I wrote a diary entry with the above heading just a few weeks ago. Once again, I would like to direct the community’s attention to the Guardian’s coverage of environmental issues. This time with an article on UNEP’s (United Nations Environmental Programme) latest report:
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.
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.
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The article goes on:
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.
[…]
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.
That seems to be pretty clear language to me. And as stunning as the IPCC reports of last spring were with regards to actual climate change observations and the need for immediate action – we now know that scientists were under political pressure to water down the urgency in their conclusions. The melting of the Arctic ice cap this summer exceeded anything previously observed by a wide margin and suggesting an ice free Arctic summer by 2030 – instead of by 2050 as per IPCC models.
We are all aware that the IPCC won the Nobel Peace Prize this year, along with Al Gore.
Meanwhile, from UNEP’s own press release:
Nairobi/New York, 25 October: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.
[…]
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.”
(my bold)
Another clear wake-up call; are our politicians taking action? None dare speak out decisively, except Gore. And the growing consensus is that he won’t run.
