By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
25 Oct 2007
With its Geo-4 report, the United Nations tells us that most aspects of
the Earth's natural environment are in decline; and that the decline will
affect us, the planet's human inhabitants, in some pretty important ways.
Feel like you have heard it before? Of course you have, not least from the
UN.
So what, you might ask, is special about this report? Why is it worth any
more than a cursory headline glance before returning to the party?
Well, first there is the sheer scale. Hundreds of researchers from a huge
variety of disciplines have compiled, written and analysed its 572 pages;
thousands more have reviewed the various chapters.
Second, Geo-4 covers the whole range of environmental issues, and the
links between them.
In these climate-obsessed times, it is often forgotten that issues like
forestry, fresh water supplies, agriculture, biodiversity, and the spread
of desert land all connect to each other and to climate change.
READ THE REPORT IN FULL
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/15_10_2007_un.pdf
In the language of James Lovelock's Gaia theory, the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that have punctuated 2007 allowed
us to take the planet's temperature; Geo-4 shows us what is going on in
the blood supply, the lymph system, the intestines and the immune
defences.
Third, it explores the links between social trends and environmental
decline in a way that is not often done. Which other body, for example,
asks whether the divergence we are seeing in the wealth of the richest and
the poorest is good or bad for the environment?
And fourth, it is a staging post on a journey which in principle the
international community embarked upon 20 years ago; a chance to see how
far society has come, and in which direction.
Sustainable commitment
1987 was perhaps the year when the international community, through the
United Nations, began to sound as though it were serious about the
environment.
Our Common Future contained fine words, and fine sentiments; Geo-4
suggests they have not been acted upon... Full article >>
the Earth's natural environment are in decline; and that the decline will
affect us, the planet's human inhabitants, in some pretty important ways.
Feel like you have heard it before? Of course you have, not least from the
UN.
So what, you might ask, is special about this report? Why is it worth any
more than a cursory headline glance before returning to the party?
Well, first there is the sheer scale. Hundreds of researchers from a huge
variety of disciplines have compiled, written and analysed its 572 pages;
thousands more have reviewed the various chapters.
Second, Geo-4 covers the whole range of environmental issues, and the
links between them.
In these climate-obsessed times, it is often forgotten that issues like
forestry, fresh water supplies, agriculture, biodiversity, and the spread
of desert land all connect to each other and to climate change.
READ THE REPORT IN FULL
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/15_10_2007_un.pdf
In the language of James Lovelock's Gaia theory, the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that have punctuated 2007 allowed
us to take the planet's temperature; Geo-4 shows us what is going on in
the blood supply, the lymph system, the intestines and the immune
defences.
Third, it explores the links between social trends and environmental
decline in a way that is not often done. Which other body, for example,
asks whether the divergence we are seeing in the wealth of the richest and
the poorest is good or bad for the environment?
And fourth, it is a staging post on a journey which in principle the
international community embarked upon 20 years ago; a chance to see how
far society has come, and in which direction.
Sustainable commitment
1987 was perhaps the year when the international community, through the
United Nations, began to sound as though it were serious about the
environment.
Our Common Future contained fine words, and fine sentiments; Geo-4
suggests they have not been acted upon... Full article >>
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