U.N. Warns of Environmental Threats

[gagquin]

U.N. Warns of Environmental Threats

By JAMES KANTER Published: October 26, 2007

PARIS, Oct. 25 — The human population is living far beyond its means and inflicting damage to the environment that could pass points of no return, according to a major report being issued today by the United Nations.

Climate change, the rate of extinction of species, and the challenge of feeding a growing population are among the threats putting humanity at risk, according to the United Nations Environment Program in its fourth Global Environmental Outlook since 1997.

"The human population is now so large that the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available at current consumption patterns," Achim Steiner, the executive director of the Environment Program, said in a telephone interview. Efficient use of resources and reducing waste now are "among the greatest challenges at the beginning in of 21st century," he said.

The program described its report, which is prepared by 388 experts and scientists, as the broadest and deepest of those the United Nations has issued on the environment and called it "the final wake-up call to the international community." Many biologists and climate scientists have concluded recently that human activities have become a dominant influence on the planet's climate and ecosystems. The recent award of the Nobel Peace Prize to former Vice President Al Gore and to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations network of scientists, for their work in developing and publicizing information about climate change, underscores the depth of concerns about the issue. But there is still a range of views on whether it could result in a catastrophic depletion of natural resources as the human population heads toward 9 billion by mid-century, or more of a steady diminution in diversity.

Over the last two decades the world population has already increased by almost 34 percent, to 6.7 billion from 5 billion. But the land available to each person is shrinking, from 19.5 acres in 1900 to 5 acres by 2005, and is projected to drop to 4 acres by 2050, the report said.

Population growth combined with unsustainable consumption has resulted in an increasingly stressed planet where natural disasters and environmental degradation endanger millions of human beings as well as plant and animal species, the report said.

Persistent problems identified by the report include a rapid rise of so-called dead zones, where marine life no longer can be supported because of depleted oxygen levels from pollutants such as fertilizers, as well as the resurgence of diseases linked with environmental degradation.

The report comes two decades after a commission chaired by the former Norwegian prime minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, warned that the survival of humanity was at stake from unsustainable development.

Mr. Steiner said many of the problems the Brundtland Commission identified were even more acute now because not enough had been done to stop environmental degradation while flows of goods, services, people, technologies and workers has expanded, even to isolated populations.

He did, however, identify pockets of hope, noting that Western European governments had taken effective measures to reduce air pollutants and that Brazil had made efforts to roll back some deforestation in the Amazon. He said an international treaty to tackle the hole in the earth's ozone layer had led to the phasing out of 95 percent of ozone-damaging chemicals.

"Life would be easier if we didn't have the kind of population growth rates that we have at the moment," Mr. Steiner said, "But to force people to stop having children would be simplistic answer. The more realistic, ethical and practical issue is to accelerate human well being and make more rational use of the resources we have on this planet."

Mr. Steiner said parts of Africa could reach an environmental tipping point if changing rainfall patterns stemming from climate change turned semi-arid zones into arid zones and made the agriculture that sustains millions of people much harder.

Mr. Steiner said another tipping point could occur in India and China if Himalayan glaciers shrink so much that they no longer supply adequate amounts of water to populations in those countries.

He also warned of a global collapse of all species being fished by 2050, if fishing around the world continued at its present pace.

The report said 250 percent more fish are being caught than the oceans can produce in a sustainable manner, and that the level of global fish stocks classed as collapsed had roughly doubled to 30 percent over the past 20 years. The report said that current changes in biodiversity were the fastest in human history, with species becoming extinct a hundred times faster than the rate in the fossil record. It said 12 percent of birds are threatened with extinction; for mammals the figure is 23 percent and for amphibians it is more than 30 percent.

source

[dMog]

And even with all this there are still people out there that say man's foot print on this Earth is not doing anything wrong or detrimental to any living creatures including ourselves nor will they say that we are destroying the climate even a tiny little bit :frusty:

[myidisbb]

wrong

i wonder how much this crap UN spends on their budget?

right now the massive money choke sucking is in al gore's lie. god, just think if we took that money and spent it on the chlidren of the world instead of his buddies what we could do

[bearoninternet]

wrong

i wonder how much this crap UN spends on their budget?

right now the massive money choke sucking is in al gore's lie. god, just think if we took that money and spent it on the chlidren of the world instead of his buddies what we could do

It's just new-economy taxfraud.

We should be afraid we might all kill ourselves in the event.

Which actually would be a good thing for nature :dance2:

So have no fear; live on... :frusty:

[myidisbb]

another big joke is if the site is natural poison and heavy metals then they cant clean it up

[dock98]

wrong

i wonder how much this crap UN spends on their budget?

right now the massive money choke sucking is in al gore's lie. god, just think if we took that money and spent it on the chlidren of the world instead of his buddies what we could do

they wont.i wonder what percent of their budget goes into bullshit research,or our own for that matter.

[dMog]

YES i agree, Al gore Used that movie for political gain...and yes he is an idiot but that does not change the fact that most scientists in the world agree with MOST of what that movie had to say...there is much scientific proof there guys...most of the nay sayers in this regard are financed or directly connected to the companies that have the most to loose...look at the fact that every time these companies bring out unsafe chemicals and people say they are getting sick from using the stuff these same companies say ALL the evidence points to their product as safe(and they ignore or say any other proof other wise is false)...even when they they end up being successfully sued 20 years later, they still claim the stuff was and is safe...

[myidisbb]

no there is no scienitic proof just bs data collecting used in bs computer programs. its all about money. you greedy al gore lovers

[dMog]

nope...your wrong.... know how i know....the president of the usa said there is no concern about global warming....that is proof enough for me :frusty:

[myidisbb]

nope...your wrong.... know how i know....the president of the usa said there is no concern about global warming....that is proof enough for me :dance2:

oh really. that is called hate.

but keep your mind closed and pray to your god AliGoreham. they even preach killing and burning heretics.

talk about brain washed. they are control freaks. same kind that are going after file sharers and websites.

i been around long enough to know its bs. just another history example of use of fear and escape goating. this is all the same. they even tie in "big evil companies control by zionism" crap. blah blah blah. just more hatred. just this time its sugar coated differenly.

dont complain when they start the carbon footprint tax.

[Ambrocious]

The main point here is that the earth, whether we did it or not, is going threw changes that threaten the way of life that we or animals will be living in the future.

It wouldn't hurt to stop using toxic and environmental hazordous substances either since it has been prooven that we have an impact on our surroundings.

I can not honestly say that we are responsible fully for the ice caps melting but if it can be prooven that the accused method in which things are making the ice caps melt are true then I would say that we have some responsibility and it is simply unwise to NOT try and avoid future issues that will effect us.

When faced with bad news about what we can expect, denial is often the most comman thing about most people who would rather not see that humans can actually make a difference in peoples lives and our surroundings.

For every action, there is an equal or opposite reaction, this is prooven.

[Samurai]

Following on from Abrocious' post above (well said IMO), I'd also like to point out the following article on the Korean DMZ.

"Except in the area around the truce village of Panmunjeom and more recently on the Donghae Bukbu Line on the east coast, humans for the most part have not entered the DMZ in the last fifty years. This isolation has created as a byproduct one of the most well-preserved pieces of temperate land in the world. Environmentalists hope that if reunification occurs the former DMZ will become a wildlife refuge. However, there will be significant obstacles to maintaining the site because of the high concentration of landmines across the area."

No one can deny that because of zero intervention, the land is now well-preserved in plants and wildlife.

The same can be said about everything else. They say the most dangerous of all creatures that ever existed is mankind. If people don't open their eyes and see what it is that's going on, it will only be too little, too late. Sure, this may not happen for another 10, 100 or even 1000 years. Surely we owe it to future generations to act now rather than later??

[myidisbb]

so

go kill your nieghbors. got to get that population under control. its for the future children

dont wear any cloths. thats bad for the evironment.

dont eat any meat.

dont grow veg and fruit. that requires modern machines.

dont take baths, showers nor wash cloths

turn your computers off and throw them away.

no more cars. use a bike instead. opps making a bike is bad too.

horse and buggy time. hmmm means you will be born and die within avg of 50 miles of the same place. oh the good ol times. no thanks

move to a cave.

join the amish. opps even they do walmart. :dance2:

look just live a good life. do the right thing for yourself. clean up after yourself. i know in the usa we do a good job on that. i am pretty sure the people on here have good nations themselves and do the right things over all. if you can access here you have some form of freedom where you are living. i can also tell you the people in the middle east dont give a dang thing about the enivronment nor anything else. but that be getting into stuff that touchie and hot potato.

btw dmz is a nasty place. environment mess. land mines and traps everywhere. let alone north korea's massive illegal tunnels under it. where does one think all north koreas million person plus army sewage that on the line goes? opps massive amounts of chemical weapons there too. lots of grass and trees is just an illusion.

[dMog]

myid....when you talk like that it is very hard to even want to hold any form of dialogue and you are the farthest thing from making pertinent nor realistic arguments ...all you are doing is being extreme and insulting in your reactions to any one who disagrees with you....that is not a valid way to speak in an argument in any case.... it is just sitting there with a totally closed mind making a lot of noise and refusing to listen to anyone who does not agree with your thoughts...you do not win arguments by being the rudest and loudest and most insulting...i for one will not be involved in this post any more

[myidisbb]

rudest and loudest and most insulting??? shakinghead. worlds apart. oh well. have a nice day.

[Zeus_Hunt]

see.. in india there was a sting operation done on communal violence that killed more than a 1000 ppl (most around 90% of them muslims) in 2002.

The sting operation got confessions from ppl who were involved in it.

They talked about how they planned it.. how they targeted muslims... how arms were brought from different states.....

Most of them polititions or very close to them.

The chief minister (governor) of the state was involved in it.

The ones confessing said how they killed how the state machinary including cops helped and allowed this to happen.

Now unfortunately.. instead of thinking about the crime that was commited, ppl are talking about the politics of it.

How/why the sting was done...

Who benifited from the sting.

Instead of concentrating on the crime.. in which one guy talks about how they cut a pregnant woman or how a elected member was dismembered... shameless ppl wont talk about it or what actions needs to be done to get justice.

They want to talk about everything else apart from it.

Its the same in this topic as well.

ppl wont/dont want to agree/believe on what is being said .. but want to dwell on everything but it.

Just heard yesterday that 1/3 of all primates are close to extinction.

dont believe it. talk about how, who benifts from this. but never do a shit about those primates.

Thats sad. :dance2:

There is more talk on this topic about Al Gore than "U.N. Warns of Environmental Threats "

[myidisbb]

see.. in india there was a sting operation done Just heard yesterday that 1/3 of all primates are close to extinction.

dont believe it. talk about how, who benifts from this. but never do a shit about those primates.

Thats sad. :dance2:

"

i tyhink they are using twisted data. i just remember most primates are dying from the Ebola virus in africa. plus we all know which nations are using animal parts.

[Zeus_Hunt]

I guess as long as it doesnt effect us... or we have not prepared the report. it doesnt matter.

[myidisbb]

I guess as long as it doesnt effect us... or we have not prepared the report. it doesnt matter.

oh course it effects all of us. what are we to do? stop africans from killing animals and eating primates? lock up the primates and after a long time maybe find a cure to the ebola.

there isnt much we can do. not even china could save their fresh water dophins from being killed and used for meds.

you just have to do your best on your own. live a good life and care about things around you that you actually do on yourself and not some feeling of the latest story

[Zeus_Hunt]

I guess as long as it doesnt effect us... or we have not prepared the report. it doesnt matter.

you just have to do your best on your own. live a good life and care about things around you that you actually do on yourself and not some feeling of the latest story

Thats all everyone is asking for. :P

[Ambrocious]

I'll quote something from a very good old book about what is happening now in this world.

"Man has dominated man to his own injury." The Holy Bible

[Zeus_Hunt]

Saw "Endgame - Blueprint For Global Enslavement"

Dont know what to believe what not to... anymore.