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Environmental Social Issues
Energy SecurityLast updated Sunday, May 15, 2011.
Energy security is a growing concern for rich and emerging nations alike. The past drive for fossil fuel energy haled to wars, overthrow of democratically elected leaders, and puppet governments and dictatorships.
Leading nations admit we are addicted to oil, but investment into alternatives has been lacking, or little incomparison to fossil fuel investments.
As the global financial crisis takes hold and awareness of climate change increases, more nations and companiesare trying to invest in alternatives. But will the geopolitics remain the same?
Read “Energy Security” to learn more.
Human PopulationLast updated Thursday, June 13, 2002.
Read “Human Population” to learn more.
Populations: A Numbers GameLast updated Sunday, September 02, 2001.
The human population of the planet is estimated to now have passed 6 billion people. But are large numbersthemselves a problem? Europe for example, has higher population densities than Asia. There are more than twosides to the debate on whether population numbers equate to over-population or not.
Read “Populations: A Numbers Game” to learn more.
Stress on the environment, society and resources?Last updated Tuesday, September 18, 2001.
Does population affect and put stress on the environment, society and resources? Existing consumption patterns aseen in Europe and North America can put strain on the environment and natural resources. But how much of theenvironmental degradation we see today is as a result of over-population and how much is due to over-exploitatiodue to consumerism and geopolitical interests? Especially when considering that "[g]globally, the 20% of theworld's people in the highest-income countries account for 86% of total private consumption expenditures - the poorest 20% a minuscule 1.3%", according to the United Nations Development Programmer’s 1998 HumanDevelopment Report. This part of the global issues web site attempts to highlight some of the environmental issuand concerns that have an effect on all of us — from what we do, to what we don’t do.
46 articles on “Environmental Issues” and 7 related issues:
Biodiversity
Last updated Thursday, November 10, 2011.
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The variety of life on Earth, its biological diversity, is commonly referred to as biodiversity. The number of species of plants, animals, and microorganisms, the enormous diversity of genes inthese species, the different ecosystems on the planet, such as deserts, rainforests and coral reefs are all part of a biologically diverse Earth. Appropriate conservation and sustainable development strategies attempt to recognizethis as being integral to any approach. In some way or form, almost all cultures have recognized the importance onature and its biological diversity for their societies and have therefore understood the need to maintain it. Yet, power, greed and politics have affected the precarious balance.
Read “Biodiversity” to learn more.
Why Is Biodiversity Important? Who Cares?Last updated Wednesday, April 06, 2011.
Why is Biodiversity important? Does it really matter if there aren’t so manyspecies?
Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how small, all have an important role t
play.
For example, a larger number of plant species means a greater variety of crops; greater species diversity ensuresnatural sustainability for all life forms; and healthy ecosystems can better withstand and recover from a variety ofdisasters.
And so, while we dominate this planet, we still need to preserve the diversity in wildlife.
Read “Why Is Biodiversity Important? Who Cares?” to learn more.
Loss of Biodiversity and ExtinctionsLast updated Wednesday, April 06, 2011.
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It has long been feared that human activity is causing massive extinctions. Despiteincreased efforts at conservation, it has not been enough and biodiversity losses continue. The costs associated
with deteriorating or vanishing ecosystems will be high. However, sustainable development and consumptionwould help avert ecological problems.
Read “Loss of Biodiversity and Extinctions” to learn more.
Nature and Animal ConservationLast updated Thursday, November 10, 2011.
Preserving species and their habitats is important for ecosystems to self-sustainthemselves.
Yet, the pressures to destroy habitat for logging, illegal hunting, and other challenges are making conservation astruggle.
Read “ Nature and Animal Conservation” to learn more.
Climate Change Affects BiodiversityLast updated Sunday, June 12, 2011.
Rapid global warming can affect an ecosystems chances to adapt naturally.
The Arctic is very sensitive to climate change and already seeing lots of changes. Ocean biodiversity is already
being affected as are other parts of the ecosystem.
Read “Climate Change Affects Biodiversity” to learn more.
Coral ReefsLast updated Sunday, January 16, 2011.
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One type of ecosystem that perhaps is neglected more than any other is perhaps also therichest in biodiversity—the coral reefs.
Coral reefs are useful to the environment and to people in a number of ways. However, all around the world, mucof the world’s marine biodiversity face threats from human and activities as well as natural. It is feared that verysoon, many reefs could die off.
Read “Coral Reefs” to learn more.
Addressing Biodiversity LossLast updated Wednesday, April 06, 2011.
At the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit), theConvention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was born. 192 countries, plus the EU, are now Parties to thatconvention. In April 2002, the Parties to the Convention committed to significantly reduce the loss of biodiversityloss by 2010.
Perhaps predictably, that did not happen. Despite numerous successful conservations measures supporting biodiversity, the 2010 biodiversity target has not been met at the global level. This page provides an overview onhow the attempts to prevent biodiversity loss is progressing.
Read “Addressing Biodiversity Loss” to learn more.
Biosafety Protocol 1999Last updated Monday, March 19, 2001.
The February 1999 Biodiversity Protocol meeting in Colombia broke down because USA, not even a signatory tothe Convention on Biological Diversity, to which the protocol is meant to be part of, and five other countries of t"Miami Group" felt that their business interests were threatened. The safety concerns were unfortunatelyoverridden by trade concerns. Some technological advances, especially in genetically engineered food, have beenvery fast paced and products are being pushed into the market place without having been proven safe. All over thworld, concerned citizens and governments have been trying to take precautionary measures. However, 1999 wasnot a successful year in that respect.
Read “Biosafety Protocol 1999” to learn more.
Biosafety Protocol 2000
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Climate Justice and EquityLast updated Sunday, January 08, 2012.
For a number of years, there have been concerns that climate change negotiations will essentially ignore a key principle of climate change negotiation frameworks: the common but differentiated responsibilities.
Realizing that greenhouse emissions remain in the atmosphere for a very long time, this principle recognizes thathistorically:
• Industrialized nations have emitted far more greenhouse gas emissions (even if some developing nationsare only now increasing theirs);
• Rich countries therefore face the biggest responsibility and burden for action to address climate change;and
• Rich countries therefore must support developing nations adapt—through financing and technologytransfer, for example.
This notion of climate justice is typically ignored by many rich nations and their mainstream media, making it eato blame China, India and other developing countries for failures in climate change mitigation negotiations.
Development expert, Martin Khor, calculated that taking historical emissions into account, the rich countries owecarbon debt because they have already used more than their fair quota of emissions.
Yet, by 2050 when certain emission reductions are needed by, their reduced emissions will still add up to be go
over their fair share:
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However, rather than continue down the path of unequal development, industrialized nations can help pay off thecarbon debt by truly helping emerging countries develop along a cleaner path, such as through the promised-but- barely-delivered technology transfer, finance, and capacity building.
So far however, rich nations have done very little within the Kyoto protocol to reduce emissions by anymeaningful amount, while they are all for negotiating a follow on treaty that brings more pressure to developingcountries to agree to emissions targets.
In effect, the more there will be delay the more the poor nations will have to save the Earth with their sacrifices(and if it works, as history shows, the rich and powerful will find a way to rewrite history to claim they were theones that saved the planet).
These issues are explored in more depth here.
Read “Climate Justice and Equity” to learn more.
Climate Change Flexibility MechanismsLast updated Sunday, October 04, 2009.
Flexibility mechanisms were defined in the Kyoto Protocol as different ways to achieve emissions reduction as part of the effort to address climate change issues. These fall into the following categories: Emissions Trading,Joint Implementation and Clean Development Mechanism.
However, these have been highly controversial as they were mainly included on strong US insistence and to keepthe US in the treaty (even though the US eventually pulled out). Some of the mechanisms face criticism for notactually leading to a reduction in emissions, for example.
Image ©: Centre for Science and Environment
Read “Climate Change Flexibility Mechanisms” to learn more.
Carbon Sinks, Forests and Climate ChangeLast updated Tuesday, October 29, 2002.
A mechanism suggested for tackling climate change and warming has been the idea of using Carbon Sinks to soaup carbon dioxide. To aid in this, reforestation, or planting of new forests, have been suggested. This is a popularstrategy for the logging industry and nations with large forests interests. While there may be some potential in thisolution, it cannot be effective on its own. This is because it legitimizes continued destruction of old-growth and pristine forests which are rich ecosystems and have an established biodiversity base (albeit shrinking now) thatnaturally maintain the environment (at no cost!). Creating new forest areas would require the creation of entireecosystems. It is also criticized for being a quick fix that does not tackle the root causes effectively and does notlead to, or promote actual emissions reduction.
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