Earth Science: Environment – Think Globally, Act Locally
Environmental problems do not end at national borders; in fact, they are often worldwide in scope. Accordingly, protecting the environment requires not only local, but regional and global thought and action.
The first Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm in 1972, under the sponsorship of the United Nations. This international gathering led to the creation of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). In 1992, an environmental conference in Rio de Janeiro became a turning point in international negotiations on questions of development and the environment.
In addition to establishing key principles and an action plan for a worldwide sustainable development, the participating countries signed important conventions on biodiversity, deserts, and climate change. At the Third Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Kyoto in 1997, representatives of 167 nations agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. In 2002, ten years after the Rio gathering, the World Summit on Sustainable Development was convened in Johannesburg.
Instead of binding resolutions, however, the participants reached agreement only on a plan of action to reduce species loss and allow overfished marine life to regenerate.
Since 1973, protecting plants and animals from extinction has been the aim of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), also known as the Washington Endangered Species Agreement. Protecting entire habitats is the focus of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, which entered into force in 1975, as well as the UN’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) program and the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Even broader in scope is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), in effect internationally since 1994. This agreement grants coastal nations an economic zone of 200 nautical miles, which they may use but must also protect. The open sea is named the common heritage of mankind; its use is al- lowed only after the evaluation of potential environmental effects.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
This term refers to environmental developmental, and economic policies that aim at raising the population’s quality of life without compromising the future prospects of coming
generations.
Environmental protection and the preservation of natural resources are key requirements for the international community today
BASICS
UNEP The United Nations Environment Programme oversees and coordinates the actions of all UN organizations dealing with the environment, while also working with politically independent nongovernmental organizations.
AGENDA 21 This is the economic and environmental action plan for sustainable global development in the 21st century, agreed upon in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Both national and local programs of action have been developed to implement this agenda.