UN Geo-4 Report: the peer review process of the first draft of the fourth Global Environment Outl
ook came out yesterday and it makes pretty grim reading. It tells us that most apsects of the Earth’s natural environment are in decline. Basically, the message is – it’s now or never! Humanity is devouring the Earth’s resources so intensely that there will be nothing left to leave future generations. The rate at which species are becoming extinct, the speed and greed at which we are using up our resources and the amount of emissions we are still spewing out means that the climate threat to our planet and therefore humanity remains utterly unresolved.
The report states that there are no major issues for which the forseeable trends are favourable.
and
…..the world faces an overall crisis that includes climate change, extinction rates, hunger, problems driven by growing human numbers, the rising consumption of the rich and the desperation of the poor. The effects of this crisis are shown in decline of fish stocks, loss of fertile land through degradation or dwindling amount of fresh water available, for example.
The report also states that there is a remarkable lack of urgency and a woefully inadequate global response.
Read the report here. it is a whopping 572 pages long. I’ll admit, I haven’t read it in full myself yet. For a taster you can just read UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon’s forward message which you will find on page 16.
Earthside 
Posted by matt on October 28, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Happy reading ain’t it earthpal. As someone over at The Coffee House said, reports like this are so depressing, offering few solutions, that he tends to switch off. And who can blame him really!
Posted by earthpal on October 29, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Hmm . . . like I said to you before – eco-despondancy is likely to grow.
Welcome back Matty. Hope you enjoyed your week. 🙂
Posted by matt on October 30, 2007 at 8:50 am
Had a wonderful week thanks earthpal. Rural Suffolk; what a delight. Relatively unspoilt and packed full with nature. Owls in the garden, wood peckers and hedgehogs. Further a field even saw a hare!
Almost over whelming for this urban lad. 🙂
Posted by matt on October 30, 2007 at 9:11 am
Oh btw, did you get an email from Eurostar yesterday about a promotion? FOE are linked to it.
Posted by earthpal on October 30, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Glad you enjoyed it Matt. Sounds idyllic.
No, I didn’t get an email from Eurostar. What’s it all about?
Posted by earthpal on October 30, 2007 at 2:39 pm
It’s ok. I just read about it on your blog.
Posted by Sally Rushton on November 5, 2007 at 11:43 am
Hello Earthpal
My name is Sally Rushton and I work for digforfire, a marketing agency based in Sheffield. I hope you don’t mind me contacting you, but putting a post on your blog seemed like the best way to get in touch. As someone with an obvious passion for environmental issues, I thought you may be interested in our latest work for our client ibuyeco – 100% Carbon Neutral Car Insurance.
Climatekids.co.uk is a microsite where real kids get the chance to express their fears and views on climate change. You’ve heard the viewpoints of the scientists and politicians, but it’s really interesting to hear about it from the people it is going to affect the most.
The site has a selection of short films featuring the kids, a quiz to see if you know as much as they do, green tips for the family, plus some information on ibuyeco – the only UK car insurance provider that will offset all of your cars annual CO² emissions.
We hope that as well raising a few smiles, the kids’ message will also make people stop and think about the damage we’re doing to the planet and how it will affect future generations.
Thanks for your time and I hope you enjoy the site.
Sally Rushton
Senior account executive
http://www.climatekids.co.uk