Environtmental damage 'causes people misery'

Environtmental damage 'causes people misery'

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali

High population growth, industrialization and inefficient lifestyles have damaged the environment greatly in the last 30 years, bringing misery to people, according to a report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

If there was no commitment or concrete action by all stakeholders of the earth, especially the governments, to deal with the deteriorating environment, more devastating impacts to both the earth and its people could occur in the next 30 years, according to a UNEP report presented on Thursday at the preparatory committee (PrepCom) meeting for the World Summit on Sustainable Development here.

The report, entitled Global Environment Outlook-3 (GEO-3), provided an assessment of environmental trends since 1972, the year the Stockholm Conference on Environment was held.

The report followed two other reports GEO-1 and GEO-2000, which were launched in 1997 and 1999 respectively.

The GEO-3 report accused human activities, including expansion of agricultural land, over-harvesting of industrial wood and illegal logging as the main culprits in rapid deforestation.

During the 1990s, a net loss in global forests was about 94 million hectares. Forests, which cover around one third of the Earth's land surface (3,866 million hectares), have declined by 2.4 percent a year since 1990.

Deforestation has long been blamed for various environmental problems, as deforestation adversely affects water catchment, and often leads to flooding, drought and oversiltation of rivers, not to mention the increase in greenhouse gases.

Due to climate change and environmental degradation, people have experienced more natural disasters in the last decade.

It is estimated by the report that the number of people affected by disasters jumped from an average of 147 million a year in the 1980s to 211 million a year in the 1990s. Global financial losses from natural disasters were, in 1999, estimated to cost over US$100 billion.

According to the report, the failures to mitigate and to tackle the damage could lead to catastrophe in the future, as more people would be affected by the damage.

Klaus Toepfer, executive director of UNEP, said that what would happen in the coming decades would depend on "what we, especially the government, are doing now."

"The scenarios do clearly show that today's policy decisions will have an impact long into the future. Different decisions can lead us towards very different futures and the future is very much in our hands," he said.

Toepfer demanded parties negotiating in the preparatory committee meeting to produce concrete action plans, concrete time tables and an iron will from all sides to turn the promises made in Rio into reality.

The UNEP report said that if world governments continued to give priority to short-term economics, or, in the words of the report "market first," then, environmental destruction would continue unabated.

Failure to stop deforestation could lead to major destruction and disturbance of habitats and wildlife by 2032.

Over 70 percent of the world's land could be affected with the highest impact in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, failure to meet the ever increasing population's demand for clean water could also increase the number of people living in areas with severe water stress.

It is estimated by the report that 55 percent of the global population could be affected by a water crisis by 2032, up from around 40 percent currently.

Despite the bleak outlook, the report said that concrete measures to sustain the development and to protect the environment could curtail this devastating scenario of the environment, which UNEP called "sustainability first."

Under the sustainability first scenario, most regions in the world in 2032 would see the areas under water stress remaining more or less constant at 40 percent, as more efficient management of water reduces water withdrawal, especially for irrigation.

Deforestation could also be held in check, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean.