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147 Chapter 8 Contemporary Environmental Crisis and Responses State of the Environment: the Global Perspective The idea of the “global environment” has its origins in debates about “environmental crisis” in the 1960s and 1970s.213 The concept emerged against a background of vulnerability and threat. Threats to the global environment became an object of public and political interest. Of particular importance was Neil Armstrong. Armstrong photographed the earth from the moon, which brought home to people the beauty and vulnerability of the earth and the fact that we all share the same fragile planet earth.214 This backdrop serves as the basis for all the environmental issues that are raised. Even a ten-year-old child is able to notice some negative environmental changes. The changes might be different in rate, degree and in kind depending upon where one grew up but the unpalatable truth is that there have been more negative changes than positive ones to the environment. We do not deny that the changes come through both natural and human activities. Human beings do not have much control if at all, for instance, over natural disasters including earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, and floods when they strike but our activities can directly or indirectly facilitate their frequency and severity. For example, we may not be able to stop incessant torrential rains when the sky opens up but choking drains with solid wastes especially non-biodegradable ones, building houses on waterways, and clearing vegetation indiscriminately can contribute to the severity of rainfall effects. Human selfishness exacerbates natural calamities. Pertaining to climatic changes, loss of biodiversity in terrestrial and aquatic environments through pollution and over-harvest, the human person has contributed significantly. Human activities in pursuit of economic and technological developments have greatly increased the vulnerability of both the environment and human beings. Continuing with this attitude can only leave humanity with ecological and social “bads”. The 2007 Nobel Peace Laureate and chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra 213 Barry, Environment and Social Theory, 28. 214 Barry, Environment and Social Theory, 27. 148 Pachauri, fittingly captures this view when he states that if the world does not take action early and in adequate measure, the impacts of climate change could prove extremely harmful and overwhelm our capacity to adapt.215 For example, statistics show that each year about six billion hectares of productive land turn into worthless desert; more than eleven million hectares of forests are destroyed; burning fossil fuels emit carbon dioxide leading to global warming; the “greenhouse effect” is increasing average global temperatures enough to shift agricultural production areas, raise sea levels to flood coastal cities and disrupt national economies; industry and agriculture put toxic substances into the human food chain and into underground water tables beyond reach of cleansing.216 The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) report of 2005 states that half of the world’s tropical and temperate forests are destroyed.217 The rate of deforestation in the tropics continues at about an acre a second.218 About 90 percent of the large predator fish are gone, and 75 percent of marine fisheries are now overfished or fished to capacity.219 Species are disappearing at rates about a thousand times faster than normal.220 Human activities have pushed atmospheric carbon dioxide up by more than a third and have started in earnest the dangerous process of warming the planet and disrupting climate. Human actions already consume or destroy each year about 40 percent of nature’s photosynthetic output, leaving too little for other species.221 Fresh water withdrawals doubled globally between 1960 and 2000, and are now over half of accessible runoff.222 215 State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World, http://www.worldwatch.org (Accessed: 15th June 2010). 216 Brundtland Commission, Our Common Future: The World Commission on Environment and Development (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), 3. 217 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2005), 31-32. 218 Food and Agricultural organization, Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005 (Rome: FAO, 2006), 20. 219 Food and Agricultural Organization, World Review of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Rome: FAO, 2006), 29. 220 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis, 36. 221 The Proceedings of the United States National Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2007. 222 United Nations Environmental Programme, “At a Glance: The World’s Water Crisis,” http://www.ourplanet.com/imgversn/141/glance.html (Accessed: 20th March 2011). [3.133.108.241] Project MUSE (2024-04-26...

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