Message

3DPrincesse

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRWOMAN

Dear Reader,

Welcome to = the new Alp Action site. Alp Action was founded at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1990, based on a new "environmental realpolitic" expre= ssed in one word : interdependence. The list of threats to the planet having g= rown dramatically and turning the challenge into a global affair, original Institutional Partners of Alp Action, Newsweek magazine, Reuters, Kraft Foods, Tetra Pak, Swiss Bank Corp and - the now HSBC - Safra Republic Holdings, enthusiastically launched this contemporary environmentalist dr= ive. By uniting governmental agencies, business, the media, scientists and conservation organisations, Alp Action strongly promotes specific local, practical, ecological and cultural actions and a positive approach to international environmental issues.
For everyone knows that mankind really not so distant future is at stake, that nations should start by urgently setting higher energy and clean water efficiency standards, protecting our oceans, forests, rivers, fauna and flora and encouraging t= he production and consumption of healthier foods. Governments could adopt st= rong tax benefit incentives for business and consumers who are, in the majorit= y, more than willing to quickly make a transition from short term gains to lasting profits and a overall much improved quality of human life.=

Corporate l= eaders indeed often recognise that man cannot continue to exploit nature without, one day, facing a bill that no amount of money can pay. They also know th= at their employees feel better working for companies that care about them and their children's quality of life. Unfortunately, the same still cannot be said about many political leaders in regards to the wishes of ever increa= sing majorities of alarmed citizens. Few heads of government are focused on seriously confronting climate change storm signals, irresponsible overpopulation, total depletion of our natural resources, the irreversible crash of species, famine and displaced populations, new viruses, not to mention the urgent international ratifications needed on cleaner energy f= or the transport of goods... Ignorance of new cleaner technologies, common political apathy, "treaties" and "protocols" that no lasting legislations and State penalties bind, will not save ecosystems a= nd, ultimately, mankind itself. The old bread and games politics - as in deca= dent Rome - or kindly stating on television the fact that nothing we could do today would add up to any major global climate improvement until 100 years from now, only demonstrate the diminishing stature of a "leadership" no doubt absorbed by re-election.<= o:p>

Scientists = agree that temperatures will rise by 3 to 6 degrees by 2050. While many of them anxiously await for action, the odd satirist could find in the present situation one added value: the massive citizens voluntary use of antidepressants, beating the brilliant sinister forecast of Aldous Huxley= 's Brave New World (1932 ).

As Alp Action's new Chairwoman,= and with the creative innovations and thoughts of so many active Alp Action Institutional Partners and friends, I very much do look forward to speak = out in favour of our one and only common precious heritage : the Earth! As my husband, Prince Sadruddin, used to say : the environment is not around us...it is us!...The Earth as our sixth sense. It is certainly no poetry = to say that for every species that dies, part of human nature vanishes with = it.

Catherine A= leya Aga Khan, Chairwoman.
Bellerive Foundation
August 19th, 2003.