World leaders, including our very own President Uhuru Kenyatta, gathered in Stockholm Sweden to mark 50 years since the first UN Conference of the Human Environment in 1972.
The world delegates gathered in 1972 recognised that man was both a creature and a moulder of the environment and that human wellbeing and economic development were inextricably bound to the environment.
One of the recommendations of the 1972 conference was the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme, which is based here in Nairobi.
Even back in 1972, it was clear that the enhancement and protection of the environment – water, land, air and the associated flora and fauna – was both important and urgent. But 50 years later the global environmental challenge has deepened. We face a triple planetary crisis of pollution and waste, climate change, and biodiversity loss.
Habitats and populations of plants and animals, both domestic and wild, are deteriorating or vanishing at unprecedented rates. Our oceans, choked with solid and chemical wastes, are warming and rising.
Ocean fisheries are in precipitous decline, with over 33 percent of marine fish stocks currently harvested at unsustainable levels. The rate of sea-level rise has more than doubled throughout most of the 20th century.
Moreover, it is plausible that the sixth mass extinction is underway. Previous mass extinctions wiped between 60 and 95 percent of all known species. In a UN report published in 2019, experts warned that one million species are threatened with extinction, many for decades.
It is important to note that it would take millions of years for ecosystems to recover from extinction events. Losses of intact ecosystems have occurred predominantly in the tropics, which are home to the highest levels of biodiversity on the planet.
The use of pesticides and nitrogen-based fertilisers in agriculture, wildfires, liquid, gaseous and particulate effluence from industrial processes and internal combustion engines have accelerated pollution, globally.
According to a progress update on pollution published in The Lancet journal in May, pollution was responsible for 9 million premature deaths in 2019, making it the largest environmental risk factor for disease and premature death. Nine million is several times more deaths than from Aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined.
The climate crisis continues unabated. Because it is inextricably bound to economic development, industry leaders, politicians and consumers cannot imagine a decarbonised world.
Since the UN Conference of the Human Environment in held in 1972 Carbon dioxide emissions have increased by an estimated 90 percent. Carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion, industrial processes, and agriculture accounts for 78 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.
It is disconcerting that 50 years later, the pledge to preserve and enhance the human environment has not been fulfilled. The state of the human environment is dire. Not to sound apocalyptic but with business as usual – more proclamations, more principles and more recommendations – we will bequeath future generations an unlivable planet.
We have a moral duty to ourselves and future generations. The time for talk is over. We must act urgently.
Views expressed are the writer’s
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