Environmental report paints grim picture for
planet
ABC Online 11/01/2002
As much money needs to be spent to stop the environment's deterioration as that spent on
the war on terrorism, according to the Worldwatch Institute's annual report.
The US environmental group said that greenhouse gas emissions of carbon dioxide have risen
more than 9 per cent, and 27 per cent of coral reefs are now severely damaged - up from 10
per cent since the Rio Summit in 1992.
"The world needs a global war on poverty and environmental degradation that is as
aggressive and well-funded as the war on terrorism," the group said.
"Ten years after the Rio Earth Summit, we are still far from ending the economic and
environmental marginalisation that afflicts billions of people," wrote Worldwatch
president Christopher Flavin.
"Despite the prosperity of the 1990s, the divide between rich and poor is widening in
many countries, undermining social and economic stability."
The report titled State of the World was released ahead of the United Nations World Summit
on Sustainable Development, to be held from August 26 to September 4 in South Africa at
which some of the issues raised in the report will be addressed.
"The Johannesburg Summit can and must lead to a strengthened global recognition of
the importance of achieving a sustainable balance between nature and the human
economy," wrote UN secretary-general Kofi Annan in a forward to the report.
The report underlined some glaring examples of inequalities between rich and poor nations.
While 80 per cent of the world's population has no access to the paper needed for basic
education, the average American uses 19 times more than an individual in a developing
country, it said.
END
OF REPORT
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