Environmental Issues Must be Faced for Survival of Humanity, Says Cuban President

Havana, September 29, 2002 (RHC)--Cuban President Fidel Castro closed the Sixth Congress of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution Sunday night in a speech which touched on climate change that currently endangers the world.

Following a recent Havana conference on the desertification of large areas of the world, the Cuban leader said that if humankind does not face the issue of ecology seriously we will face tragedy.

Most of the environmental problems we face today are of our own creation. Biological weapons, for instance, may well extinguish our race, said Fidel Castro.

Society's needs can be met, said the Cuban President, without destroying nature and basic human values. Cuba has proved this, he added. The island does not allow its environment to be destroyed for commercial or consumption purposes.

With so much globalization of industry, telecommunications and economics, disastrous policies in one nation could affect another in equally damaging ways. The answer is to train professionals to meet the challenge, said Fidel Castro, as well as raise mass consciousness.

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