UN: Now or never to save the planet

25th October 2007
From United Nations Environment Program

The Global Environment Outlook (GEO) is UNEP's flagship assessment process and report series. The fourth report in the series, GEO- provides an overview of the global and regional environmental, social and economic state-and-trends over the past two decades. It highlights the interlinkages, challenges and opportunities which the environment provides for development and human well-being. The report also presents an outlook, using four scenarios to explore plausible futures to the year 2050, as well as policy options to address present and emerging environmental issues.

GEO-4 is produced and published by the Division of Early Warning and Assessment of the United Nations Environment Programme. It is available from www.unep.org/geo/geo/.


Novorivus: This report from the United Nations speaks to me in uncertain terms that the world needs to become one, with all nations united to tackle the environmental problems we are faced with. We need to stop the selfish country-centric thinking that we have become so accustomed to (the one that Howard falls under when he says that we will not sign Kyoto as it would disadvantage us - other countries would take our place in the market).

Its all about peace, love and the desire to live together in harmony. As for the argument that "it is in our nature to fight wars", It is not true - we can either be peacemakers or warmongers. Bonobos and Common Chimpanzees are our nearest ancestors. Chimps fight, Bonobos fornicate (wikipedia/Bonobo Psychological Characteristics. Everything and anyone! They believe in and practice friendship and bonding not possession and fighting.

From: Bonobo Sex and Society under the heading "Female Alliance")

Male chimpanzees fight their own battles, often relying on the support of other males. Furthermore, adult male chimpanzees travel together in same-sex parties, grooming each other frequently. Males form a distinct social hierarchy with high levels of both competition and association. Given the need to stick together against males of neighboring communities, their bonding is not surprising: failure to form a united front might result in the loss of lives and territory. The danger of being male is reflected in the adult sex ratio of chimpanzee populations, with considerably fewer males than females.

Serious conflict between bonobo groups has been witnessed in the field, but it seems quite rare. On the contrary, reports exist of peaceable mingling, including mutual sex and grooming, between what appear to be different communities. If intergroup combat is indeed unusual, it may explain the lower rate of all-male associations. Rather than being male- bonded, bonobo society gives the impression of being female- bonded, with even adult males relying on their mothers instead of on other males. No wonder Kano calls mothers the "core" of bonobo society.

So what should we try and be - a Bonobo or a Chimp?

See this New Scientist article on the topic of Bonobos, Chimps and humans.

Sorry, I diverged from the original UNEP GEO-4 report which I'll return back to.

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This part of the conclusion in the report is quite striking:

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.

Its now or never kids. Elect governments that are serious and want to make changes by bringing the environment to the core of our policies and immediate concerns.

Planet's Tougher Problems Persist, UN Report Warns

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.
  

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Read the report.