One out of three ain’t bad
Well, actually, one in three is very bad, if we’re talking about how many of the things which humanity needs to survive will be okay for future generations.
A report released by the UN’s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment yesterday makes for sobering reading. Conducted by over a thousand experts all around the world, it’s concluded that about two-thirds of “ecosystem services” supporting humanity (e.g. water, fisheries, air etc. ) are being degraded. That’s right. Only a third of the things we need to survive are not being used in such a way that will see them degrade over time.
The report reads:
Any progress achieved in addressing the [international community’s] goals of poverty and hunger eradication, improved health, and environmental protection is unlikely to be sustained if most of the ecosystem services on which humanity relies continue to be degraded …
The over-riding conclusion of this assessment is that it lies within the power of human societies to ease the strains we are putting on the nature services of the planet, while continuing to use them to bring better living standards to all.
Achieving this, however, will require radical changes in the way nature is treated at every level of decision-making and new ways of cooperation between government, business and civil society. The warning signs are there for all of us to see. The future now lies in our hands.
If ever we needed reminding of why we need the Greens in government, this report does it.
