'Fear Is the Most Toxic of Gases'

Personalities from across the Americas share their visions as part of World Environment Day, celebrated annually on June 5. In an exclusive for Tierramérica, they respond to the question: What is the local or global environmental problem that worries you most?

1. - Elena Poniatowska, Mexican author
"Water. It is truly painful to see, in the most marginalized settlements of Mexico City, the elderly, women and children wait in line with their buckets at the few available water sources, and then struggling to carry their heavy pails under a scorching sun. The lack of water is a source of disease and death. If droughts devastate the countryside, the rural residents feel deprived of their water by the city. To die of thirst, as happens to many Mexican emigrants who try to enter the United States illegally to seek a better future, is one of the worst deaths. Tierramérica is doing the right thing in calling attention to the major environmental challenges."


2. - Leonardo Boff, Brazilian theologian and writer.
"The lack of potable water. A third of humanity already suffers the lack of regular access to clean water, and in 2025 it will be two-thirds. Of all the water in the world, just three percent is freshwater, and of that only 0.7 percent is accessible for human use. The global race to privatize water, turning it into a commodity and not a natural good, is a serious problem. I see good reasons in the efforts of those who are seeking a new global pact on water, assuring efficient use for human beings and other living creatures that depend on water."


3. - Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan author.
"The poison of fear. It is the most toxic of the gases that makes life unbreathable for us. Fear gives impunity to all other poisons."


4. - Simón Díaz, Venezuelan singer-songwriter.
"The fauna. All my life I have sung to the animals, to the cattle, to the calves, the horses. Part of our wildlife is in danger of extinction and it is the responsibility of all of us to take care of it, but particularly that of the governments. The recovery of music is part of the recovery of the landscape, of life on the plains, of its people, of its entirety. My songs -- "Song of the Goatherd" and "Song of the Full Moon" -- point to the reclamation of the traditions that prove that Venezuela as a whole is recoverable.


5. - Deepak Chopra, Indian physician and author
"There are four areas that need our immediate and urgent attention:
- Depletion of the earth's fossil fuels, minerals, and timber resources.
- Pollution of the atmosphere with greenhouse gases causing hurricanes and rising sea levels that devastate developing countries.
- Introduction of chemicals in the food chain, degradation of soil, poisoning of aquifers -- causing cancer and other epidemics.
-Over-fishing the oceans, depriving poor countries of their offshore fishing resources.
We must create an alliance amongst concerned people in the global community so that we can together strive for a global economy based on social justice, agree on a fair use of the world's resources, accept cultural diversity, respect the planet's life systems and use non-violent, creative means to resolve conflicts.


6. - Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mayor of Mexico City.
"There are many, but if you press me to choose 'the' most important environmental problem, I would say it is the development model that has predominated in the last two centuries. This model perceives nature as an infinite provider of resources and as a bottomless garbage dump, at the service of an economic system centered on the search for the greatest private gain in the shortest time possible. We must change this, because an environmentally sustainable society means we must build a society that is more humane and based on fraternity, solidarity and justice.


7. - Angeles Mastretta, Mexican author.
"Continuous noise, curse of Mexico City. The absolute lack of respect for silence, a privilege that will be a great luxury in the 21st century. The war against noise perhaps seems to be the easiest. One would like to convince others that music is not necessary as a background decoration, as a substitute for conversation. One would like music to have a place alongside the most important emotions and not in the middle of the conversation and the confusion of those who don't want to listen to it. I can only imagine the solutions."


8. - Antanas Mockus, Mayor of Bogotá.
"The illegal expansion of Bogotá. For two reasons: it increases the costs of basic services for the people and the illegal housing constructions are not earthquake resistant, which could have tragic consequences for their inhabitants. I am also concerned about the increasing use of cars. However, we have improved public transportation with the Transmilenio system and imposed a tax on individual cars that transfers resources to mass transit."

9. - Alvaro Mutis, Colombian writer.
"Everything. And the worst are the aggressions of man against man. In an essay I wrote some years back for Tierramérica, 'We have failed as a species', I underscored humanity's attacks against nature and how, now, it has reverted against humans themselves. We have just witnessed a ruthless slaughter (the war against Iraq) which had no reason or excuse. The weapons that man uses today ravage the natural world and bring death to such a great number of human beings. If we don't have any compassion for our fellow humans, how are we going to have any for nature, which is life itself? I don't hold out any hope. I know we are reaching the end."


10. - Juan Villarzú, president of Chile's state-owned copper corporation, CODELCO.
"The lack of research, education and training about the environment. Ongoing scientific effort is essential, that provides solid evidence for regulation, that improves knowledge about environmental problems and ways to resolve them. It has been shown that ignorance in these areas leads to the polarization of opinions, a clash of problems in an economically inefficient way. The simple creation of more restrictive rules will not necessarily lead to solutions that imply a real net benefit for the country or for the world."


11. - Rigoberta Menchú, Guatemalan, winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize.
"It is difficult to choose just one. The environmental crisis cannot be broken down into elements, because everything goes together. Environmental degradation, in all its manifestations, deserves attention because the contamination of the air and the water is as serious as the extinction of plant and animal species. In mother nature, everything is interlinked, everything is closely related. We must look for integral solutions, because we cannot speak of environmental protections without attending to the socioeconomic needs of the people. Environment and material well-being are interwoven."