Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 24, 1990 TAG: 9004240053
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Planning has started for the meeting, to be sponsored also by Hollins College, the Cabell Brand Center for International Poverty and Resource Studies in Salem and the Roanoke Valley Council for Community Services. Its theme will be "Sustainable Environment and Economic Development."
"We will try to bring some overwhelming global issues to the local level," Cabell Brand, a Salem businessman, told a planning group Monday. Business people have not been as receptive as they could be to environmental concerns, Brand said, and environmental people have not been as concerned about those who have to make a living.
His hope is that the focus will be "on what should be done locally" about such issues as acid rain, population growth, global warming, air and water quality. New mechanisms to deal with these problems may be suggested, he said.
The Washington-based coalition seeks sustainable and equitable development and wants to work on it with local groups, said Don Lesh, its president.
The coalition is carrying on the work of a world commission that published its research in a book, "Our Common Future," three years ago. The Reagan administration gave the book "minimal attention" and no money so it has been largely unknown, Lesh said.
The strategy, he said, is to balance human need with wise use of resources. The coalition represents such organizations as the National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and Environmental Defense Fund, with a total of 10 million members. Other town meetings are being held in Boston, Chicago and probably Austin, Texas, "away from Washington," he said.
Brand wants to bring business, government, citizen groups and others "with disparate views together to find common ground." His aim is to "personalize issues and provide ways people can help solve problems and break barriers."
Brand talked of starting this study in the Fifth Planning District, population 240,000, "to create a model microcosm of the nation."
David Herbert, executive director of the Brand Center, will work with volunteers to plan and conduct the meeting. He said he hopes hundreds of people will attend.
by CNB