
Hegstrand is shorter than many of the
adopting endangered species and battling
girls in his eighth-grade class. He collects
global warming. The group was the dream
trolls and Captain America comic books,
of Hegstrand's classmate Clinton Hill,
listens to oldies and pins pictures of his
who died in 1989 at age 11 of a brain
Uncle Mike, a pro wrestler known as
tumor. Hill's parents, Tessa and William,
"Hawk of the Legion of Doom," on his wall.
founded KSE in his memory with funding
But the 14-year-old from Plymouth,
from corporate sponsors.
Minn., is not just a typical Wonder Years
Hegstrand allows that he joined KSE
teen. He also has talked his parents into
because "it was the cool thing to do." But
carpooling and stuffing the empty Trix ce-
soon he emerged as a group leader with a
real boxes with garbage to save landfill
talent for speechmaking. His public speak-
space. He's lobbying his school, Maple
ing gigs have included a KSE-sponsored
Grove Junior High, to dedicate a day's
trip to the United Nations in May 1990
worth of classes to the planet. "In math we
and a visit this past January to Capitol Hill,
could add up totals of garbage put into
where ABC News captured him telling
landfills. In English we could write letters
senators Al Gore (D-Tenn.) and John
to politicians." And, as a representative for
Chafee (R-R.I.) that he hoped "to influ-
the environmental group Kids for Saving
ence government leaders to make the
Earth (KSE), Hegstrand is collecting thou-
right decisions to save our planet."
sands of signatures on a petition (above) to
"I was impressed not only with his pre-
urge President Bush to take a more active
cociousness, but with the strength of his
role in fighting global warming.
commitment at such a young age," Gore says.
KSE, an international group of chil-
Now Hegstrand is joining in an effort
dren's ecology clubs with 500,000 mem-
by a coalition of kids' environmental
bers, is dedicated to getting schoolkids
Continued on Page 12
Photograph by Per Breiehagen
USA WEEKEND
April 17-19, 1992 11
Continued from Page 11
groups to ask President Bush to do
more about the Greenhouse Effect.
He's canvassing cafeterias at area
schools, getting children to pledge
that they will cut back on energy use
at home and help cut the carbon
dioxide emissions blamed for global
warming. The coalition plans to send
1 million signatures to Bush to coax
him into signing an international pact
on global warming at the Earth Sum-
mit in June in Rio de Janeiro.
On a recent trip to Washington,
Hegstrand and other junior environ-
mentalists tried to get through the
White House gate and deliver the
first 100,000 petitions to Bush. "The
'This isn't something that
one day I'll do and the next
day I won't. This is something
that I will carry with me
for the rest of my life.'
guards told us to go to the White
House mailroom." Instead, the kids
gave the petitions to Gore, who
promised to pass them on to Bush.
Hegstrand also visited his con-
gressman, House Democrat Gerry
Sikorski. "He talked about the CO₂
fight," Sikorski says. "He struck me
as someone who is so enthused about
what he's doing that he's contagious."
Back at home, Hegstrand has been
speaking to school and church
groups, stuffing envelopes at KSE
headquarters and making plans for
Earth Day. He and sister Tracy, 16,
recently met with a U.S. delegate to
the Earth Summit. The family recy-
cles aluminum, glass and paper, and
Hegstrand urges all to save electricity.
He'd like his dad, Tom, to trade in his
1979 Cadillac Coupe de Ville for
more fuel-efficient wheels. "He's
gotten us to do things like not run the
water so much when we're rinsing
dishes, or use the low-energy cycle on
the dishwasher," Dad says. "He's the
quickest one in and out of the shower."
Hegstrand plans to be an actor and
make public service announcements
for the environment. "You can't even
walk down a street or through a park
without seeing litter all over. You
walk by the river, and it's filled with
junk. People need to wake up and no-
tice that our Earth is in danger."
To learn more, write: Kids for
Saving Earth, P.O. Box 47247,
Plymouth, Minn. 55447-0247
By Mary Ellin Barrett
12 USA WEEKEND
April 17-19, 1992
SENT BY SPEAR LEEDS & KELLOGG : 5-20-92 11:45AM : 21st FLOOR 587-8099-
:= 1 1
'I'm angry that the treaties that they re going to be signing are SO weak.
Christopher DiNero, 11-year-old Long Branch resident before his speech at the United Nations
Hopi 1g
cooler
heads
preva'l
A Long Branch boy
wants more help in
reducing the gas that Is
warming our planet.
By TODD B. BATES
PRESS ENVIRONMENTAL WRITER
NEW YORK - He's given speech
to lots of influential adults, includi
ambassadors, U.S. senators and Was
ington journalists.
But yesterday, 11-year-old Christ
pher DiNero of Long Branch got
chance to deliver his message to mei
bers of his increasingly green gener
tion on the eve of the Earth Summit
Striding up to the microphone in il
huge General Assembly hall of ti
United Nations, Chris told a Glob
Youth Forum on the environment th
the "CO2 Challenge Kids Coalition
has won pledges to curb 400.000 to
of carbon dioxide emissions.
Like Chris, a fifth-grader at We
End School, 400.000 children har
pledged to slash carbon dioxide emi
sions by a ton a year aprece in an i
fort to combat global warming. Carbo
dioxide is the leading greenhouse ga
and energy conservation helps reduc
emissions of it.
"We think it really helps," sa
KEVIN P. COUGHLIN/Asbury Park Prese
U.N. speech yesterday, Christopher DiNero, Long Branch, urged a cut in carbon dioxide emissions.
Please see Ccoler, page A5
1
SENT BY SPEAR LEEDS & KELLOGG : 5-20-92 :11:48AM : 21st FLOOR 587-8099-
:= 1
Cooler
efforts cannot possibly save the planet.
As hard as we try, you cannot expect
us to do it alone."
Jana Thompson, 17, a junior at
From page A1
Laccy Township High School,
attended the forum, sponsored by the
Chris, looking very businesslike in a
United Nations Environment Pro-
dark suit. "We're all hoping that you
gramme, with about 25 others from
are going to participate in the CO2
the school's biology club.
Challenge, and we'd really like you to
Asked what she thinks is the biggest
do so."
environmental problem, Jana said:
Chris, who wants to be an inventor,
"Just people being aware of the prob-
author, illustrator and "thinker," also
lems. A lot of people I don't think real-
outlined his next project: a solar food
ize that they do make a difference."
cooker.
"It's good to have such a young
His brief speech was warmly re-
crowd," she said. "A lot of kids are
ceived, especially when he announced
getting information about what they
he's from New Jersey.
can do, and we're teaching our par-
Small wonder. Hundreds of students
ents."
from New Jersey, including large con-
Noel J. Brown, director of the U.N.
tingents from Ocean and Monmouth
Environment Programme's North
counties, attended the 8th annual fo-
American Regional Office, said of the
rum.
upcoming summit: "There has never
All told, about 2,000 students up to
been an agenda like this one, but there
25 years old and from more than 40
has never been a time like this one."
countries participated in workshops,
"I don't think governments can,
listened to music and speeches and
plead ignorance for an excuse for inac-
watched vidcos.
tion," he said. "We have a moral re-
About 25 students gave presenta-
sponsibility to act on what we know."
tions focusing on ecological de-
"We cannot succeed until we design
struction and their efforts to save the
an Earth-smart society, and that is
Earth. Ziggy Marley and The Melody
within our capacity. People capable of
Makers were to give a concert near
building smart bombs are also capable
the end of yesterday's program.
of
building an eco-smart society."
As a group, the students intend to
"Earth-smart kids can produce an
send a deadly serious "declaration" to
Earth-smart society. You are the first
the United Nations Conference on
generation of Earth-smart kids," said
Environment and Development — the
Brown, drawing applause. "Carry on,
Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro,
my young friends, the future is on
Brazil, June 3-12.
your side."
"It is well-known that the ongoing
In an interview before his speech,
destruction of our environment has
Chris DiNero said he had mixed fecl-
affected children and youth more than
ings about what will be accomplished
any other group," the declaration
at the Earth Summit, considering
says.
President Bush has orchestrated a
"Politicians and leaders have begun
draft treaty setting no limits on green-
to tell us that the task of saving the
house gas emissions.
environment, of protecting the future,
"I think they have to do something
is on our shoulders, that we are the
more than what's been announced $0
ones who will have to make a differ-
far," he said. "I'm glad everybody is
ence.
going and people are meeting. I'm
"Not only is this a delaying tactic on
angry that the treaties that they're
your part, it is also a frightening bur-
going to be signing are SO weak. We
den that we must carry As long as
are
wasting that opportunity. I
1
you control the reins of power, our
don't understand that."