Leo Hickman on why the UN Environment Programme's five-year study is such depressing reading

The Guardian, By Leo Hickman, October 26

We're screwed. That's a handy two-word summary for you, if you don't wish to plough through all 540 pages of the UN Environment Programme's landmark "Geo-4" report, which sets out in comprehensive, peer-reviewed detail the current state of the global environment.

It's hard not to get pessimistic about our chances of not all coming to a sticky end when you read that in almost all the areas examined - fresh water, fisheries, forests, biodiversity, soils, climate change, toxic waste, human settlements etc - the report says there are grave concerns about the damage already done by our actions, let alone what the future holds.

The report tries to maintain a "chin up" attitude throughout, but who are the authors really kidding, especially given what we know about the political incumbents we are currently blessed with around the world? This report leaves me feeling as if we're half-time in a big football match and already 3-0 nil down. What are our chances of pulling it around? Yes, it can be done - as Liverpool FC fans know all too well - but it's going to take something truly extraordinary, as football commentators like to say.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/26/climatechange

· UN report bemoans lack of urgency by governments
· Five-year study involved more than 1,400 scientists

* Martin Hodgson
* The Guardian
* Friday 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.

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

October 26, 2007

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2741666.ece

Land, sea, air and rivers have all deteriorated so much in the past 20 years that scientists fear humanity’s very survival is now at risk

Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter

The environmental problems faced by the world are so extensive that they must be treated as a top priority if they are to be solved, scientists have told the United Nations.

A team of 400 researchers involved in putting together the fourth Global Environment Outlook: Environment for development (GEO4) said that the “scale of the challenge is huge”.

They assessed a range of environmental factors and concluded that the condition of the land, sea, air and rivers have all deteriorated in the past 20 years.

Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said that the international community’s response to environmental issues was at times “courageous and inspiring”, but all too often was inadequate.

“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.

The report was critical of the lack of action by governments across the world in protecting the environment from being degraded. The response to climate change was described as “woefully inadequate” but it was only one of several major problems that needed to be addressed effectively.

“We appear to be living in an era in which the severity of environmental problems is increasing faster than our policy responses,” the report said. “To avoid the threat of catastrophic consequences, we need new policy approaches to change the direction and magnitude of drivers of environmental change.”

Mike Childs, of the environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth, said: “The steady degradation of the world’s environment threatens the wellbeing of everybody on the planet.”

John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace UK, said the report illustrated the importance of living sustainably. He said: “It is the only way to improve global life expectancy and income inequality, beat climate change, reduce deforestation and protect biodiversity.”

Population

Increases in world population, which has risen almost 34 per cent from 5 billion in 1987 to 6.7 billion today, were blamed for many of the pressures on the Earth’s resources.

Consumption, heightened by a threefold increase in trade since 1987, means that more is now being produced than can be sustained, especially as average incomes have increased 40 per cent per person since 1987. Each person needs 21.9 hectares of the Earth’s surface to supply his or her needs whereas, it was calculated, the Earth’s biological capacity is 15.7 hectares per person.

Atmosphere

Developed nations were found to have made significant achievements in cleaning up air pollution but the problem has intensified in many poorer nations.

Changes in policy and legislation coupled with improvements in technology reduced air pollution in some cities but was negated in other places because of increased economic activity and a growth in the use of cars.

Richer countries were, the report said, responsible in some cases for shifting their pollution to developing countries that were producing goods for export.

Climate change was regarded by the report as “visible and unequivocal” and likely to have enormous impacts on the environment. Combating it should be treated as “a global priority”, it said.

Researchers, in line with warnings from the UN International Panel on Climate Change, said drastic steps were required by policymakers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy, transport and land use. “Fundamental changes in social and economic structures, including lifestyle changes, are crucial if rapid progress is to be achieved,” the report said.

Land

The output of an average farmer increased 40 per cent since 1987 as land use intensified to keep up with the growth of the global economy and population.

Each person in the world was said, on average, to require a third more land to supply individual needs than the biological capacity of the landscape. “Unsustainable land use is causing degradation, a threat as serious as climate change and biodiversity loss,” the scientists concluded.

“It affects human wellbeing, through pollution, soil erosion, nutrient depletion, water scarcity, salinity and disruption of biological cycles.”

Of particular concern to the researchers was the increase in fertilisers required to meet demands for food because of the contamination the chemicals can cause.

Irrigation was said to be reducing the quantity and quality of water in rivers. One in ten of the world’s main rivers now runs dry at some point each year before it can reach the sea.

Genetically modified crops were regarded by the scientists as essential if food demands are to be met because they can protect against disease and pests. Insects were said to destroy 14 per cent of all crops. Rising desertification and droughts were feared to be destroying soil quality.

Water

Overfishing was singled out as an issue that needed to be tackled as a priority or else billions of people could face food shortages in the coming decades.

“Marine fish catches are being maintained only by fishing ever further offshore and at deeper levels, devastating some species very quickly, and increasingly further down the food chain,” the authors said.

It was pointed out that 60 per cent of the world population live within 65 miles of the coast and that many are likely to be forced to move because of sea level rises from global warming over the coming century.

Availability of fresh water was high-lighted as a rising problem. By 2025 1.8 billion people were forecast to be suffering from severe shortages.

Biodiversity

Measures to protect biodiversity, with species being forced into extinction at a rate 100 times faster than any in fossil records, were regarded as urgent.

The rate of loss was considered so serious that it was described as the sixth major extinction event in the Earth’s history.

“Human life and all other species depend on healthy ecosystems. But current biodiversity changes, the fastest in human history, mean losses are restricting future development options,” the report said.

About 60 per cent of ecosystems were described as degraded or used unsustainably, with land-use change, habitat loss, overexploitation and pollution all factors. Introductions of alien species were blamed for widespread damage to habitat.

“Reducing the rate of loss and ensuring that decision-makers acknowledge biodiversity’s full value to human wellbeing will go far towards achieving sustainable development,” the authors said.

The researchers said agriculture depended on biodiversity but was the biggest cause of reduced genetic diversity, species loss and habitat loss. Scientists expressed concern for the future security of the supply of food because of the narrow genetic base for agriculture. “Just 14 animal species account for 90 per cent of all livestock production, and 30 crops dominate global agriculture, providing an estimated 90 per cent of the world’s calories,” they said.

Concern about diversity extended to human cultures. More than half the world’s 6,000 languages are under threat and some estimates put the likely loss this century at 90 per cent.

“Increased understanding of how people relate to biodiversity and how to move towards greater stewardship of biodiversity may be the biggest question the world must still answer,” they said.

Telegraph

By Graham Tibbetts
Last Updated: 6:01pm BST 25/10/2007

The survival of mankind depends on nations overcoming their lethargy and tackling the problems of climate change, species extinction and feeding a growing population, a panel of the world's leading scientists has said.

Report described climate change as a 'global priority'

Launching a landmark report in London on the state of the planet's environment, the experts warned that economies - including Britain's - would be crippled by the rising cost of dealing with catastrophic natural changes.

One said humans were locked in a race against time to reduce the effects of environment change and described it as "one of the most epic races humanity will ever run".

The stark message was contained in a five-year study by the United Nations Environment Programme. The fourth Global Environment Outlook Report (GEO-4) was prepared by 390 scientists and reviewed by more than 1,000 across the world, making it one of the most comprehensive studies in decades.

It looked at changes to the planet in the 20 years since the Brundtland Commission outlined the detrimental impact humans were having on the world around them.

During that time:
# Carbon dioxide concentrations have increased by a third
# The amount of fish stocks which have collapsed has doubled to 30 per cent
# Freshwater availability has halved in West Asia as more water is used for irrigation
# Energy consumption per head in America has increased by 18 per cent.
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Global warming and the exploitation of fish and forests for food meant that a sixth mass species extinction is now underway, threatening to destroy fragile ecosystems, some of which may not be fully understood.

GEO-4 said that "Planet Earth Plc" was living way beyond its means. The amount of resources being consumed per person is now 21.9 hectares per person, while the earth's capacity is only 15.7 hectares per person.

The report described climate change as a "global priority" but found there was a "remarkable lack of urgency" and a "woefully inadequate" global response.

Achim Steiner, UNEP's executive director, said: "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."

Marion Cheatle, deputy director of UNEP's division of early warning and assessment, said: "The report provides incontrovertible evidence of unprecedented environmental change over the last 20 years that unless checked will fundamentally undermine economic development for current and future generations."

Britain should look to countries like Denmark, which has become a world leader in wind energy.

"That has been a huge boost and other contries can replicate that. Britain's economy is influenced by transport - how is it going to get to grips with its huge increase in airline travel while reducing its carbon footprint?" she said.

During the last 20 years global wealth in GDP has increased by a third, yet that wealth is not being used to protect future resources, said Ms Cheatle.

She said it would be far cheaper to take action now than later, but while the general public often shared scientists' concerns they were ignored by governments.

"We have the solutions to so many of these problems. But time and again there is not enough effort and resources or political will to tackle them to the extent we need," said Ms Cheatle.

The GEO-4 report offered some hope, observing that in the last two decades the international community has produced the Kyoto Protocol and cut ozone-layer damaging chemicals by 95 per cent.

But it concludes: "The need couldn't be more urgent and the time couldn't be more opportune... to act now to safeguard our own survival and that of future generations."

Mike Childs, campaigns director of Friends of the Earth, welcomed the report and called for political action to protect wildlife and ecosystems.

He added: " We need governments, businesses and individuals to harness humankind's amazing abilities in innovation to create a fairer and greener world."

Marian Wilkinson, Environment Editor
October 26, 2007

THE most authoritative scientific report on the planet's health has found water, land, air, plants, animals and fish stocks are all in "inexorable decline" as 2007 became the first year in human history when most of the world's population lived in cities.

The United Nations' Global Environment Outlook-4 report, released in New York, reveals a scale of unprecedented ecological damage, with more than 2 million people possibly dying prematurely of air pollution and close to 2 billion likely to suffer absolute water scarcity by 2025.

Put bluntly, the report warns that the 6.75 billion world population, "has reached a stage where the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available".

And it says climate change, the collapse of fish stocks and the extinction of species "may threaten humanity's very survival".

Launching the report, the head of the UN's Environment Program, Achim Steiner, warned that, "without an accelerated effort to reform the way we collectively do business on planet earth, we will shortly be in trouble, if indeed we are not already".

One of the most disturbing findings is that environmental exposures are now causing almost one quarter of all diseases including respiratory disease, cancers, and emerging animal-to-human disease transfer.

Pressure on the global water supply has also become a serious threat to human development as the demand for irrigated crops soars. The report estimates that only one in 10 of the world's major rivers reaches the sea all year round because of upstream irrigation demands.

Each person's "environmental footprint" has on average grown to 22 hectares of the planet but the report estimates the "biological carrying capacity" is somewhere between 15 and 16 hectares per person.

Critically, fish stocks, a key protein source for several billion people, are in crisis. About 30 per cent of global fish stocks are classed as "collapsed" and 40 per cent are described as "over-exploited".

The exploitation of land for agriculture has hugely increased as populations increase and living standards rise. A hectare of land that once produced 1.8 tonnes of crops in 1987 now produces 2.5 tonnes. But that rise in productivity has been made possible by a greater use of fertilisers and water leading to land degradation and pollution.

"The food security of two-thirds of the world's people depends on fertilisers, especially nitrogen," the report says. In turn, the nutrients running off farmland are increasingly causing algal blooms. In the Gulf of Mexico and the Baltic Sea these have created huge "dead zones" without oxygen.

The report estimates that all species, including animals and plants, are becoming extinct at rates 100 times faster than those shown from the past in fossil records. The main causes include land clearing for agriculture, over-exploitation and pollution. Of the major species assessed, 23 per cent of mammals and 12 per cent of birds are threatened with extinction.

Genetic diversity is also shrinking as just 14 animal species account for 90 per cent of all livestock production and 30 crops dominate global agriculture. But overwhelmingly, the report finds that climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions poses the gravest danger to the future of the planet. The authors note "a remarkable lack of urgency" in tackling human-induced global warming and, in a criticism of the Australia and the US, it notes that "several highly-emitting countries have refused to ratify the global climate change treaty, the Kyoto Protocol".

Significantly, Mr Steiner said last night be believed the governments were "finally turning the corner" on dealing with climate change.

"The momentum on climate change in 2007 is nothing short of breathtaking", he said. "It is time to find the same sense of urgency on biodiversity and degradation, on fisheries and freshwater".

Mr Steiner noted important progress in some areas, cuts in air pollution in Europe and cuts to overfishing in the Pacific. And he stressed that the authors of the report insist that its objective "is not to present a dark and gloomy scenario but an urgent call for action".

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/25/1192941241428.html