World's Fragile Ecosystems Nearing Point of Total Collapse
Next 30 Years Critical

mindfully.org 31may02

The United Nation's Environment Programme (UNEP) has published a new report outlining current trends and the likely results of. . .

• Massive Worldwide Over-development
• Poorly Planned Development
• Overuse of Fresh Water Resources
• Worldwide Pollution on Human Populations over the next 30 years

Unless steps are taken soon, much of the world's population will. . .

• Run out of freshwater
• Be battered with increasing frequency by disasters such as cyclones, floods and droughts that will severely affect world food supplies.

The report, "Global Environment Outline #3" ( UNEP Press realease ) is the third such report by UNEP, and by far the most comprehensive. In spite of some successes in environmental cleanups in North American and Europe, and the successful international effort to reduce the production and consumption of ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), declining world environmental quality and global warming threatens to overwhelm those local successes.

Among the findings of the report are that almost. . .

• 15 percent of the earth's farmland has now been severely degraded through . . .
  • Overgrazing
  • Overlogging
  • Overfarming
  • Chemical contamination.
• 50 percent of the world's rivers are now seriously depleted or polluted
• 60 percent of the world's largest 227 rivers have been fragmented by dams and other engineered works. . .
  • Destroying wetlands and other ecosystems that people also depend on
  • Displacing between 40 and 80 million people.
• 80 countries (40 percent) of the world's population were suffering serious water shortages by the mid-1990's
• 1.1 Billion people lack access to safe drinking water
• 2.4 Billion to lack good sanitation, particularly in Asia and Africa.

Globally, the impact of marine contamination is $13 billion/year is expected to rapidly increase.

Threats to the oceans including are accelerating. . .

• climate change
• oil spills
• discharges of heavy metals
• persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
• loss of coral reefs

Almost 1/3 of the world's fish stocks are now ranked as. . .

• Depleted
• Overexploited or
• Recovering.

Depletion of the world's ozone layer has also now reached record levels, further affecting ocean ecosystems in the Southern hemisphere. All these trends are expected to get much worse over the next 30 years if left unchecked. For more information and a copy of the report, see the UNEP Press realease