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Climate Change, Species extinction and Food
shortage - Earth's tougher problems persist - UNEP report says
The United Nations Environment
Programme says that major threats to the planet such as climate change,
the rate of extinction of species, and the challenge of feeding a growing
population are among the many that remain unresolved, and all of them put
humanity at risk.
The warning comes in UNEP's Global
Environment Outlook: environment for development (GEO-4) report published
20 years after the World Commission on Environment and Development (the
Brundtland Commission) produced its seminal report, Our Common Future.
GEO-4, the latest in UNEP's series of
flagship reports, assesses the current state of the global atmosphere,
land, water and biodiversity, describes the changes since 1987, and
identifies priorities for action. GEO-4 is the most comprehensive UN
report on the environment, prepared by about 390 experts and reviewed by
more than 1 000 others across the world.
It salutes the world's progress in
tackling some relatively straightforward problems, with the environment
now much closer to mainstream politics everywhere. But despite these
advances, there remain the harder-to-manage issues, the "persistent"
problems. Here, GEO-4 says: "There are no major issues raised in Our
Common Future for which the foreseeable trends are favourable."
Failure to address these persistent
problems, UNEP says, may undo all the achievements so far on the simpler
issues, and may threaten humanity's survival. But it insists: "The
objective is not to present a dark and gloomy scenario, but an urgent call
for action."
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and UNEP Executive Director, said: "The international community's
response to the Brundtland Commission has in some cases been courageous
and inspiring. But all too often it has been slow and at a pace and scale
that fails to respond to or recognize the magnitude of the challenges
facing the people and the environment of the planet".
"Over the past 20 years, the
international community has cut, by 95 per cent, the production of
ozone-layer damaging chemicals; created a greenhouse gas emission
reduction treaty along with innovative carbon trading and carbon offset
markets; supported a rise in terrestrial protected areas to cover roughly
12 per cent of the Earth and devised numerous important instruments
covering issues from biodiversity and desertification to the trade in
hazardous wastes and living modified organisms," he added.
"But, as GEO-4 points out, there
continue to be 'persistent' and intractable problems unresolved and
unaddressed. Past issues remain and new ones are emerging?from the rapid
rise of oxygen 'dead zones' in the oceans to the resurgence of new and old
diseases linked in part with environmental degradation. Meanwhile,
institutions like UNEP, established to counter the root causes, remain
under-resourced and weak," said Mr Steiner.
On climate change the report says the
threat is now so urgent that large cuts in greenhouse gases by mid-century
are needed. Negotiations are due to start in December on a treaty to
replace the Kyoto Protocol, the international climate agreement which
obligates countries to control anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.
Although it exempts all developing countries from emission reduction
commitments, there is growing pressure for some rapidly-industrializing
countries, now substantial emitters themselves, to agree to emission
reductions.
GEO-4 also warns that we are living
far beyond our means. The human population is now so large that "the
amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available...
humanity's footprint [its environmental demand] is 21.9 hectares per
person while the Earth's biological capacity is, on average, only 15.7
ha/person...".
And it says the well-being of billions
of people in the developing world is at risk, because of a failure to
remedy the relatively simple problems which have been successfully tackled
elsewhere.
GEO-4 recalls the Brundtland
Commission's statement that the world does not face separate crises - the
"environmental crisis", "development crisis", and "energy crisis" are all
one. This crisis includes not just climate change, extinction rates and
hunger, but other problems driven by growing human numbers, the rising
consumption of the rich and the desperation of the poor.
Examples are:
- decline of fish stocks;
- loss of fertile land through degradation;
- unsustainable pressure on resources;
- dwindling amount of fresh water available for humans and other creatures
to share; and
- risk that environmental damage could pass unknown points of no return.
GEO-4 says climate change is a "global
priority", demanding political will and leadership. Yet it finds "a
remarkable lack of urgency", and a "woefully inadequate" global response.
Several highly-polluting countries
have refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. GEO-4 says: "... some
industrial sectors that were unfavourable to the... Protocol managed
successfully to undermine the political will to ratify it." It says:
"Fundamental changes in social and economic structures, including
lifestyle changes, are crucial if rapid progress is to be achieved."
Among the other critical points it
identifies are:
Water: Irrigation already takes
about 70 per cent of available water, yet meeting the Millennium
Development Goal on hunger will mean doubling food production by 2050.
Fresh water is declining: by 2025, water use is predicted to have risen by
50 per cent in developing countries and by 18 per cent in the developed
world. GEO-4 says: "The escalating burden of water demand will become
intolerable in water-scarce countries."
Water quality is declining too,
polluted by microbial pathogens and excessive nutrients. Globally,
contaminated water remains the greatest single cause of human disease and
death.
Fish: Consumption more than
tripled from 1961 to 2001. Catches have stagnated or slowly declined since
the 1980s. Subsidies have created excess fishing capacity, estimated at
250 per cent more than is needed to catch the oceans' sustainable
production.
Biodiversity: Current
biodiversity changes are the fastest in human history. Species are
becoming extinct a hundred times faster than the rate shown in the fossil
record. The Congo Basin's bushmeat trade is thought to be six times the
sustainable rate. Of the major vertebrate groups that have been assessed
comprehensively, over 30 per cent of amphibians, 23 per cent of mammals
and 12 per cent of birds are threatened.
The intrusion of invasive alien
species is a growing problem. The comb jellyfish, accidentally introduced
in 1982 by US ships, has taken over the entire marine ecosystem of the
Black Sea, and had destroyed 26 commercial fisheries by 1992.
A sixth major extinction is under way,
this time caused by human behaviour. Yet to meet our growing demand for
food will mean either intensified agriculture (using more chemicals,
energy and water, and more efficient breeds and crops) or cultivating more
land. Either way, biodiversity suffers.
One sign of progress is the steady
increase in protected areas. But they must be effectively managed and
properly enforced. And biodiversity (of all sorts, not just the
"charismatic megafauna" like tigers and elephants) will increasingly need
conserving outside protected areas as well.
Regional Pressures: This is the first
GEO report in which all seven of the world's regions emphasize the
potential impacts of climate change. In Africa, land degradation and even
desertification are threats; per capita food production has declined by 12
per cent since 1981. Unfair agricultural subsidies in developed regions
continue to hinder progress towards increasing yields. Priorities for Asia
and the Pacific include urban air quality, fresh water stress, degraded
ecosystems, agricultural land use and increased waste. Drinking water
provision has made remarkable progress in the last decade, but the illegal
traffic in electronic and hazardous waste is a new challenge. Europe's
rising incomes and growing numbers of households are leading to
unsustainable production and consumption, higher energy use, poor urban
air quality, and transport problems. The region's other priorities are
biodiversity loss, land-use change and freshwater stresses.
Latin America and the Caribbean face
urban growth, biodiversity threats, coastal damage and marine pollution,
and vulnerability to climate change. But protected areas now cover about
12 per cent of the land, and annual deforestation rates in the Amazon are
falling. North America is struggling to address climate change, to which
energy use, urban sprawl and freshwater stresses are all linked. Energy
efficiency gains have been countered by the use of larger vehicles, low
fuel economy standards, and increases in car numbers and distances
travelled. For West Asia the priorities are freshwater stresses,
degradation of land, coasts and marine ecosystems, urban management, and
peace and security. Water-borne diseases and the sharing of international
water resources are also concerns. The Polar Regions are already feeling
the impacts of climate change. The food security and health of indigenous
peoples are at risk from increasing mercury and persistent organic
pollutants in the environment. The ozone layer is expected to take another
half-century to recover.
The Future
GEO-4 acknowledges that technology can help to reduce people's
vulnerability to environmental stresses, but says there is sometimes a
need "to correct the technology-centred development paradigm". It explores
how current trends may unfold by 2050 in four scenarios.
The real future will be largely
determined by the decisions individuals and society make now, GEO-4 says:
"Our common future depends on our actions today, not tomorrow or some time
in the future."
For some of the persistent problems
the damage may already be irreversible. GEO-4 warns that tackling the
underlying causes of environmental pressures often affects the vested
interests of powerful groups able to influence policy decisions. The only
way to address these harder problems requires moving the environment from
the periphery to the core of decision-making: environment for development,
not development to the detriment of environment.
"There have been enough wake-up calls
since Brundtland. I sincerely hope GEO-4 is the final one. The systematic
destruction of the Earth's natural and nature-based resources has reached
a point where the economic viability of economies is being challenged and
where the bill we hand on to our children may prove impossible to pay,"
said Mr Steiner.
The GEO-4 report concludes that "while
governments are expected to take the lead, other stakeholders are just as
important to ensure success in achieving sustainable development. The need
couldn't be more urgent and the time couldn't be more opportune, with our
enhanced understanding of the challenges we face, to act now to safeguard
our own survival and that of future generations" ends.
Source:
UNEP Press Release
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