From: Bruce Sterling [bruces@well.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2001 11:11 PM

Subject: Viridian Note 00239: EuroGreen Boycott

Key concepts:

collapse of Kyoto Accords, Boycotting Exxon, Texaco and Chevron

(((It's 1983 all over again here in the USA; open scorn for international accords, a brand-new Cold War, and a corrupt Evil Empire run by aging ideologues with heart problems. Europe's got the 21st century all to itself!)))

(((I find a definite upside here -- I'm feeling 18 years younger! We '80s cyberpunks always hankered to be heroic dissidents in a corporate-dominated dystopia. Cue those syndrums, maestro, it's war to the knife in the neon-lit backstreets of cyberspace!)))

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,465361,00.html
"Suddenly, in the space of two short months, America, the 'indispensable nation', begins to resemble the ultimate rogue state. George Bush's decision to trash the Kyoto global warming treaty is appalling."

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,465514,00.html
"European Union leaders reacted with open dismay yesterday to the confirmation of President George Bush's decision to withdraw support for the Kyoto climate change agreement. Green Euro-MPs immediately called on consumers to boycott US oil companies."

Link: http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/energy_and_climate/email_bush.html
Obligatory F.O.E. cyberflood

Link: http://www.theonion.com/onion3712/wdyt_3712.html
The good sense of the average American

Link: http://www.magnetbox.com/sorry/
Hey Yankees! Why not apologize to the entire planet?

"Climate Change: Bush imposes the death penalty on the World"

"Speaking during today's debate in the European Parliament on the USA's refusal to sign up to the Kyoto protocol, Alexander de Roo MEP (Greens/Netherlands), Vice-President of the Environment Committee, said:

"'After President Bush's irresponsible decision to abandon the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, the EU and other parties involved are left with no choice other than to go it alone and sign up to the protocol.

"'The failure of the EU's delegation to the US yesterday should have taught us a lesson: friendly words and pleas will not change the mind of this stubborn administration. We reiterate our call on EU citizens as well as the rest of the World, to boycott products of American oil companies, namely Exxon, Texaco and Chevron. Bush claims that American economic interests come before all else. But the World must show the US that ignoring climate change will cost dearly and hurt these economic interests. (((You go Euro! Chase 'em right off your continent! Ecrasez l'infame! Toujour l'audace! You're Dutch, go indict 'em in The Hague, let's get with it here....)))

"'The European Parliament should not be afraid to speak out clearly in favour of a boycott. There is a precedence where European national parliaments voted to boycott other countries, such as the Dutch and the Swedish parliament's boycott of the old apartheid regime in South Africa. (((It's the global US Disinvestiture movement! Gotta admire the intellectual consistency here!)))

"While the death penalty in the United States is utterly unethical, it is the country 's own internal decision. But the attitude of the USA towards climate change is an international matter. Bush's boycott of the Kyoto Protocol imposes the death penalty on the entire world and that is entirely unacceptable." (((Hey Europeans, if you leave us, can we come too? There must be a great market niche here for American dissidents who would love to do all their buying in Europe for the next four years. Well, everything but beef, that is.)))

Link: Paul Lannoye http://www.europarl.eu.int/greens-efa/group/who/members/lannoye.htm

"U.S. Climate Stance Triggers Boycott Threats

"LONDON, United Kingdom, April 5, 2001 (ENS) == The USA's decision to abandon the Kyoto climate protocol is sparking a wave of calls from European environmentalists and Greens for consumers to take revenge on President George W. Bush by boycotting American firms.

"It remains unclear whether any will get off the ground, though companies are watching the development anxiously. (((Even while their stock valuations soar!)))

"Leading the charge in favor of economic punishment to be meted out to the United States are Europe's Greens, who sparked a vote in the European Parliament on the issue today.

"Green Party lawmakers asked fellow Members of the European Parliament to back a resolution calling on European consumers to boycott Exxon, Texaco and Chevron. (((A refreshing change from Greens beating up on BP and Shell, who are, after all, European.))) These three U.S. based oil firms are suspected of having influenced America's policy shift on the Kyoto Protocol from support under former President Bill Clinton to withdrawal under Bush. ((("Suspected of"? Come on, fellas. This doesn't require much in-depth investigation; I think we can establish this without paging Carla del Ponti.)))

"The resolution was defeated by a margin of over three to one. (((Yeah, but it's a start!)))

"Meanwhile, boycott campaigns have been launched by some European environmental groups, such as the UK based Families Against Bush which demonstrated today outside the U.S. Embassy in London.

"Families Against Bush advocates a selective boycott of American products and services until the President supports the Kyoto Protocol and agrees to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. (((Well, where are you, "FAB"? Can't find your website. Truck out those "products and services," let's see if they have any connection to fiscal reality.)))

"'Consumers can use the only real influence available to them and hit that part of corporate America which put Bush in power and which thinks it can get away with polluting while the rest of the world pays the price,' the group said. ((((Intelligently.))) It does not support a boycott of companies opposing the Bush line on the climate agreement. (((Well then!)))

"'A boycott of sugar from American plantations helped stop the slave trade,' a spokesman said. (((Uh fellas, I kinda take your point there, but us Americans had to butcher each other wholesale for four years over that.))) "'This time the quality and existence of billions of lives are ultimately under threat unless effective action is taken.' (((Well, uh, yes.)))

"Europe's larger environmental groups are also examining the options for applying pressure on the U.S. government to work with other industrialized nations within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol, an addition to the United Nations Climate Change Convention. (((Look, forget about it, that Protocol wouldn't work anyway, but hey, bankrupting those clowns who just bought the President and the Senate, that would sure be a healthy first step. We won't even bring up the issue of Elf- Aquitaine and how it put your political parties into its pocket for decades on end.)))

"Greenpeace today called on America's largest 100 firms to declare opposition to the Bush administration's position or 'face the consequences from concerned consumers, institutions and organisation from around the world.' (((That musta been mighty scary, considering that Greenpeace's number one enemies for years have been, uh, Shell and BP.)))

"'We've been deluged with requests for campaign action or a boycott,' said Greenpeace climate campaigner Stephen Sawyer. (((Steve was on the Rainbow Warrior, and you saw what they did to the French.)))

Link http://www.greenpeace.org/~comms/rw/rwcrbio.html

'We want to give people a chance to make their views clear. There's a lot of anger out there, a desire to retaliate against Bush.' (((Okay, but why that Bush in particular? Plenty Bushes left in the clan corral. As long as they're making money pumping smut, they'll just buy themselves another one.)))

(...)

"'The American people can register their opinions at the ballot box. (((Unless they're in Florida.))) But for the rest of the world -- shocked at the worst greenhouse polluter's rejection of its responsibility for the global environment -- all we can do is register our opinions via the marketplace,' said Dr. Gerd Leipold, Greenpeace International executive director. (((Look: if you don't get them in the marketplace, you haven't gotten them at all.)))