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Ahimsa International
Committed to Reverence for All Life
Environmental Programs

Ahimsa International is currently working on two major projects within our environmental program.

1. Environmental Documentary Series

The first project is the making of an environmental documentary series based on the 18 most dangerous aspects of environmental pollution which may lead, individually or collectively, toward human and/or planetary extinction. This series will seek to interview the top three scientists per field of expertise, from specialists in ozone depletion to animal mutation, to discover the most critical points of concern per area, the alleged causes of these points of destruction, the scope of effects, the estimated level of potential threat toward human extinction, and, finally, to discover options for a more ecologically sound and viable future.

Status:

We are currently setting up the parameters for full scale research, including a database and the development of research training seminars. In the meantime we have developed a few basic templates and a brief research guide for volunteers.

2. International Environmental Forum Series

The second major project is the gathering of independent Nobel level environmental scientists, who are unbeholden to industry, to conduct a series of international environmental summit meetings focusing on new choices for industry and energy in the century ahead. These high-level think tanks will provide free consultation to hosting countries, focusing on long term economic, environmental and health benefits for each country. A unique feature of theintended international forum series will include direct access to policy makers, in small concentrated sessions, as opposed to environmental summits wherein hundreds of scientists address other scientists, resulting in minimal effect on environmental policies and practices. This series will focus on trouble shooting the worst problems each country is facing, resulting in not only improved environmental and economic gain, but also in goodwill between nations on the basis of the international expertise involved.

Status:

In 1998-9 we successfully initiated contact with high level public officials in China, Pakistan and Afghanistan. We are involved with environmental scientists who have consulted the US President on environmental science policy. Project pending further development of 18 point research.

Please let us know if you might be interested in contributing your time and expertise in the research, coordination and multi-media required for both of the above projects. Thank you.

Organization: A) Goals

B) Scope of Forum / Scientific Information

C) Committees

D) Proposed sequence of events

E) Criterion for selection of speakers

A) Goals:

A.1) The Long Term Goal:
To establish an international scientific advisory group to serve policy makers worldwide The group will comprise independent scientists, physicians, immuno-toxicologists, chemists and technological and economic advisors who are unbeholden to corporate interests.

The goal of this effort is to assist governments in making long term choices beneficial to their economies and to the health of their people and environment.

A.2) The Immediate Goal:
To assemble a group of 10-14 scientists and physicians from among the world's most qualified to hold the first discussion/forum with scientists, physicians and policy makers from the People's Republic of China.

B) Scope Of The Forum:

B.1) Topics of Discussion:
Participants will address energy, environment, and health by first examining the experiences of industrialized countries. In particular,the discussion will focus on the problems faced by industrialized countries as a result of their heavy emphasis on short-term economic rewards, at the expense of long-term analyses of the health, environmental and economic consequences of their technology choices. The forum will also examine the relationship between environmental degradation and economic deterioration.

Secondly, participants will discuss strategies that may lead to long-term economic prosperity while protecting human health and the health of the environment. The advantages and disadvantages of various nuclear energy technologies will be discussed, as well as a number of alternative energy technologies that have promise for being cost effective and relatively environmentally benign. These analyses will take into account options and risks specific to the region or country under discussion.

Participants will also discuss the economic and health consequences related to chemical pollution of the water and the air, and various technologies for improved productivity and reduced pollution and emissions.

B.2) Scientific Information And Data Sources
The information shared in the forum will explore safety, cost effectiveness and environmental impact of industry and technology from a wide spectrum of viewpoints which will include the following diverse sources:

  a) Government research
  b) Corporate research
  c) Research conducted by non-governmental organizations

The corporate viewpoint is already being widely disseminated by those seeking to sell their products in the international market. Our aim is to provide balance to this perspective, so we will tend to emphasize a) and c) while providing some oral and written information reflecting corporate viewpoints for discussion and review. All information will be translated into Mandarin for better communication. Follow-up contacts, phone and fax numbers etc. will be provided for further investigation on the part of policy makers.

C) Committees:

The committees listed below will have core members, consultants, and assistants. The core members will design and guide each committee's function, consultants will advise the core members and assistants will provide organizational support.

C.1) Coordination Committee
A coordination committee comprised of scientists, organizers, and consultants will work together with a coordination team in the People's Republic of China to plan and make manifest the environmental forum in China. The coordinating committee is responsible for coordinating all scientific information to be presented at the meeting, as well as establishing contact with officials and potential participants, securing arrangements, etc. Dr. Suzanne Jones, a physicist and science-policy analyst with the University of California at Berkeley will chair the coordinating committee and will attend the forum as the scientific coordinator.

C.2) Facilitation Committee
The Facilitation Committee will include mediators and cultural consultants. This committee will offer environmental, cultural, and multiparty mediation. The Facilitation Committee will assist communication between scientists and non-scientists and work with translators. This team will likely work together with a facilitation team from China. Mr. Richard Caputo will serve as the primary discussion facilitator and mediator. Mr. Caputo is a nuclear and solar engineer and former member of the department of energy governmental team that generated a solar energy plan for president Carter's domestic policy council in 1978. His credentials as a scientist and as an international multi-party mediator render him uniquely qualified for facilitating this event.

C.3) Scientific Advisory Board
The Scientific Advisory Board consists of professionals and academics whose task it is to select participants for the forum in China. This advisory group will recommend 10-14 of the world's experts in economics, energy planning, medicine, immunotoxicology, physics, chemistry, and environmental science, selecting 1-3 experts per major field for the first forum in Beijing. ( It is possible that scientists within the advisory board may be recommended for the Beijing forum and/or for follow-up fora.) The scientific advisory board comprises Dr. Suzanne Jones, Mr. Richard Caputo, as well as other scientists and academics yet to enter the council.

C.4) Speakers Committee
Members of the Speaker's Committee are leading world experts in health, technology and environment. Their task is to design and present scientific information to policy makers and other scientists.

D) The Suggested/ Potential Sequence Of Events:

D.1) Step One: Coordination
Assemble a coordinating committee.

D.2) Step Two: Team Building

  a) Assemble scientific advisory board while developing subcommittees under the coordination committee

  b) Coordinating committee members Catherine and Morah Groves will continue to work with Dr. Yakup to initiate appropriate communications with Chinese officials as well as to create a coordinating committee in China.

D.3) Step Three: Official Communication
Begin communication and correspondence between our coordination committee and the government of the People's Republic of China

D.4) Step Four: Confirmation
Interest is confirmed by hosting government.

D.5) Step Five: Selection Of Speakers
Scientific advisory board completes recommendation of prospective 10-14 participants/speakers for the first forum in Beijing. The interest of these scientists is confirmed via letters of interest to China.

D.6) Step Six: Invitations
Invitations are sent from hosting country to selected scientists.

D.7) Step Seven: The Environmental Forum
Spearheading international scientific council goes to China and holds one week conference with policy makers, scientists and physicians.

Further Possibilities: The Long Term View

D.8) Step Eight: Follow-Up Fora
Once a China conference is established, a series of 4 more conferences might be established in other countries, with alternate and/or overlapping sets of scientists. We are considering India, and countries in Africa and South America. Approximately 10-14 scientists per forum totals approximately 40-60 scientists involved and in (E-mail) contact with each other.

D.9) Step Nine: Environmental Summit
At the end of this global series, it may be possible for the group of 40- 60 scientists to convene either through live video conferencing or in person, perhaps through the auspices of the U.N. for a live, televised public access summit. The Environmental Summit topic: The Survival of Humanity beyond the 21st Century.

While the long term benefits of such a summit might be inestimable, a few key advantages are:

• Global environmental issues would receive a global audience
• Environmentally concerned and independent scientists would
• finally be given the audience they deserve
• The global public can witness global policy makers from the
• U.N. interacting with scientists

While the global series of fora, and the culminating Environmental Summit remain in the category of follow-up possibilities, we would like to have this concept developing throughout, with input from scientists assisting the proposed forum in China.

D.10) Step Ten: A Global Environmental Protocol
The possibility of a Global Environmental Protocol is consideredas an accurate, up-to date resource and guideline for countries in the future. The Global Environmental Protocol might be able to set standards and/or form periodic independent reviews of industrial and toxic hazards worldwide. This latter goal is ancillary and yet worthy of consideration once main efforts toward qualified, unbiased scientific consulting are established.

E) Criteria For Selection Of Forum Candidates:

E.1) Scientific Qualification
Participants selected will have demonstrated excellence in their field.

E.2) Environmentalism
This is the main unifying factor among participants despite differing views.

E.3) Balanced Views
Freedom from corporate conflicts of interest is also a criterion. However, a range of perspectives will be represented. For example, scientists who consider nuclear energy viable as well as those who don't will be included.

E.4) International Representation
We would like to have as diverse a group of scientists as possible.

E.5) Communication Skills
In addition to the above qualifications the scientists chosen will need to have a reasonably personable manner that is conducive to group discussion.

Health Environmental / Health Facts Sheet

• 69 million Americans live in areas that exceed smog standards.
  (Source: E.P.A. EPA Data Show Steady Progress In Cleaning Nation Air" 1991-2, ref: Alternative Medicine, Definite Guide, Goldburg)

• Most drinking water in the U.S. contains 700 different chemicals, including excessive lead.
  (Source: EPA "130 Cities Exceed Lead Levels for Drinking Water.")

• There are 70, 000 chemicals registered with the US governement for commercial use.
  (Source: EPA Toxicity Release Inventory. ref: Human Ecology Action League)

• 2.2 Billion pounds of toxic waste went into US air, water and soil in 1995.
  (Source: EPA Toxic Release Inventory, ( ref: H.E.A.L.))

• 3,000 Chemicals are in US food supply, with 10,000 more used in processing, preserving.
  (Source: Saifer,P. M.D., Detox, Pub. Jeremy Tarcher, Inc. 1984)

• Dr. Neils Skakkebak, a researcher at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, and Dr. Richard Sharp, of the British Medical Research Council's Center for Reproductive Biology in Edinburgh Scotland studies show a 50% decline in sperm count in men over the last 50 years. Their studies concur with Dr.

• Theo Colburn's ( author: Our Stolen Future) research, and numerous similar studies involving animals, birds, fish and humans pointing to cancer, deformities, and sterility due to estrogen-imitating chemicals that are now pervasive in the environment.

• Source: An international scientific conference presented in 1995, RE: hormonal toxins led by Dr. John Mac Lachlan of the NIEHs laboratory on Reproductive Toxicology, The Lancet, 1993

• Testicular cancer which tripled in the US and Britain, as well as prostate cancer which has doubled, also appear to be related to industrial toxins.
  ( Source: Ibid )

• The current level of chemicals in the food and water supply and the indoor and outdoor environment has lowered our threshold of resistance to disease and has altered our body's metabolism, causing enzyme dysfunction, nutritional deficiencies, and hormonal imbalances,"
  Source: Marshall Mandell, M.D., Bio-ecolological medicine, cited in Alternative Medicine, Goldburg

• Even low levels exposure to a number of different chemicals can cause a wide variety of chronic diseases, according to Nicholas Ashford, Ph.D, J.D. , Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Claudia Miller, M.D., M.S., M.A. of the University of Texas.

  REf: Chemical Exposures-Low Levels, High Stakes, Nicholas Ashford, and Claudia Miller. Based on the report by the New Jersey Department of Health.

• According to Zane Guard, M.D. of Beaverton, Oregon, bio-accumulation seriously compromises physiological and psychological health.
  ( Source: Shnare, D.W. The Unpolluting of Man, Foundation for Advancement in Science and Education)

• The death toll from Chernobyl accident was estimated by the Ukranian health ministry to be 125,000.
  ( Source: Ukranian Health Ministry, ref: The Foundation for National Progress "Mother Jones" )
  MOJOWire,http://mojones.com/mother_jones/MJ96wasserman.jump.html

• Experts estimate the cancer toll in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to be 500,000 over next century.
  ( Source: Dr. John Gofman, former AEC expert on radiation and health. MOJO - (see above Website) )

• The following is paraphrased: The Three Mile Island accident, near Harrisburg Pennsylvania (March 28, 1979) was completely uncontrollable, and ended not due to safety design or efforts, but luck. It came within Tne hour of a meltdown.
  ( Source: Nigel Hawkes, Nuclear Safety, Alladin Books, Ltd )

Top 18 Environmental Threats Potentially Leading To Human Extinction documentary

1. Ozone Depletion
2. Oxygen Depletion
3. Deforestation
4. Global Warming (aka. Greenhouse Effect)
5. Worldwide Droughts
6. Human Over-population
7. Worldwide Pesticide Toxicity
8. Production and Disposal of Toxic Waste
9. Environmental Pollution
10. Oceanic Pollution
11. Atmospheric Pollution
12. Worldwide Acid Rain
13. Bio-diversity Destruction (aka. Species Mutation and Extinction)
14. Increase in Human Sterility
15. Worldwide Nuclear poisoning (earth, air and water)
16. Worldwide Fresh Water conflict due to shortage of unpolluted fresh drinking water
17. Worldwide Increase in toxic chemicals entering the environment (More than 200,000 and growing in 1997 versus less then 2,000 in 1947)
18. Denial of this list by Governments, Entities and the Public

With regard to the 18 points of environmental destruction, the most urgent and direct issue is the recent rapid rise in human sterility which is tentatively correlated to a rise in environmental toxicity. In the last 50 years, human sperm viability has decreased by a full 50% - particularly in industrialized countries. (Ref.: Dr. Neil Skakkeb¾k of the University of Copenhagen, Dr. Richard Sharpe of the University of Edinburgh and Dr. Theo Colborn of the World Wildlife Institute.) What can be imagined in another 50 years or less given rapid increases in global toxicity? Based on the current rate, it would be logical to speculate that sperm viability might reduce to a level of zero within approximately 100 years. The documentary will seek to discover a better understanding of this primary issue: are we or are we not headed for extinction? If the issue remains debatable, then where exactly are we placed on the spectrum of probability?

Along with the threat of human infertility, there are a number of urgent environmental issues which deserve a public audience. These issues include the rising incidence of mutation and extinction across the species, declining global oxygen content, the demise of ocean life and increasing holes in the ozone layer, to mention just a few.

Through the environmental documentary series we hope to identify not only the symptoms and dangers of an eco-system collapse but also, most importantly, the solutions that may avert such a future.

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