<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META content="MSHTML 5.00.2614.3500" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT size=2> <TABLE border=0 cellPadding=0 cellSpacing=0 width=305 valign="top"> <TBODY> <TR> <TD> <TABLE border=0 cellPadding=0 cellSpacing=0 width=305 valign="top"> <TBODY> <TR> <TD vAlign=top><FONT face=Arial><SPAN class=headline>Oh, for DDT when this swarm of Meacher parasites descends on Joburg</SPAN><BR><SPAN class=byline>Mick Hume</SPAN><BR></FONT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR> <TR> <TD height=5><FONT face=Arial><IMG alt="" border=0 height=5 src="http://images.thetimes.co.uk/images/trans.gif" width=1></FONT></TD></TR> <TR> <TD> <TABLE border=0 cellPadding=0 cellSpacing=0 width=305> <TBODY> <TR> <TD vAlign=top><SPAN class=textcopy><FONT face=Arial>Stop global warming? We could start by reducing the record levels of hot air that will soon be produced by 65,000 delegates at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg. </FONT> <P><FONT face=Arial>The row over who should make up the UK delegation could easily be resolved by sending nobody at all. We would thus set an example to others in countering the unsustainable increase in doom-mongering summits, which threaten to leave much of our planet living in terminal depression. </FONT> <P><FONT face=Arial>Green groups were up in arms when it was reported that No 10 had dropped Michael Meacher, the Environment Minister, from the delegation to what is officially called the World Summit on Sustainable Development. They have also complained that senior British businessmen invited to join the delegation will “hijack” a summit intended to aid the world’s poor. </FONT> <P><FONT face=Arial>Campaigners argue that this shows the Government is in thrall to unrepresentative special interests. New Labour does, indeed, seem to be dancing to the tune of unaccountable interest groups — such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, whose protests quickly got Meacher reinstated at the head of the delegation. No doubt we will all sleep more easily knowing that Mr Meacher is off to save the planet from pestilent humanity. He certainly appears to see himself, if not as the environmental messiah, then at least as a green John the Baptist. “One is like a lone voice in the wilderness,” he told <I>The Sunday Times,</I> complaining that “very few people” understand how “the world is going very fast into the buffers” (unlike the railways he is supposed to champion). </FONT> <P><FONT face=Arial>Perhaps Meacher, who rails against Western consumerism while owning nine houses, is a suitably ridiculous figure to lead our delegation into the three-ring circus in Johannesburg. But whether he is there or not will not alter the outcome. Even the much criticised absence of President Bush will be pretty irrelevant. These summits are not about making a difference in the world. They are ends in themselves, festivals for professional summit animals. </FONT></P></SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The rest at:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,482-381463,00.html">http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,482-381463,00.html</A><BR><BR><BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>