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CounterPunch
August
27, 2002
From Johannesburg
Pacts With the Devil: Public-Private Partnerships and the Global
Environment
by Wenonah Hauter
It is an honor to be here among you. My spirits
are lifted and my energy has been restored by our enthusiasm,
your strength and your bravery. No wonder the thief in the White
House---who stole the election---George Bush is too cowardly
and morally bankrupt to come here. He's too busy cavorting with
his corporate criminal friends, raising money for his greedy
political cronies and plotting war to come in person. But, no
problem, Powell and Rice and all the US' corporate allies are
here to represent the corporate elite.
But it is not only the corporations that
are here, their government groupies are here fawning over the
corporations, too. You know who I mean, the bureaucrats from
the international finance institutions and the development agencies.
And also we have a lot of well meaning and sometimes not so well
meaning corporate influenced NGO's. The corporations, the bureaucrats
and some NGOs have made a pact with the devil. They call it public-private
partnerships. We call it stealing from the poor and giving it
to the rich.
The energy industry is a prime example
of this. Their allies in government and development institutions
are forcing privatization and deregulation around the world.
This is done by imposing conditions for loans or debt relief
or by forcing compliance with regional or global trade agreements.
And the same has happened in the industrialized world as well.
During the last few years we have seen
the results from India to Brazil, from New Zealand to California.
We have witnessed corporate corruption, which has been exemplified
by Enron and a series of catastrophic blackouts, skyrocketing
prices, along with environmental disaster.
Mixed in with all of this corporate corruption
is the nuclear power industry. The nuke industry is salivating
because George Bush is in the White House and they have bought
him out so that they can continue to advance their dirty, dangerous,
old technology. Unfortunately, our system of legalized bribery
system is working well for the energy corporations. What kind
of democracy is it where elections are bought and sold through
the use of campaign contributions and other forms of influence
pedaling? Companies like US-based GE and Westinghouse and the
Canadian company CANDU are using all of their political influence
to force new nuclear power plants down the throats of citizens
around the world. Their propaganda campaign is built on the false
premise that nuclear power helps solve global warming. They claim
their industry is clean and doesn't create greenhouse gases.
THEY LIE.
The nuclear fuel chain that must exist
to feed nuclear power plants is a significant source of greenhouse
gases like carbon dioxide. Furthermore, nuclear power plants
and their waste emit radiation. Each nuclear power plant produces
from 22 to 30 tons of nuclear waste each year.
The waste from nuclear power plants is
one of the deadliest toxic pollutants on earth. The waste is
so radioactive that exposure causes death after three minutes
of exposure and genetic damage after one minute of exposure.
There is no way to safely dispose of this waste. And think of
the magnitude of the problem---438 nuclear plants in 30 countries
with 33 new reactors under construction. Half of these are being
built in Asia.
The Export Credit Agencies in the industrialized
world are financing this construction. These agencies are unaccountable,
anti-democratic institutions that make the IMF and World Bank
look good. The US Export-Import Bank is going to be financing
a large number of constructions.
Canada's Export Development Corporation
announced that it would back the Canadian company CANDU's reactors
in Korea, Romania and China. They are doing this even though
seven of the outmoded CANDU reactors were shut down for safety
reasons in Canada because of what one government official described
as a "terrific list of mishaps."
The European Commission is pushing nuclear
power, too. In association with the Summit, they adopted the
Communication on Energy Cooperation with Developing Countries,
which includes a highly controversial chapter suggesting that
the EU may support nuclear programs in the developing world.
Meanwhile, the US, under the leadership
of the two energy Czars George Bush and Dick Cheney, who are
lapdogs for the energy industries, is pushing a plan for expanding
nuclear energy within its borders, which proposes constructing
50 new reactors by 2020, using taxpayer dollars - of course.
With the mountain of nuclear waste growing,
the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, along with US agencies--the
Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission --
are proposing a scheme to lower the cost of disposing of waste
for the nuclear power industry and the nuclear weapons complex.
Unbelievable as this sounds, they want to dilute nuclear pollution
by "recycling" it into household products and into
regular municipal dumps.
Every year, the nuclear industries radioactively
contaminate a range of materials during their routine operations
such as mining, milling, fuel fabrication and power production.
Metals, concrete, plastic, soil and other materials become contaminated
with different levels of radiation. But the nuclear industry
is allowed to refer to this type of contamination as low-level
waste, even though the contamination might be very high.
In order to lower the costs of disposal
and to lessen their liability, the nuclear industries want to
"recycle" these materials. For instance, metal might
be used for recycled steel, and half of steel in the US is made
from recycled metals. They want to reuse the concrete and even
use the soil at construction sites. If this deadly waste ends
up in consumer products, we will see these contaminated products
through out the world. Rather than isolating nuclear waste in
secure licensed facilities that are regulated, this toxic trash
could end up in your zipper or your frying pan.
Plus, at the same time, the International
Atomic Energy Agencies and other federal agencies are trying
to "harmonize" nuclear safety and transport regulations.
They want to exempt certain concentrations of radiation so that
this radioactive junk can be transported around the world. This
is a back-door way of dumping nuclear waste on the Global South
and on unknowing and non-consenting populations.
The nuclear industry is here at the summit
pushing their evil technology and we must say enough is enough.
So this is a wake-up call. Let's say
no to more nuclear plants and no to recycling radioactive waste.
We are circulating a resolution for organizations to sign. If
you represent an organization, please take the resolution which
can be found at our table, and sign on your organization. With
a little sunshine, we can stop the nuclear industry and their
government allies.
What we really need is to get rid of
these polluting industries and replace them with an International
Sustainable Energy Fund that would promote renewable energy and
energy efficiency. We need to phase out all government subsidies
of conventional fuels, we need to stop privatizing and deregulating
energy and direct our world's resources towards developing sustainable
and locally controlled energy systems. Every person on Earth
deserves enough food, water, and energy to live a decent life.
We need to give the power to the people.
Wenonah Hauter is direct of Public Citizen's Critical
Mass Energy Project. This is a transcript of a speech
she gave at the International Forum on Globalization in Johannesburg,
South Africa on August 26. She can be reached at: NPETRIE@citizen.org
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