U. N. Global Environmental Outlook is the most comprehensive study
From an Article by Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, March 13, 2019
“What’s at stake is life, and society, as the majority of us know it and enjoy it today. We have no time to lose.”
A comprehensive United Nations report released on Wednesday found that while global human health is under dire threat from the climate crisis and industrial pollution, there is still a window for bold and urgent action if world leaders would but seize it.
>>> “We are at a crossroads. Do we continue on our current path, which will lead to a bleak future for humankind, or do we pivot to a more sustainable development pathway? That is the choice our political leaders must make, now.” —Joyce Msuya, U.N. Environment
The United Nations Environment Programme’s Sixth Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-6), described as the most rigorous climate assessment released by the international body in the last five years, warned that continued inaction from policy-makers could result in millions of premature deaths from air pollution and other factors throughout Asia, the Middle East, and Africa by mid-century.
The report also highlighted rapidly increasing rates of species extinction. “At present,” the authors note, “42 percent of terrestrial invertebrates, 34 percent of freshwater invertebrates, and 25 percent of marine invertebrates are considered at risk of extinction.”
Without “urgent action at an unprecedented scale,” the report said, the “ecological foundations of society” are at risk of collapse.
Joyeeta Gupta and Paul Ekins, co-chairs of the GEO-6 process, said in a statement that all the technology, policy ideas, and money needed to bring about ambitious global changes already exist.
“What is currently lacking is the political will to implement policies and technologies at a sufficient speed and scale,” they said.
To avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis and ensure a livable future for all, the report calls on policy-makers to focus on transforming the world’s food, energy, and waste systems by:
>> Aggressively moving to slash carbon emissions and investing in green energy;
>> Transitioning to more sustainable forms of food production and less meat-intensive diets; and
>> Creating a “circular economy” that “uses waste as a resource.”
“These transformations will not be easy, but they will offer enormous opportunities for those who are ready to seize them,” the report states. “What’s at stake is life, and society, as the majority of us know it and enjoy it today. We have no time to lose.”
“The science is clear. The health and prosperity of humanity is directly tied with the state of our environment,” Joyce Msuya, acting executive director of U.N. Environment, said in a statement.
“We are at a crossroads,” Msuya continued. “Do we continue on our current path, which will lead to a bleak future for humankind, or do we pivot to a more sustainable development pathway? That is the choice our political leaders must make, now.”
The U.N.’s Global Environmental Outlook comes as bold policy solutions like the Green New Deal are gaining traction in the United States, with one recent survey showing that over 80 percent of Americans support the idea.
The report was released just two days before hundreds of thousands of students in over 90 countries are set to strike to demand that political leaders immediately take action to secure a habitable planet for future generations.
“I think that change is on the horizon and the people will stand up for their future,” 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg told the Guardian.
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EurekAlert! Science News: Air pollution causes 800,000 extra deaths a year in Europe and 8.8 million worldwide
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Sane Energy Project, April 17, 2019
“My name is Greta Thunberg, I am 16 years old, I come from Sweden, and I want you to panic. I want you to act as if the house was on fire.”
If leaders realized the gravity of the crisis, said Thunberg,
“you wouldn’t fly around the world in business class chatting about how the market will solve everything… You wouldn’t talk about buying and building your way out of a crisis that has been creating by buying and building things. You wouldn’t hold three emergency Brexit summits and no emergency summit regarding the breakdown of the climate and environment. You wouldn’t be arguing about phasing out coal in 15 or 11 years…You wouldn’t be celebrating that one nation like Ireland may soon divest from fossil fuels. You wouldn’t celebrate that Norway has decided to stop drilling for oil at the scenic resort of Lofoten Islands but will continue top drill for oil everywhere else for decades.”
Greta Thunberg is the future. EU and all leaders of all countries, you must listen to youth, they are the future. And they don’t want the future to be a dystopia of a ravaged Earth with apocalyptic weather and coastal cities and island countries under water with unlivable temperature ranges. Forget dragging your fracking wells all over the land pushing for peak oil and natural gas. Plan intelligently now to harness natural solar, wind and water power for energy. Life depends on it.
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‘You Cannot Ignore Science’: In Emotional Plea, Greta Thunberg Begs EU to Take Urgent Climate Action
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/04/17/you-cannot-ignore-science-emotional-plea-greta-thunberg-begs-eu-take-urgent-climate