Hillary at environment meet

Press, 16 June 1982, Page 34

Hillary at environment meet

NZPA staff correspondent London The New Zealand mountaineer and adventurer. Sir Edmund Hillary, is in London to attend an international hearing on the state of the world’s environment. Sir Edmuch has worked for many years to improve the welfare of villagers in the Himalayas, helping to build and raise finance for schools and hospitals. As the chairman of the Himalayan Trust, Sir Edmund was "anxious to bring the ecological plight of the villagers to the attention of the world public." a spokesman for the hearing said._ The two-day hearing, which begins today, is taking the form of a debate among internationally ' respected scientists. government policy-makers, leaders of environmental organisations, and representatives from industry.

Among those taking part in the hearing, which has as its main sponsor the United Nations Environment Programme (U.N.E.P.). are Mr Peter Jay. former British Ambassador to the United States; Mr Sean Macßride. a distinguished Irish jurist and Government . Minister, and winner of both the Nobel and the Lenin peace prizes; Mr Michael Heseltine, United Kingdom Secretary of State for the Environment; Dhvid Attenborough, writer of the television “Life on Earth” series; Jacques Cousteau, the French marine explorer; Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian explorer and anthropologist; and Sir Peter Scott, chairman of the International World Wildlife Fund. Dr Mustafa Tolba. the Egyptian head of U.N.E.P., said that all those taking part would be giving their personal views and not those of any government. Dr Tolba said that it was

only through making people individually aware that environmental problems could be dealt with. "The environment is degenerating fast," he said. “We hope that out of this hearing we will hear criticism of U.N.E.P. — what we are not doing and how we can change that. Also we hope we can establish exactly what the role of governments should be in protecting the biosphere.

"In U.N.E.P. we keep speaking of the grassroots but I don’t think we reach them." Dr Tolba hopes that the hearing will get to the “grassroots" — the people who, he says, are the only ones who can determine what is done with their own immediate environment, and who are also the only ones to influence governments to solve ecological problems. The hearing will begin today.