Now or Never to Save the Planet: UN
Urban Ecology News. 2007.10.26
The future of humanity is at risk unless serious global environmental issues are addressed quickly and thoroughly, says UN report.
The 4th Global Environment Outlook report (GEO 4) released today by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) lists global warming, the extinction of species, dwindling fresh water supplies, loss of forest cover, pollution, and depleted fish stocks as major problems.
Animal species are becoming extinct at a rate 100 times faster than in fossil records, the report says.
Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General:
Failure to reverse environmental degradation will impede human development, undercut the fight against poverty and cause wars. Dealing with these issues is the great moral, social and economic imperative of our time.
Achim Steiner, UNEP:
Governments should act now to put climate change at the core of their decision-making. What we're saying to the world is, "Pay attention. You spent 30 years debating whether global warming is occurring. The cost of debating that phenomenon is now so high, or so much higher than it would have been if you had acted earlier."
Jeffery Sachs, Earth Institute, Columbia University:
What's happened is the world economy and population have grown so fast that our institutions lag way behind the ability to address the impact of society on the physical environment. We're affecting things at a massive, global scale. We just don't have the global institutions in place yet to address this properly.
Link: UNEP Global Environment Outlook
Source: Humanity at Risk as Planet Suffers - UN. Michael Edwards. ABC. 2007.10.26
Source: Governments Failing to Recognise Seriousness of Climate Change: UN. Michael Edwards. The World Today. ABC. 2007.10.26
Refer: Population Pressure Takes Earth to its Limits. Marian Wilkinson. Sydney Morning Herald. 2007.10.26
Refer: Environmental Failures Put Humanity at Risk. Martin Hodgson. Guardian. 2007.10.26