THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
. SUNDAY, JANUARY 12, 1997
Worldwatch report finds Earth is in a sorry
state
By Vicki Allen
REUTERS
WASHINGTON – Five years after the Earth Summit
in Rio de Janeiro, treaties to protect the atmosphere
and biodiversity are foundering, the world’s
population is spiraling and more than 1 billion
people cannot feed themselves, the Worldwatch
Institute said yesterday.
In a downbeat assessment of the world’s troubled
environment, social and political unrest and prospects
for feeding itself, Worldwatch’s annual State
of the World report listed as a series of problems
that have worsened since the landmark world environment
summit.
"Since Rio, human numbers have grown
by 450 million; vast areas of forest have been
stripped of trees and emissions of carbon dioxide
from fossil fuels, the leading greenhouse gas,
have climbed to all-time highs, altering the very
composition of the atmosphere," the report
by the Washington-based think tank said.
Two of the key initiatives from Rio – treaties
to cut fossil fuel emissions that are warming
the atmosphere and to protect biodiversity – have
stumbled on a lack of commitment from major nations,
the report said.
In particular, it said the United States' environmental
leadership has receded in the last five years
as it has missed targets set in the climate convention
by wide margins and failed to ratify the Convention
on Biological Diversity.
The United States is among eight countries with
56 percent of the world's population and 53 percent
of its forests that "have the RIO agenda
and the fate of the earth in their
hands," the report said.
Eileen Claussen, assistant secretary of
state overseeing environmental affairs, said Worldwatch’s
assessment of progress is "generally correct."
She noted Congress failed to ratify a biodiversity
treaty and slashed funding for the summit’s major
initiatives.
But she insisted Clinton administration leadership
remains steadfast, listing campaigns for binding
provisions in a world-climate agreement for the
phaseout of dangerous chemicals and for a worldwide
battle against marine pollution.
Other "environmental heavyweights"
are Germany, Japan, Russia, China, India, Indonesia,
and Brazil, the report noted, countries that Worldwatch
said should play a bigger role in bridging differences
between industrialized nations of the Northern
Hemisphere and developing nations of the Southern
Hemisphere.
China, India and other developing countries
increasingly hold the key to reversing the environmental
slide, and their burgeoning use of resources may
force developed countries to face up to their
own unsustainable economies, the report said.
"Too
many
governments still
pursue economic
growth at any price."
STATE OF THE WORLD REPORT |
The report also faulted international institutions,
and rich countries’ flagging commitments to them,
for failing to confront environmental threats.
For example, it said government funding of the
United Nations Development Program and the U.N.
Environment Program has been inadequate.
The World Bank, which leads some $20 billion
annually to developing nations, has claimed to
have expanded its environmental leading since
Rio. But the report said, "It continues to lend
large sums for development schemes that add to
carbon emissions and destroy natural ecosystems
– while the broader vision of a sustainable economy
is neglected."
The State of the World report - the 14th
in the usually grim series - cited some improvements,
including the Montreal Protocol to phase out use
of ozone-depleting chemicals and slower-than-expected
population growth.
But it said, "Too many government still
pursue economic growth at any price ignoring the
fact that damage to global commons such as the
atmosphere and the oceans could severely disrupt
the world’s economies."
"Until finance ministers - and more
importantly prime ministers - take these problems
as seriously as environmental officials do, nations
will continue to undermine the natural resource
base and ecosystems on which they depend,"
it said.
The report did find some hope in the increasing
numbers of grassroots groups, particularly in
Bangladesh and India. Also, more than 1,500 cities
in 51 countries have adopted local plans and rules,
often more stringent than their national governments
proposed at Rio, the report said.
Presaging Worldwatch’s tally of slippage,
Earth Summit Secretary General Maurice Strong
issued a report last week citing pockets of progress
but concluding "far too few countries, companies,
institutions; communities and citizens have made
the choices and changes needed to advance the
goals of sustainable development."
Strong, now head of the Earth Council,
a nongovernment group set up in Costa Rica after
the summit, said more than 100 nations are worse
off today than 15 years ago, with 1.3 billion
people earning less than $1 a day.
Christopher Flavin, a lead author of the
Worldwatch report, called the Earth Summit a "last
hurrah" for the idea that sweeping government
programs can cure a sick planet.
"The answer is more likely to die in
an eclectic mix of international agreements, sensible
government policies, efficient use of private
resources and bold initiatives by grassroots organizations,"
Flavin said.
But, the report said Rio "energized
the efforts of private citizens to promote environmentally
sustainable development," and encouraged
nongovernment organizations around the world to
"provide ideas as well as pressure for change."
[ED note: Emphasis added]
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