[Two excellent charts on url!]
Introduction: Planet Under Pressure
Planet under pressure is a six-part BBC News Online series looking at
some of the most pressing environmental issues facing the human race today.
By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent
We are a successful breed. Our advance from our hominid origins has
brought us near-dominance of the world, and a rapidly accelerating
understanding of it.
Scientists now say we are in a new stage of the Earth's history, the
Anthropocene Epoch, when we ourselves have become the globe's principal
force.
But several eminent scientists are concerned that we have become too
successful - that the unprecedented human pressure on the Earth's
ecosystems threatens our future as a species.
We confront problems more intractable than any previous generation, some
of them at the moment apparently insoluble.
BBC News Online's Planet under Pressure series takes a detailed look at
six areas where most experts agree that a crisis is brewing:
# Food: An estimated 1 in 6 people suffer from hunger and malnutrition
while attempts to grow food are damaging swathes of productive land.
# Water: By 2025, two-thirds of the world's people are likely to be living
in areas of acute water stress.
# Energy: Oil production could peak and supplies start to decline by 2010
# Climate change: The world's greatest environmental challenge, according
to the UK prime minister Tony Blair, with increased storms, floods,
drought and species losses predicted.
# Biodiversity: Many scientists think the Earth is now entering its sixth
great extinction phase.
# Pollution: Hazardous chemicals are now found in the bodies of all
new-born babies, and an estimated one in four people worldwide are
exposed to unhealthy concentrations of air pollutants.
All six problems are linked and urgent, so a list of priorities is
little help.
It is pointless to preserve species and habitats, for example, if
climate change will destroy them anyway, or to develop novel crops if
the water they need is not there.
And underlying all these pressures is a seventh - human population.
There are already more than six billion of us, and on present trends the
UN says we shall probably number about 8.9 billion by 2050.
Population growth means something else, too: although the proportion of
people living in poverty is continuing to fall, the absolute number goes
on rising, because fecundity outstrips our efforts to improve their lives.
Poverty matters because it leaves many people no choice but to exploit
the environment, and it fuels frustration.
Above all, it condemns them to stunted lives and early deaths - both
avoidable.
Difficult dilemmas
Planet under pressure is more about questions than answers. What sort of
lifestyle can the Earth sustain?
How many of us can live at northern consumption levels, and what level
should everyone else be expected to settle for?
How can we expect poor people to respect the environment when they need
to use it to survive?
Are eco-friendly lives a luxury for the rich or a necessity for everyone?
And how can we act when sizeable and sincere parts of society say we are
already overcoming the problems, not being overwhelmed by them?
Species survival
As many see it, we are not doing too badly.
More people are living healthier and longer lives. For increasing
numbers, the future offers living standards undreamt of even a
generation ago.
But we do have to think through the implications of our success and to
realise its weaknesses.
Living within the planet's means need not condemn us to giving up what
we now assume we need for a full life, just to sharing it.
The challenge we face is not about feeling guilty for our consumption or
virtuous for being "green" - it is about the growing recognition that,
as the human race, we stand or fall together.
Ingenuity and technology continue to offer hope of a better world. But
they can promise only so much.
You do not need ingenuity and technology to save the roughly 30,000
under-fives who die daily from hunger or easily preventable diseases.
And facing up to the planet's pressure points is about their survival,
and ours.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/04/sci_nat_enl_1096888217/html/1.stm>
From population to cars to forests - graphs of the increasing pressures
on our planet
At-a-glance http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/04/sci_nat_enl_1096888217/html/1.stm',
'1096888300',
'toolbar=0,scrollbars=0,location=0,statusbar=0,menubar=0,resizable=1,width=600,height=318,left=312,top=100');>
Dependence on fossil fuels is pushing up CO2 emissions
Air pollution is a serious problem in the world's biggest cities
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/3686106.stm
Published: 2004/10/01 14:00:33 GMT
PLANET UNDER PRESSURE
A six-part series looking at the biggest problems facing the Earth
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3686106.stm> Introduction
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3686106.stm>
Many scientists fear for the future of the human race
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3686106.stm>
PART 2: WORLD WATER CRISIS
Water scarcity: A looming crisis?
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3747724.stm>
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3755780.stm> Sucked dry
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3755780.stm>
Indian farmers face water-guzzling marble factories
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3755780.stm>
Photojournal: On parched land
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/04/sci_nat_surviving_in_the_heat_and_dust/html/1.stm>
Quiz: How much do you know?
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3747588.stm>
Map: The world's water hotspots
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3754520.stm>
Viewpoints: The water debate
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3752590.stm>
PREVIOUS SECTIONS
Part 1: Species under threat
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3667300.stm>
HAVE YOUR SAY
Send us your pictures and stories
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3713630.stm>
SEE ALSO:
Nature 'mankind's gravest threat'
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3549812.stm>
09 Aug 04 | Science/Nature
World 'appeasing' climate threat
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3766831.stm>
03 Jun 04 | Science/Nature
China swelters as energy crisis soars
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3828801.stm>
22 Jun 04 | Business
RELATED BBC LINKS:
The water debate
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/world/2003/world_forum/water/default.stm>
Global warming?
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2004/climate_change/default.stm>
2015 - Where will we be?
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/2015/index.shtml> |