Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, now 75 and the chairman of an environmental lobby group, Green Cross International, was the Soviet president from 1985-91.

He was awarded the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Cold War.

The mission of Green Cross International, as stated by Mr. Gorbachev, is:

"We desperately need to recognize that we are the guests not the masters of nature and adopt a new paradigm for development, based on the costs and benefits to all people, and bound by the limits of nature herself rather than the limits of technology and consumerism."