Richard Melson

September 2004

Shimon Peres is the righthand man of Mikhail Gorbachev in Gorbachev’s Green Cross International and its links to the Earth Charter Commission and other "globalist" groupings.

Unfortunately, this is what the American political right considers a form of "globaloney" and has no real legs.

In phase one of American-led globalization, one can look forward to coercive murder and mayhem as Bush tries to impose an American hegemony on the world before he can even begin to challenge his right, the neo-con Zionists who orbit Sharon/Perle/Feith/Wolfowitz and want Israel expansion, conflict-led arms sales, and defeating the "South" (Third World) and are not interested in sweet reasonableness of the Scandinavian "social democracy" brand.

Peres’s hunger to be a "world statesman" along these lines and also share power with Sharon in a Likud/Labor coalition cannot be reconciled.

Peres and Gorbachev have Green Cross International as one of their platforms:

(June 2003)

According to the new Charter, the Board of Directors is comprised of political, business and opinion leaders of world stature capable of representing and connecting Green Cross International, GCI, to the political and business communities of relevant nations.

The Board of Directors that was voted in unanimously includes:

Mikhail Gorbachev, Chairman of the Board

Raymond Barre

Alexander Likhotal, President and CEO (ex-officio)

Ernst Mühlemann, Treasurer (ex-officio)

Shimon Peres

Mario Soares

Horst Teltschik

Honorary Board (A new Honorary Board was elected in June 2003)

Meyer-Simon, Diane (USA)

Soetendorp, Awarham (NL)

Maathai, Wangari (Kenya)

Ono, Yoko (USA)

Shahani, Leticia (Philippines)

Singh, Karan (India)

Redford, Robert (USA)

Perez de Cuéllar, Javier (Peru)

Turner, Ted(USA)

Swaminathan, Monkombu S. (India)

Al-Hamad, Abdoulatif Y. (Kuwait)

Suleimenov, Olzhas (Kazakhstan)

Velikhov, Yevgeny (Russia)

Yakovlev, Aleksander (Russia)

Cousteau, Jean-Michel (France)

Levi Montalcini, Rita (Italy)

Suzuki, David (Canada)

Aitmatov, Chinghiz (Kirgyztan)

Diallo, Arba (Burkina Faso)

Princess Bisma Bint Talal (Jordan)

Lubbers, Rudolphus (Netherlands)

Danilov-Danilyan, Victor (Russia)

Metropolitan Pitirim (Russia)

Prepcoms

A vote was held on the status of certain prepcoms. The GC Brazil, Germany, Jordan, Pakistan and Spain were recognised as PrepComs. After one year of probation they can be officially recognised as Green Cross National Organisations. It was suggested that the GC Senegal Prepcom should be re-invigorated with the help of Green Senegal, an NGO respected in Senegal. The GC Togo Prepcom was dissolved.

"Give Humanity a Chance Give the Earth a Future"
"We desperately need to recognize that we are the guests not the masters of nature and adopt a new paradigm for development, based on the costs and benefits to all people, and bound by the limits of nature herself rather than the limits of technology and consumerism."

Mikhail Gorbachev
President of Green Cross International

The mission of Green Cross is to help ensure a just, sustainable and secure future for all by fostering a value shift and cultivating a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility in humanity’s relationship with nature.

Green Cross:

• Promotes legal, ethical and behavioral norms that ensure basic changes in the values, actions and attitudes of government, the private sector and civil society, necessary to build a sustainable global community
  
• Prevents and resolves conflicts arising from environmental degradation.
  
• Provides assistance to people affected by the environmental consequences of wars and conflicts.
  

The work of Green Cross is based on mediation and cooperation, not confrontation, and focuses on the need for dialogue and transparent interaction between all sectors of modern society.

Green Cross provides: unbiased environmental analysis and expertise, information dissemination, education, neutral fora for public debate, scientific studies, and social and medical support.

Green Cross International was founded by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1993, building on the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and supporting the implementation of Agenda 21. Green Cross National Organizations are now established in 28 countries: Argentina, Belarus, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Czech Republic, Denmark (prepcom), Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, Pakistan (prepcom), Poland, Romania, Russia, Senegal (prepcom), Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Togo (prepcom), The Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States and Venezuela.

Green Cross International is recognized as being of public utility and GCI and its Donors are Tax-Exempt.

Green Cross International – Making a Difference

Preventing and Resolving Conflicts over Natural Resources:

Go Green Power Campaign
Green Cross encourages new consumption patterns to reduce the consumption of energy, stem climate change and conserve natural resources. One of the first green power public information campaigns in the United States, this initiative has already been instrumental in convincing the cities of Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Chula Vista and other cities, as well as residents and businesses, across California, to switch to 100% green power. In response to the energy crisis in California in 2000-2001, the project advocated a strategy for creating a sustainable energy future for California; one which would help protect consumers and the economy, and allow California to take seriously its role – as the world’s sixth largest economy – in stemming climate change, preventing air pollution and ensuring the protection of public health.

Water for Peace
Today, 1.5 billion human beings still do not have access to safe drinking water and sanitation, and as a result 5 million people, predominantly women and children, die every year from preventable water-borne diseases. The global water crisis is one of the single biggest threats facing humankind. 50% of the population of the planet live in river basins shared by two or more countries, and lack of cooperation between those sharing these precious water resources is causing reduced living standards, devastating environmental problems, and even potential conflicts. Through the Water for Peace project, Green Cross is working with governments, local authorities and civil society to remove the obstacles to integrated and cooperative water management, and resolve related conflicts, in six important international basins across the world: the Parana-La Plata (South America), the Jordan (Middle East), the Volga (Russia, Central Asia), the Okavango (Southern Africa), the Volta (West Africa) and the Danube (Eastern Europe). Green Cross is also leading a global peoples’ petition to convince governments to agree to a World Water Framework Convention to govern the use and sharing of freshwater resources.

Addressing the Environmental Consequences of Wars and Conflicts:

The Legacy of the Cold War
Green Cross promotes the clean-up and conversion of military bases to civilian use, the remediation of nuclear contamination, and the environmentally-responsible destruction of conventional and chemical weapon stockpiles. This work, and public and political awareness, is enhanced through regular public hearings, policy workshops and publications on safe weapons destruction in Russia and the United States, and an annual Legacy Forum in the US.

Destroy Chemical Weapons Now!
This international campaign was officially launched in 2000 when President Gorbachev wrote personally to hundreds of world leaders appealing for stronger commitment to rid the world of the scourge, and very real threat, of chemical weapons. Together, the United States and Russia have over 65,000 tons of chemical weapons stockpiled in sixteen sites (9 in the US, 7 in Russia. The Green Cross Chemical Weapons Campaign seeks to contribute towards the goal of ridding the world of weapons of mass destruction by creating the public and political will needed to support the practical implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention – with the objective to destroy all land-based CWs by 2015. Positive reactions to the campaign in the US, Russia and Europe have already produced concrete results.

Social and Medical Care
Green Cross helps people and communities afflicted by chemical and nuclear contamination, for example through our Kids-for-Kids health improvement camps in Russia, the Ukraine and Belarus, which have already helped close to 4,000 children and their families to lead fuller and healthier lives. Operations have also already begun in Vietnam to aid the thousands of children still being born with severe disabilities due to the impact of Agent Orange released during the Vietnam War decades ago. The project provides the children with necessary orthopedic and prosthetic tools, and offers medical training to local specialists.

Post-War Environmental Analysis
Green Cross promotes greater awareness of the environmental damage caused by wars, and calls for environmental rehabilitation to be included within the umbrella of humanitarian assistance during and following conflicts. Green Cross International experts regularly take part in the field missions and continuously provide their independent expertise and assessments. Recently, Green Cross has been active in analyzing the ecological impacts of the Gulf War, and the Balkans and Afghanistan conflicts.

Promoting Value and Behavior Changes:

The Earth Dialogues
The Earth Dialogues were inspired by the belief in the need to generate new energy and impetus to drive the movement to place ethics and human values at the heart of the struggle to harmonize the globalization process with sustainable development. The first Earth Dialogues Forum was held in the French city of Lyon in February 2002,, where 1300 participants and top leaders from business, industry, religion, civil society and politics gathered for three days, and achieved the goal of providing an open and neutral forum where all parties to the globalization and sustainable development debates could share their views and visions and develop equitable solutions. Future Earth Dialogues are planned in other regions of the world to bring all key stakeholders and decision-makers together to identify concrete solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. www.earthdialogues.org

The Earth Charter
Green Cross strives to improve law and governance systems protecting the environment. To promote this goal, Green Cross was one of the key actors in the development of the Earth Charter, a document which embodies fundamental values and principles and is intended to serve as a universal code of conduct to guide people and nations towards a sustainable future. In partnership with the Earth Council and other like-minded organizations worldwide, Green Cross contributed to the elaboration of the Earth Charter through a global participatory process carried out from 1993-2000. Green Cross is now working to have the Earth Charter endorsed by people and organizations around the world. www.earthcharter.org

Contact Information:
Green Cross International
160a, route de Florissant
1231, Conches-Geneva, Switzerland.
Tel: +41 22 789 1662
Fax: +41 22 789 1695
Email: Headquarter
Website: www.greencrossinternational.net

Green Activities of Mikhail Gorbachev

Selected Speeches & Articles: