Hugo Chavez, a Green President.

Viva Venezuela verde!
Derek Wall
April 11, 2007 5:00 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/derek_wall/2007/04/viva_verde_venezuela.html

My only transatlantic flight in the last decade was a return trip to Caracas, Venezuela at the invitation of my friend Cesar who works in the ministry of the environment. I was promised a chance to see a green revolution in progress and I was not disappointed. President Hugo Chávez, deposed in a CIA backed coup in 2002, back in power a week later after huge protests in the barrios (the slums) and recently re-elected with a whopping 63% vote, is a green.

This is pretty astonishing because Venezuela is a petro-economy, the fifth largest oil producer in the world and with gas just a few thousand bolivers a gallon (about 20p) the Venezuelan's love to drive huge ancient, battered and polluting cars (at speed). However Chávez knows that climate change is a reality, one that is likely to hit countries near the equator, like Venezuela, hard. He also knows that the great car economy is a source of choking fumes and urban vandalism.

There is a huge organic farm right in the centre of Caracas between the freeway and the Hilton. This is part of a drive towards green agriculture. I visited an ecological high school outside the city, in thousands of similar schools in the country pupils are taught organic farming based on the use of worm bin compost. Venezuela has also banned energy wasting light bulbs. Another green initiative is Misión Arbol, which aims in five years to collect 30 tonnes of seeds, plant 100 million plants, and reforest 150,000 hectares of land.

Chávez, with his usual passion, has observed: "One car each? Our planet won't stand that - that model of capitalism, extreme individualism and consumerist egotism. The destructive so-called developmentalism destroying the planet is, quite frankly, a thing of stupidity."

While greens are rightly suspicious of oil deals, Chávez's plan to barter cheap oil with Ken Livingstone in return for advice on dealing with congestion in Caracas, strikes me as the right thing to do. Incidentally the oil will be sold for cash and used to fund the scheme, rather used to fuel buses in Camden, Barnet or Hackney. Ken Livingstone's congestion charge is admired by Chávez, who aims to buy in the Mayor's expertise in reducing car use in return for a cash payment to reduce oyster card fares for low income Londoners. Already a new railway out of Caracas has been built and it will be free for the first few weeks to get commuters out of their cars. This is just one part of the Venezuelan plan to reduce their long-term dependence on oil revenue, so as to build a future that is economically sustainable and ecologically sound.