From The Guardian UK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jun/14/rio-earth-summit-population-consumption
Joint report by 105 institutions urges negotiators to drop political inhibitions and confront rising global population and consumption
The Rio+20 Earth summit must take decisive action on population
and consumption regardless of political taboos or it will struggle to
tackle the alarming decline of the global environment, the world's
leading scientific academies warned on Thursday.
Rich countries
need to reduce or radically transform unsustainable lifestyles, while
greater efforts should be made to provide contraception to those who
want it in the developing world, the coalition of 105 institutions,
including the Royal Society, urged in a joint report.
It's a wake-up call for negotiators meeting in Rio for the UN conference on sustainable development.
The
authors point out that while the Rio summit aims to reduce poverty and
reverse the degradation of the environment, it barely mentions the two
solutions that could ease pressure on increasingly scarce resources.
Many
in the scientific community believe it is time to confront these
elephants in the room. "For too long population and consumption have
been left off the table due to political and ethical sensitivities.
These are issues that affect developed and developing nations alike, and
we must take responsibility for them together," said Charles Godfray, a
fellow of the Royal Society and chair of the working group of IAP, the
global network of science academies.
In a joint statement, the
scientists said they wanted to remind policymakers at Rio+20 that
population and consumption determine the rates at which natural
resources are exploited and Earth's ability to meet the demand for food,
water, energy and other needs now and in the future. The current
patterns of consumption in some parts of the world were unsustainable. A
sharp rise in human numbers can have negative social and economic
implications, and a combination of the two causes extensive loss of
biodiversity.
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