-Reports On The Planet (original) (raw)
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Experimental Agriculture, 2002
This is an unusually brilliant and remarkably concise examination of environmental change in the past century. In the seven chapters of Part One, the author demonstrates that we humans have impacted all the`spheres' that surround us on our planet ± the lithosphere and pedosphere, the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and the biosphere ± more deeply in the twentieth century than in all previous history combined. During the twentieth century the world's population quadrupled, the global economy expanded 14-fold, and industrial output expanded by a factor of 40. Also, carbon dioxide emissions increased 13-fold, water use rose nine times and energy use increased 16 times. In that time too, humans used ten times more energy than their forbears had over the entire 1000 years preceding 1900. In the ®ve chapters of Part Two, the author dextrously analyses the elements of population growth, migration, technological change, industrialization and international policies, ideas and their many`feedback loops' into the realm of environmental policies. The author is not a dogmatic`no-change-at-all' environmentalist or a`doom and gloom, degradation everywhere' ambassador. He does caution us, however, to be prudent: ®rst to understand the sheer dimensions of environmental change and the many results thereof in this past century; and, second, to think sensibly about how these problems might be addressed before dangerous thresholds are breached by our unwitting, collective activities. This book is immensely insightful and revealing, carrying a message that is deeply gripping and sobering. It deserves the widest attention from scientists, educationalists, the public, politicians and corporate leaders alike. For undergraduates everywhere, it should be compulsory reading.
Commissioned Issue Paper of the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Environmental Sustainability
Note to readers The UN Millennium Project Task Force on Environmental Sustainability has commissioned a series seven topical issue papers to provide background information and evidence to lead up to our recommendations for how governments can address problems related to environmental degradation. The mission of the UN Millennium Project, and our task force, is to develop a framework action plan that will be useful to policymakers and environmental managers alike in working towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The final report of this task force, Environment and Human Well-being: A Practical Strategy, is available on the Millennium Project website http://www.unmillenniumproject.org. This task force has addressed the question of how to achieve Goal 7, Ensure environmental sustainability and specifically Target 9, Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources. Reaching this target will require lasting changes in the use of environmental resources and the provision of new and additional financial and technical resources to developing countries that may not have the capacity to implement sustainable use patterns without outside assistance. This paper, Ecosystem Services: the basis for global survival and development, written by Patricia Balvanera and Ravi Prabhu, was commissioned to provide a detailed account of the current state of our knowledge on ecosystem services and their contribution to human well-being. The paper discusses the types of goods and services provided by each major ecosystem, provides a systematic account of the importance of these services for human well-being, and identifies the ecosystem services that are most under threat as well as the principal causes for their degradation.
Holistic Planetary Sustainable Development.pdf
2019
This article differentiates a holistic approach from what is often called a "grass-roots" bottom-up approach to sustainable development, and what is often called a "top-down" approach to development. Under the Constitution for the Federation of Earth and the Earth Federation Movement supporting it neither approach is satisfactory. The article shows the ways in which so called top and bottom must operate synergistically together through a holistic approach. It specifies a number of specifics as to how this can work and currently is working.
Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: "Our Common Future
1987
Our Common Future, Chairman's Foreword "A global agenda for change"-this was what the World Commission on Environment and Development was asked to formulate. It was an urgent call by the General Assembly of the United Nations: to propose long-term environmental strategies for achieving sustainable development by the year 2000 and beyond; to recommend ways concern for the environment may be translated into greater cooperation among developing countries and between countries at different stages of economical and social development and lead to the achievement of common and mutually supportive objectives that take account of the interrelationships between people, resources, environment, and development; to consider ways and means by which the international community can deal more effectively with environment concerns; and to help define shared perceptions of long-term environmental issues and the appropriate efforts needed to deal successfully with the problems of protecting and enhancing the environment, a long term agenda for action during the coming decades, and aspirational goals for the world community. of twice as many people relying on the same environment? This realization broadened our view of development. We came to see it not in its restricted context of economic growth in developing countries. We came to see that a new development path was required, one that sustained human progress not just in a few pieces for a few years, but for the entire planet into the distant future. Thus 'sustainable development' becomes a goal not just for the 'developing' nations, but for industrial ones as well. 2. The Interlocking Crises 11. Until recently, the planet was a large world in which human activities and their effects were neatly compartmentalized within nations, within sectors (energy, agriculture, trade), and within broad areas of concern (environment, economics, social). These compartments have begun to dissolve. This applies in particular to the various global 'crises' that have seized public concern, particularly over the past decade. These are not separate crises: an environmental crisis, a development crisis, an energy crisis. They are all one. 12. The planet is passing through a period of dramatic growth and fundamental change. Our human world of 5 billion must make room in a finite environment for another human world. The population could stabilize at between 8 and 14 billion sometime next century, according to UN projections. More than 90 per cent of the increase will occur in the poorest countries, and 90 per cent of that growth in already bursting cities. 13. Economic activity has multiplied to create a $13 trillion world economy, and this could grow five to tenfold in the coming half century. Industrial production has grown more than fiftyfold over the past century, four-fifths of this growth since 1950. Such figures reflect and presage profound impacts upon the biosphere, as the world invests in houses, transport, farms, and industries. Much of the economic growth pulls raw material from forests, soils, seas, and waterways.
Chapter 5.Pathways towards a Sustainable Future
2019
This document contains the draft Chapter 5 of the IPBES Global Assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Governments and all observers at IPBES-7 had access to these draft chapters eight weeks prior to IPBES-7. Governments accepted the Chapters at IPBES-7 based on the understanding that revisions made to the SPM during the Plenary, as a result of the dialogue between Governments and scientists, would be reflected in the final Chapters.IPBES typically releases its Chapters publicly only in their final form, which implies a delay of several months post Plenary. However, in light of the high interest for the Chapters, IPBES is releasing the six Chapters early (31 May 2019) in a draft form. Authors of the reports are currently working to reflect all the changes made to the Summary for Policymakers during the Plenary to the Chapters, and to perform final copyediting.
Ecosystems and Sustainable Development VI
Imagine we had four planets, the first for humans, their houses, roads, schools, hospitals, churches and factories, the second for agriculture and its traditional purpose, production of food and textile fibres, the third for biomass for fuel to avoid global warming and absorb the exact same quantity of CO 2 from the atmosphere as the fuel emits when it burns (zero greenhouse effect). The fourth planet would be left wild for the conservation of natural biodiversity, as taught by St. Francis of Assisi.