Life on unsustainable Earth

Life on unsustainable Earth

Harry Surjadi
Journalist
Jakarta
hsurjadi@yahoo.com

The Earth cannot go on like this. Unsustainable development
threatens its health and the health of the billions of people who
call it home. And despite a litany of reports, gatherings and
special bodies, such as Rachel Carlson's Silent Spring 1965, the
Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, the
establishment of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)
and the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1983,
Brundtland Report's Our Common Future 1987 and the Earth Summit
in 1992, the threat remains.

The world's forested area has declined from 11.4 square
kilometers per person in 1970 to only 7.3 km2 per person at
present.

Forest Watch Indonesia reported in 2002 that the deforestation
rate in the country had been about two million hectare per year
since 1996. In 1980, the rate of deforestation was estimated at
about one million hectares per year, and in the 1990s the figure
was 1.7 million hectares per year.

The World Bank estimates that by 2005 all lowland forests in
Sumatra will be gone, while in Kalimantan the lowland forest will
disappear by 2010.

In addition, nearly 70 percent of the world's major fish
stocks are overfished or are being fished at their biological
limit, to meet the growing demand for fish and fish products.

It is estimated that worldwide, soil degradation affects over
two billion hectares of land. Almost 60 percent of the world's
large rivers have been diverted to meet the growing demand for
water, especially for agriculture.

According to the 2000 International Union for the Conservation
of Nature and Natural Resources-World Conservation Union (IUCN)'s
Red List of Threatened Species, a third wave of a major global
species extinction is emerging.

In the 1997, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants listed an
extraordinary number (34,000) of plant species. About 11,046
species were threatened with extinction and 816 species had
already become extinct.

Indonesia has lost some 20 percent to 70 percent of its
original habitat types. Species extinction is estimated at one
per day.

The 1998 Reefs at Risk Report estimated that as much as 58
percent of the world's coral reefs are at high to medium risk
from human impact. In Indonesia, it is estimated that only 6.2
percent of all coral reefs are still in very good condition, 23.7
percent are in good condition, 28.3 percent are in relatively
good condition and 41.8 percent are in damaged condition.

The Status of Coral Reefs of the World 2000 report predicted
that over half of the world's coral reef areas may be lost in 30
years if efforts to conserve them are not enhanced.

Poverty has increased in some countries, and the gap between
the richest and poorest countries has increased. Based on an
international poverty line of US$1 per day, about 1.2 billion
people live in poverty. A large majority of these people are in
Asia, with about 522 million in South Asia and 267 million in
East Asia, including Southeast Asia.

The Asian economic crisis that began in 1997 has led to
substantial short-term increases in poverty, particularly in
Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand. In Indonesia, the poverty
rate almost doubled from 1996 to 1999.

Approximately 826 million people worldwide were thought to be
chronically undernourished from 1996 to 1998, of which some 792
million lived in developing countries. In some of the poorest
countries, one in five children still fails to reach his or her
fifth birthday, mainly owing to infectious diseases related to
the environment.

More than 20 million women continue to experience ill health
each year as a result of pregnancy. The lives of eight million of
these women are threatened by serious health problems, and about
500,000 women, almost 90 percent of them in Africa and Asia, die
from pregnancy and childbirth-related disorders.

More than one billion people are without access to adequate
water supplies, and 2.4 billion lack access to adequate
sanitation. Diarrhea diseases, largely preventable through access
to safe drinking water, sanitation and clean food, claim 1.5
million lives a year among children under five years of age.

The Earth's climate is now changing. According to Inter-
Governmental Panel on Climate (IPCC), the Earth's atmosphere near
the surface warmed overall by between 0.4 degrees and 0.8 degrees
Celsius over the past 100 years.

Given all these developments, the United Nations, during its
55th General Assembly, decided to organize a summit to review any
progress achieved on the environmental front over the last 10
years ahead of the UN Conference on Environment and Development
(UNCED) in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2002. And the
summit will be called the World Summit on Sustainable Development
(WSSD).

The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) will act as
the preparatory committee for the WSSD. And during the 10th
session of the CSD, professor Emil Salim of Indonesia was elected
committee chairman.

The UN General Assembly has also decided to organize a third
and final substantive preparatory session at the ministerial
level in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia. This session will be held
from May 27 to June 7.

The 10-year review of progress achieved since the UN
Conference on the Environment and Development should focus on the
implementation of Agenda 21 and other outcomes of the Conference,
which were adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1997.

Of the utmost importance is that the summit, including the
preparatory process leading up to it, ensures a balance between
economic development, social development and environmental
protection, as these three things are interdependent and mutually
reinforcing components of sustainable development

UN Resolution 55/199 encourages effective contributions from
and the active participation of nine major groups at all stages
of the summit's preparatory process. The nine major groups, as
identified in Agenda 21, are children and youth, indigenous
people, non-governmental organizations, women, workers and trade
unions, scientific and technology communities, local authorities,
farmers, business and industry.

Will the summit result in the sustainable development of
Earth? Yes, if the Earth is no longer dominated by a small group
of people, made up of world leaders, the heads of multinational
corporation and the heads of international financial institutions
such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the
World Trade Organization. The Earth belongs to the people, not
international institutions.