SYDNEY -- The trouble with hosting an international Greens convention is that the host country draws the criticism. Japan is still agonizing over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Now Australia is left holding the bag following far-reaching pro-Kyoto support demonstrated at last week's Canberra talkfest.
The Global Greens conference held in the national capital of Canberra generated enough heat to burn all the world's virgin rain forests still untouched by the multinationals' bulldozers. Whether the delegates from 70 countries shed enough light to shame the world's polluters remains to be seen.
The delegates chose their venue well. Leafy Canberra, set among rolling hills and basking in autumn sunshine, is in such a pristine spot it deflects visitors' eyes from the greenhouse emissions of industrial Sydney and Melbourne. But that did not fool the likes of Greenpeace.