The European Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow is a public policy organization focusing on issues of environment and development.

CFACT Europe’s mission is to enhance the fruitfulness of the earth and all of its inhabitants.

CFACT Europe does this by pursuing strategies to help:

Meet the basic needs of people including food, water, energy and essential human services;

Support the right of all people to individual freedom and opportunity;

Promote wise stewardship of wildlife, habitats and endangered species;

Promote safe, affordable technologies and economic policies that reduce pollution and waste, and maximize the use of resources; and

Educate various sectors of the public about these issues.

CFACT Europe e.v.
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D-07722 JENA (Germany)

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A Call For a New Environmentalism

The political mainstream in Europe right now looks very green. A majority among the Europeans opposes nuclear energy, oil, any other fossil energy source, and supports subsidizing so-called alternative energy sources such as wind, solar etc. Most of the Europeans are very concerned about food safety and seem to be in favor of the Kyoto protocol respectively, an international treaty that is supposed to decrease the emission of greenhouse gases on a global scale. And there is no doubt – traditional environmentalism achieved a lot: Among others, air-, water- and other pollution has been remarkably decreased over the last 20 years. It could be even said, that the situation of the environment and the conditions for living in the western world have never been that good. But instead of being innovative after having succeeded in many areas, the old environmentalism continues its old patterns: At present we see for example a very emotional debate about global warming, which is an offspring of the old debate on the quality of the air and the water. Industry is still demonized by some of the green groups. Since the implementation of new legal standards helped the environment to recover in the past, there is a strong belief, that any improvement in the future could only be achieved by government policies, good will and a social engineering – if not an “evil empire” such as the USA is doing anything to prevent any progress. By this, the politics of many environmentalists has become exclusively past-oriented.

The Brent Spar Example

The success of the traditional environmentalists is obvious: Most of the European political parties adopted a green political agenda. In some countries, traditional Green parties gained a great influence on politics or are part of government coalitions. The EU subsidizes environmental groups with estimated 1 Mio. Euro per year. 66% of the Germans find Greenpeace a sympathetic organization. However, the policies of those “old” environmentalists become less and less efficient. A good example is the Brent Spar campaign of 1995, when Greenpeace achieved the withdrawal of a permission by the British government for SHELL, to dump a former oil platform in the Atlantic. Originally, the SHELL-plan was proposed by independent researchers, which had examined 13 alternative options for 3 years. The permission was withdrawn, after Greenpeace had succeeded in convincing both the public opinion and the British government by apparent findings of the University of Exeter. According to their study, the platform contained up to 500 tons of oil and other toxic waste and not only up to 130 tons, as indicated before by SHELL. A few days later the company gave up and agreed to move the platform to a harbor and to deconstruct it there, which was a six times more energy-intensive method. Long time after this campaign it appeared however that SHELL was right. Less then 130 tons of waste were on board. Peter Melchett, Director of Greepeace UK had to apologize personally to Chris Fay, Chairman of SHELL UK. And in August 1996, a report of the auditing firm KPMG informed the public, that only this campaign did safe Greenpeace from bankruptcy.

New Environmentalism

The need for new approaches is evident. A new environmentalism first of all has to be based on common sense. It also has to reflect new findings of science. Result of serious research on the changes of the global climate add more and more doubts, whether the prophecies of a climatic Armageddon is justified. It looks as if warmer and colder periods were always part of human history. Even in rainy England, wine was growing in the 1200s. Nobody could say, that the people then provoked climatic changes because they were using their cars too frequently. Another issue, that provokes skepticism, is the debate as such. Very often, the policy of environmental groups is exclusively funding oriented. Such behavior destroys funding opportunities of smaller groups, that might have difficulties to find sponsors for their environmental youth projects. Other groups promote violence. During the protests against nuclear energy radical environmental organizations are systematically breaking the law. If you think how difficult it is to stop a heavy railway train carrying nuclear waste, is it appropriate to popularize activities directly on the rails, that are not only dangerous to the young activists but also to the environment itself? Is it efficient to do just anything to attract media – and perhaps nothing else? On the other hand, environment and development are still serious issues. In the developing world in particular, millions of people still have no access to energy or clean water. If traditional methods prove to be inefficient or do no longer achieve any goal, Europe needs a new approach.

The case for CFACT Europe

In 2004, former and present EDS-activists established a public policy organization called “European Citizens For A Constructive Tomorrow” (CFACT Europe). Their main concern was to develop solutions for those regions of our planet, that do not yet benefit of the achievements of modern civilization, but also to face our own significant and difficult challenges. With a growing world population and limited financial resources, we must ensure adequate supplies of food, energy, clean water, and essential human services for everyone without causing damage to our environment or public health. How we answer these challenges is of great importance not only to ourselves but to future generations as well. CFACT Europe is part of the international CFACT-network that started in the United States in 1985. The organization relies on private contributions from foundations, corporations, and citizens. The Committee has an aggressive program that includes research and publications, local, national and international educational efforts and media exposure, and very importantly, growing campus activities that is bringing the CFACT message to colleges and universities across Europe.

What is CFACT’s mission?

CFACT Europe’s mission is to enhance the fruitfulness of the earth and all of its inhabitants. CFACT Europe does this by pursuing strategies to help:

1. Meet the basic needs of people including food, water, energy and essential human services.

2. Promote wise stewardship of wildlife, habitats and endangered species.

3. Promote safe, affordable technologies and economic policies that reduce pollution and waste, and maximize the use of resources.

4. Educate various sectors of the public about these issues.

Our path into the future must be guided by creativity and innovation. Clearly, we must emphasize the development of safe and affordable technologies. Already, we have the capability to greatly increase crop yields through agricultural chemicals, to harness the power of the atom for electricity, and to eliminate many life threatening diseases through biotechnology. One can only wonder at the possibilities that lay ahead. The Committee boldly proclaims that the cherished Western values of competition, progress, political and economic freedom, and genuine environmental stewardship can and do offer the best hope for protecting not only the earth and its wildlife, but even more importantly, its people. CFACT Europe is therefore working to promote market-oriented and safe technological solutions to such growing concerns as energy production, waste-management, food production and processing, air and water quality, wildlife protection and much more. With the support of academic advisors and scientific experts in various fields, along with a rapidly expanding citizen membership, CFACT Europe wants to be a catalyst that is helping carry Europe and our world toward a more constructive tomorrow.