Environmental
Failures 'Put Humanity At Risk'
UN report bemoans lack of urgency by governments - 5 year
study involved more than 1,400 scientists
Martin Hodgson The Guardian October 26 2007
Each person requires a third more land for his or her needs
than the planet can supply, says the study. The future of humanity has been
put at risk by a failure to address environmental problems including climate
change, species extinction and a growing human population, according to a new
UN report.
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| Each person requires a third more land for his or her needs than the planet can supply, says the study. Photograph: Corbis |
In a sweeping audit of the world's environmental wellbeing, the study by the
UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warns that governments are still failing to
recognise the seriousness of major environmental issues. The study, involving
more than 1,400 scientists, found that human consumption had far outstripped
available resources. Each person on Earth now requires a third more land to
supply his or her needs than the planet can supply, it finds.
Meanwhile, biodiversity is seriously threatened by the impact of human
activities: 30% of amphibians, 23% of mammals and 12% of birds are under threat
of extinction, while one in 10 of the world's large rivers runs dry every year
before it reaches the sea.
The report - entitled “Global Environment Outlook: Environment for
Development” - reviews progress made since a similar study in 1987 which laid
the groundwork for studying environmental issues affecting the planet.
Since the 1987 study, “Our Common Future,” the global response "has in
some cases been courageous and inspiring," said the environment
programme's executive director Achim Steiner. The international community has
cut ozone-damaging chemicals, negotiated the Kyoto protocol and other
international environmental treaties and supported a rise in protected areas
which cover 12% of the world.
"But all too often [the response] has been slow and at a pace and scale
that fails to respond to or recognise the magnitude of the challenges facing
the people and the environment of the planet," Mr Steiner said. "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 to our children may prove impossible to pay,"
he said.
Climate change is a global priority that demands political leadership, but
there has been "a remarkable lack of urgency" in the response, which
the report characterised as "woefully inadequate". The report's
authors say its objective is "not to present a dark and gloomy scenario,
but an urgent call to action".
It warns that tackling the problems may affect the vested interests of
powerful groups, and that the environment must be moved to the core of
decision-making.
The report said irreversible damage to the world's climate will be likely
unless greenhouse gas emissions drop to below 50% of their 1990 levels before
2050. To reach this level, the richer countries must cut emissions by 60% to
80% by 2050 and developing countries must also make significant reductions, it
says.
It addresses a number of areas where environmental degradation is
threatening human welfare and the planet, including water, over-fishing and
biodiversity - where the UNEP says a sixth, human-induced, extinction is under
way.
Billions of people in the developing world are put at risk by a failure to
remedy relatively simple problems such as waterborne disease, the study says.
The 550-page report took five years to prepare. It was researched and
drafted by almost 400 scientists, whose findings were peer-reviewed by 1,000
others.
One of the report's authors, Joseph Alcamo said that race is on to determine
if leaders move fast enough to save the planet. "The question for me, for
us perhaps, is whether we're going to make it to a more slowly changing world
or whether we're going to hit a brick wall in the Earth's system first,"
he said. "Personally, I think this could be one of the most important
races that humanity will ever run."
In numbers:
- 45 thousand square miles of forest are lost across the
world each year
- 60% of the world's major rivers have been dammed or
diverted
- 34%: the amount by which the world's population has grown
in the last 20 years
- 75 thousand people a year are killed by natural disasters
- 50%: the percentage by which populations of fresh fish
have declined in 20 years
- 20%: how much the energy requirements of developed
countries such as the United States have increased in the period
Source: Global Environment Output 2007 |
