World faces environmental catastrophe
Jane Goodall, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institutes Worldwide, A Messenger of Peace for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
June 5 marks the 30th commemoration of World Environment Day. If only we could mark the day with a celebration of humanity's efforts to protect the world's natural environment and its diverse range of species. Instead, we must recognize that today the world is poised on the brink of an environmental catastrophe.
A recent report by the UN's Environment Program predicts that in the next thirty years a quarter of the world's mammals could become extinct, along with alarming numbers of other plant and animal species. I see this trend most clearly in the chimpanzee population. Some two million of them lived in Africa at the turn of the last century. Now reckless development and destruction of their natural habitats along with commercial hunting for food have cut their numbers to less than one-tenth of that. Man may, quite literally, destroy his closest animal relative, and countless other species, too.
It's not just the natural world that will suffer -- we will too. The human population is set to grow by two billion by 2032. The lowering of water tables and the ongoing desertification of the land will lead to severe water shortages for nearly half of humanity by this time. Serious health problems will escalate due to malnutrition, extreme poverty, polluted air, water and food, and viruses resistant to antibiotics.
Environmental degradation is already affecting many people's lives. Lack of access to clean water kills more than two million people worldwide every year. Forest clearing and burning in Asia have driven bats infected with the deadly Nipah virus from their habitats into contact with human populations. In Florida, Australia, and Asia, the effects of global warming combined with mainland pollution are killing coral reefs -- nurseries for hundreds of species of fish -- and threatening multi-billion dollar fishing and tourist industries.
It's not a pretty picture, but there are reasons for hope. The fact is all these problems can be solved if our leaders take action. We already have an excellent blueprint to combat these alarming trends, which will benefit all parts of the world, not just rich nations or developing countries. But tragically, this important document has been sitting on a shelf, largely unimplemented, since it was approved by world leaders at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. The plan, called Agenda 21, promotes a sustainable form of development that will improve global living standards while preserving environmental assets for future generations. All we need now is the political commitment to make it happen.
These plans can and do work. I've seen it in our Institute's Roots & Shoots program, which involves young people around the world in projects that help improve the quality of life in their communities and make them compassionate and environmentally aware citizens. And I've seen it work through our TACARE Project, which is helping to halt the depletion of natural resources in Tanzania. More than 30 villages are improving the quality of their farmland, managing tree nurseries, and protecting their forests from clear-cutting, while launching income-generating activities, improving preventative health care for members of the community, and offering women chances for furthering their education.
In late August, ten years after Rio, world leaders will meet in Johannesburg for the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development. The decisions made at this conference will be critical for our future and could lead to actions that change, for better or worse, the world that we leave to our children, and theirs. But it is not just up to world leaders to avoid a "doomsday" scenario for life on Planet Earth. We all have a vital role to play. For each of us can implement simple but highly effective changes in our lives that will protect the environment.
For example, if you skip one 20-mile car trip each week (or several trips totaling 20 miles) you can reduce your production of greenhouse gases by nearly 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide annually. Choose to buy products only from environmentally responsible companies. Be assured that our individual actions, collectively, make a huge difference.
Above all, we must push our elected leaders to do their part at the Johannesburg Summit, by turning the plans of Rio into reality. I'll be there because I know it's our best hope for finding a way to preserve our own precious habitat -- and thus the future of mankind.