Tagata atu motu.

Many Pacific Island leaders must have left the Earth Summit in Rio with at least a mild sense of disappointment.

While there was agreementt on a treaty to reduce emissions of so called "greenhouse gases" which trap heat, and are believed to be the cause of global warming and rising sea levels........... the United States successfully fought before the summit to remove specific targets for reductions.
The summit also agreed on a bioadversity treaty to save the world's plants and animals, but the United States refused to sign.

The summit also approved the so-called Rio Declaration, outlinning human responsibility to the earth and developing nations.

One of those who made a special effort to be in Rio, to alert the world to pacific island enviromental concerns, was Cook Islands Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Henry. He told RNZ's correspodent in Rio Judy Lessing that it was important for small nations like the Cook Islands to have their voice heard when the future of the world was being discussed.

Western Samoa's Prime Minister Tofilau Eti Alesana spoke with all the conviction of a Pacific Island leader facing a 500-million dollar clean up bill after a major cyclone lashed his country seven months ago.