THE United Nations yesterday marked World Environment Day by calling for people to consider how our economic and environmental future our very lives are dependent on the responsible management of the Earths natural resources.
This years WED theme, Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care', sums up perfectly the increasingly urgent need for change across the scale.
The UNs environmental voice UNEP warns that many of the Earths ecosystems are nearing critical tipping points of depletion or irreversible change, pushed by high population growth and economic development.
By 2050, if current consumption and production patterns remain the same and with a rising population expected to reach 9.6 billion, we will need three planets to sustain our ways of living and consumption.
Consuming with care means living within planetary boundaries to ensure a healthy future where our dreams can be realized. Human prosperity need not cost the Earth. Living sustainably is about doing more and better with less. It is about knowing that rising rates of natural resource use and the environmental impacts that occur are not a necessary by-product of economic growth, the body says.
And UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon underlines the importance of realising that we each have a role to play when he says: Although individual decisions may seem small in the face of global threats and trends, when billions of people join forces in common purpose, we can make a tremendous difference.
The UN is set to host its Paris climate conference in September with the goal of stopping temperatures rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to tackle the threat of rising sea levels, worsening droughts and floods and more severe storms.
However, reaching the target is dependent on governments switching the focus of their energy from simply talking and setting targets to taking action to switch from fossil fuels.
Keeping in mind the kind of positive butterfly effect advocated by the UN it seems ironic that the G7 economic powers Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK should begin their two-day 41st summit in Bavaria tomorrow so soon after WED.
To mark the summit, Oxfam Ireland has published a report called Let Them Eat Coal which warns that coal plants in the G7 countries are on track to cost the entire world $450 billion a year by the end of the century.
The charity also warns that the seven powers will be responsible for slashing crops by millions of tonnes as they fuel the gathering pace of climate change, with Africa facing annual costs of $84 billion within 90 years for the damage caused by G7 coal emissions thats 60 times the amount the African continent gets from the big seven in aid to support agriculture and food production.
Coal is responsible for 72 per cent of power-sector emissions. If G7 coal plants were a country, it would be the fifth biggest emitter in the world, emitting double the fossil fuel emissions of Africa and 10 times as much as the 48 least-developed countries.
Accusing the G7 countries of being addicted to coal, Oxfam Irelands chief executive Jim Clarken says: The G7s coal habit is racking up costs for Africa and other developing regions. Its time G7 leaders wake up to the hunger their own energy systems are causing to the worlds poorest people on the frontline of climate change.
He adds that shifting away from coal would give the global fight against climate change the momentum it needs, as well as creating jobs and taking a major step towards a safer, sustainable and prosperous future for us all.
Meanwhile, tomorrow marks Environment Sunday, which is supported by Eco-Congregation Ireland, a multi-denominational group seeking a greener future.
:: Learn more about Environment Sunday at christian-ecology.org.uk/conservation-sunday.htm.
