At its midpoint a week ago, the giant Earth Summit in Rio seemed to be on the verge of completely disintegrating. Angered by Washington's refusal to sign the "biodiversity" treaty to protect the world's plants and animals, several poorer nations considered withdrawing their support for the pact and even spoke of reviewing their position on the agreement to combat global warming. At summit headquarters trivialities and private agendas derailed serious debate over the plan of action called Agenda 21. Arab delegates pushed for oblique references to emotional and irrelevant issues like the plight of Israel's occupied territories, while oil states worked to strip out any language implying that petroleum might be bad for the environment.
Across town in pleasant Flamengo Park, 7,892 nongovernmental organizations from 167 countries at a satellite conference called the Global Forum added to the confusion. The meeting seemed part New Age Carnaval, part 1960s teach-in and part soap opera. Vying for attention with religious leaders and research groups were such fringe organizations as H.E.M.P. (Help End Marijuana Prohibition). Asked what the drug had to do with sustainable development, spokesman Ron Tisbury had his offbeat sound bite ready: "Anything you can build with petrochemicals, you can make out of marijuana." The media began using words like farce and fiasco to describe Rio, and one participant called the conference the "greatest fraud ever perpetrated."
But just before more than 100 world leaders arrived for the grand finale of treaty signings, it seemed to dawn on participants from both rich and poor nations that the atmosphere had to change -- and fast. With the whole world watching a conference advertised as a last-chance meeting to save the planet, no one had anything to gain from abject failure.
This realization altered the rhetoric and to a degree the actions of the participants. The delegation from India, which had produced some of the more provocative observations about the sins and obligations of the rich nations, announced that it would sign the biodiversity agreement, helping stem the brewing revolt by the poor nations. Senator Albert Gore of Tennessee noted that a tacit understanding was developing between family planning advocates and the Catholic Church that would allow poor nations to take more aggressive steps on the vital question of population. Participants of all stripes emerged from meetings with smiles pasted on and offered a chorus of variations on the theme: "If nothing else happens, the summit is still a success because . . ."