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Green Votes for Candidate Kerry |
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By Katherine Stapp*
Activists
believe the Democratic Party's candidate would strengthen international
environmental agreements if he wins the U.S. presidency in the Nov.
2 election.
NEW YORK - U.S. environmental groups are rallying
behind presidential contender John Kerry, whose environmental record
they say is much greener than that of President George W. Bush,
who is seeking re-election in the national vote set for Nov. 2.
The activists believe that the administration under Bush, of the
Republican Party, has been characterized from its beginning in January
2001 by placing corporate interests above environmental protection.
Unlike the president, the Democratic Party's candidate Kerry opposes
drilling for oil in the ecologically sensitive Arctic Wildlife Refuge
in the state of Alaska, and supports enforcing existing rules on
clean air and water -- which critics say the current administration
has tried to significantly weaken.
Green groups believe Kerry is also strong on the international front.
The candidate has vowed to make relations with Mexico a priority,
citing ''environmental and social issues of mutual concern,'' such
as shared air and water resources in the border region.
Kerry, a senator from the northeastern state of Massachusetts, ''advocated
for the United States to take the lead in international efforts
to reduce global warming pollution, reverse ozone depletion, protect
tropical rain forests, preserve biodiversity, and press for sustainable
development,'' Kerri Glover of the environmental watchdog Sierra
Club told Tierramérica.
The democratic candidate supports policies that would increase fuel
efficiency, a means towards reducing emissions of so-called greenhouse
gases, which are blamed for global warming.
He has also said he would ''reinsert'' the United States into treaties
protecting the environment, such as the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which
sets greenhouse gas abatement targets for the industrialized world.
Bush withdrew the U.S. signature from the treaty in March 2001,
saying it would jeopardize the country's economic interests.
However, it should be noted that Kerry, who was a delegate to the
1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and to the 1997 Kyoto negotiations,
has argued that developing countries must be held to the Kyoto Protocol
before the United States ratifies the treaty.
As a compromise, Kerry supports the idea of emissions trading, a
compensatory mechanism by which the countries that emit more greenhouse
gases than allowed under the Protocol targets can buy quota credits
from the countries whose emissions are below the targets.
He has also pushed for funding to implement the Montreal Protocol,
an agreement signed by more than 150 countries to limit the production
of substances harmful to the stratospheric ozone layer, chiefly
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The Bush administration has sought numerous
exemptions from this treaty.
On another front, Kerry currently enjoys a healthy lead among voters
of Latin American origin living in the United States, who have historically
favored the Democratic Party. In courting their votes, he has played
down foreign policy, focusing instead on his support for two bills
that would legalize the status of immigrant farm workers and undocumented
youth.
''The issues that most concern (the Hispanic community) are immigration
and protection for their own jobs,'' said Tom Barry, policy director
of the Inter-Hemispheric Resource Center.
''But for immigration reform to be viable, it needs to be coupled
with a real commitment to support development policies, particularly
in Mexico, so that immigration is not the escape valve that it is,''
he said.
An uncertainty associated with a Kerry victory is that he has consistently
voted for expanded trade deals with the region, John Edwards, his
running mate for vice president, is perceived as an ardent protectionist,
opposing the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and
Canada, as well as bills to expand trade with Caribbean, Central
American and Andean countries.
Kerry insists that he would not seek to curb the entry of Latin
American products into the United States, the world's biggest market,
but he has pledged to renegotiate the Central American Free Trade
Agreement and the Free Trade Area of the Americas to include stronger
safeguards for labor and the environment.
No one disputes that these are laudable goals. But some critics
believe that simply tacking social clauses on to trade agreements
fails to address the root causes of global inequities or foment
sustainable development.
Politically, while Kerry may be more popular than Bush within the
Hispanic community, Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric
Affairs, cautions that his rather tough stance toward Cuba and Venezuela
-- he has taken repeated jabs at presidents Fidel Castro and Hugo
Chávez -- risks alienating a large bloc of progressive U.S. voters.
Those voters are a ''niche population that is very interested in
Latin America -- immigration groups, church people, labor unions,
academics -- and it numbers in the several millions," Birns said.
''For those Latin Americanists, Kerry's main challenge is dissuading
people from voting out of desperation for (Ralph) Nader.''
The independent candidate Nader, currently polling at less than
five percent, has not articulated a clear policy toward the region,
but is widely perceived as the alternative candidate for left-of-center
voters who are disenchanted with Kerry.
* Kitty Stapp is a Tierramérica contributor
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