One Earth, One Future Our Changing Global Environment (1990) / Chapter Skim
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1. Introduction
1. Introduction
Pages 1-12
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From page 1... ...
Although we cannot completely disrupt the earth system, we do affect it significantly as we use energy and emit pollutants in our quest to provide food, shelter, and a host of other products for the worId's growing population. We release chemicals that gnaw holes in the ozone shield that protects us from harmful ultraviolet radiation, and we burn fuels that emit heattrapping gases that build up in the atmosphere.
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Raw materials are drawn from the earth to stoke the engines of the growing world economy, and we treat the atmosphere, land, and waters as receptacles for the wastes generated as we consume energy and goods in our everyday lives. Scientific evidence and theory indicate that as a result of such activities, the global environment is undergoing profound changes.
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From page 3... ...
Sea level could rise as ice caps melt and Me ocean expands from the extra heat, and agricultural belts will shift. Forests and other ecosystems may be torn apart as both plant and animal groups respond to vastly altered temperature and hydrological conditions, and as various kinds of plants adjust differently to increased carbon dioxide levels.
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From page 4... ...
Environmental Protection Agency, at the Forum on Global Change and Our Common Future in May 1989. "Our goal is not so much to manage the planet earth as to make ourselves less like a pathogen and more like those helpful bacteria that dwell in our own guts." - -r The transformation of the global environment is driven by ever-greater numbers of people, increasing economic development, and its attendant increase in industrial activity and consumption of energy by humans.
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From page 5... ...
Most of the greenhouse gases and chemicals that are changing the composition of the atmosphere and thus contributing to the projected climate change and to other changes such as acid deposition have been emitted by inclustrialized nations in the Northern Hemisphere. People in the developing countries, with three quarters of the worId's population, have less than one quarter of the wealth.
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"The potential explosion of tensions deriving from global environmental change is clearly going to be aggravated by the widespread perception that the biggest burdens will fall on the developing countries of the South and Mat the principal culprits in generating these problems, through both action and inaction, are in the developed countries of the North," said Hoiciren at the forum. International dialogue that is currently under way represents the opportunity for nations~eveloped and developing alike to overcome these tensions and attack together common concerns about the global environment.
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From page 7... ...
General Assembly, was a special independent organization that included representatives from 22 countries, a majority of them developing countries. Over a 3-year period, the members tackled We question tacitly posed by the General Assembly: Is it possible to meet the needs of the 5 billion people alive today without comprom~sing the ability of future, ever more populous generations to meet their own needs?
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From page 8... ...
Economic, trade, and other government agencies heavily endowed with money and power would be mandated to develop policies that encourage sustainable development and would be responsible to their governments for the environmental consequences of their policies and budget allocations. The BrundtIand Commission emphasized that if the pace of global change is to be checked, developing countries are likely to need fresh infusions of financial support in the 1990s to pay for efforts to reduce rates of population growth, to restore and maintain natural resources, and to adopt modern technologies that are less polluting than the ones already outdated in the industrialized world.
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From page 9... ...
Complex tropical forest ecosystems once cleared can regenerate slowly at best. The magnitude and rate of change will depend on whether societies clecide to act to slow the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide and other trace gases, reverse deforestation, and cut pollutant emissions.
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From page 10... ...
The complexities of earth system science, the lessons derivecl from the earth's history, and the modern forces driving changes in the global environment are explored in the first part of this book, "The Earth as a System." The second part, "The Faces of Global Environmental Change," describes some of the transformations projected or under way. These include the prospect of a warmer global climate, potential changes to the worId's food production systems and water supplies as climate changes, and the likelihood that sea level will rise as the climate warms
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From page 11... ...
(Appendix A contains a selected list of additional reacting on global environmental change.) The environmental challenges described are difficult ones for a world already grappling with other costly and more obvious problems of economics, security, and public health.
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