planted city

From the CBC:

1. The number of megacities has doubled.

2. The world is eating 26 per cent more meat.

3. Global temperatures continue to rise, with the last 10 years the warmest on record.

4. World industry is 23 per cent more energy efficient.

5. Plastic consumption has skyrocketed — with annual production reaching a record 265 million tonnes worldwide in 2010.

6. The 1990 Montreal Protocol to limit ozone-destroying chemicals is the world’s most successful international agreement, producing a 93 per cent drop in the damaging emissions since 1992.

7. Cement production is the fastest-growing source of C02 emissions.

8. The Mesopotamian Marshlands, the largest in the Middle East, are recovering from deliberate draining by Iraq in the 1990s.

9. Saudi Arabia has transformed from an importer of food to an exporter due to irrigation.

10. Environmentally protected areas have increased worldwide by 42 per cent.

11. Fish stock depletion is now one of the most pressing environmental issues.

12. Renewable energy has skyrocketed, with solar energy leading the way — up 30,000 per cent since 1992.

13. Biofuel production — up 300,000 per cent — is converting more land from farming to production of fuel.

14. Organic farming is up 240 per cent since 1999.

15. The Amazon rainforest has been largely destroyed due to drought and farming.

16. Tourism and travel is the world’s largest business sector — and ecotourism is the fastest-growing type of tourism, up 20-34 per cent per year.

17. Passenger trips by airplanes have doubled in the past two decades.

18. Clean drinking water access increased to 87 per cent, but widespread sanitation is still slow.

19. 30 per cent more private companies are adopting environmental standards every year.

20. Women’s influence is rising with more 60 per cent more seats in national parliaments.

Check out the rest of the article here. You can check out more about the 1992 Earth Summit here and the 2012 edition here. Also worth a read is a joint statement written by a number of experts in global sustainability in advance of the conference. 

Disturbing news keeps rolling in regarding the current health of Earth’s ecosystems, which provide us and other species with life-supporting goods (e.g. oxygen, minerals, fresh water, trees, arable land, biodiversity) and services (e.g. waste assimilation, carbon dioxide absorption, erosion control, visual amenity, recreation, temperature regulation). The UNEP’s Convention on Biological Diversity has newly released its Global Biodiversity Outlook 3, warning that:

... the principal pressures leading to biodiversity loss are not just constant but are, in some cases, intensifying.

The consequences of this collective failure, if it is not quickly corrected, will be severe for us all. Biodiversity underpins the functioning of the ecosystems onwhich we depend for food and fresh water, health and recreation, and protection from natural disasters.Its loss also affects us culturally and spiritually.This may be more difficult to quantify, but is nonetheless integral to our well-being.

The consequences of this collective failure, if it is not quickly corrected, will be severe for us all. Biodiversity underpins the functioning of the ecosystems on which we depend for food and fresh water, health and recreation, and protection from natural disasters. Its loss also affects us culturally and spiritually. This may be more difficult to quantify, but is nonetheless integral to our well-being.

Current trends are bringing us closer to a number of potential tipping points that would catastrophically reduce the capacity of ecosystems to provide these essential services. The poor, who tend to be most immediately dependent on them, would suffer first and most severely. At stake are the principal objectives outlined in the Millennium Development Goals: food security, poverty eradication and a healthier population.

CNN coverage of the report quotes executives at the CBD and UNEP:

Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the CBD said in a statement: “The news is not good. We continue to lose biodiversity at a rate never before seen in history.”

The U.N. warns several eco-systems including the Amazon rainforest, freshwater lakes and rivers and coral reefs are approaching a “tipping point” which, if reached, may see them never recover.

The report says that no government has completely met biodiversity targets that were first set out in 2002 — the year of the first GBO report.

Executive Director of the U.N. Environmental Program Achim Steiner said there were key economic reasons why governments had failed in this task.

“Many economies remain blind to the huge value of the diversity of animals, plants and other life-forms and their role in healthy and functioning eco-systems,” Steiner said in a statement.

In addition, the Conservation Council of New Brunswick has written an op-ed, ‘Rampant growth threatens common species’, which points out that:

… putting the brakes on habitat destruction, pollution and overexploitation of resources is seen as putting the brakes on economic growth — the Holy Grail of our time. Without a modicum of plunder and pollution, our corporations can’t compete in the global race for more. And these days our political system has become the grease gun that keeps corporate wheels from getting mired in environmental regulation.

Finally, here are some other recent indicators of pressure on ecosystems:

• In an op-ed Bill McKibben of 350.org and author of the new book Eaarth points to ocean acidification as the greatest threat to ocean ecosystems. 
• The devastating BP oil spill, which continues despite efforts to stop or slow the daily flow of 5,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
• The Aral Sea in Uzbekistan, once the world’s 4th largest lake, is 90% dried up. 
• The Jordan River, where many Christians believe Jesus was baptized, is also heading in the same direction and could be dry by next year. 
• Half of the Amazon, one of the planet’s key carbon sinks, could be lost to deforestation by 2050.