The global environment has continued to deteriorate since the 1992 Earth Summit. With the rising level of toxic pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and solid waste, threats to the human civilisation has never been so grave. Renewable resources - freshwater, forests, topsoil and marine fish - are being used at an unsustainable rate. Uncontrolled human activities are exploiting the earth to its limits. The human population has grown eightfold, while the industrial production has risen a hundred times since the Industrial Revolution.
The unprecedented population explosion has adversely affected our environment. This has diminished the earth's capacity to support life. In less than 200 years, it has lost 6 million square kilometres of forest, the soil erosion has risen threefold in major river basins and eight times in smaller ones. Today, the earth is more prone to natural disasters. In Bangladesh alone, two storms in 1970 and 1985 killed 3,11,000 people - 89 per cent of those killed in storms in 30 years.
Human activities since the mid-eighteenth century have doubled the methane content in the atmosphere, increased the concentration of carbon dioxide by 27 per cent and significantly damaged the ozone layer. The pollution of air, water and soil has become a serious threat to our eco-system. During the last couple of decades, the air pollution has become both worse and better: Worse in the developing countries, and better in the developed ones. The United Nations Environment Programme says about one billion people are exposed to excessive dust.
We are already using over 40 per cent of the earth's elementary resources. While the world's richest billion people consume most of the resources, the poorest billion continue to live in abject poverty. One in every five persons cannot get enough food to support an active working life. One quarter of the total world population is still without safe drinking water. Every year, millions of children die prematurely due to malnutrition and preventable diseases. Besides, the Government expenditure on health is low despite the high population growth in the Third World countries.
Communities differ in their ability to care for their environment: While the developed countries should aim to reduce the consumption of resources and curtail waste production, the under-developed ones need to focus on community projects in agro-ecology, agro-forestry, soil and water-conservation and restoration of degraded land. Striking a right balance between alternative uses of environment is urgently needed. Sustainable lifestyle should be our guiding principle. After all, the earth has limited resources that are not infinitely expandable.
Human existence on this planet depends on first, a controlled population growth. Second, the rich countries must stabilise or even reduce their consumption-level, which requires a change in their lifestyle. Fortunately, the global concern for environmental deterioration is gaining momentum and people are vehemently demanding protection of the ecology for future generations. Third, "thinking globally and acting locally" is not enough. A nation's sustainability often depends on international cooperation. As the preamble of Agenda 21 says, "No nation can achieve this on its own; but together we can through a global partnership for sustainable development. The new alliance must not only understand that all have a role to play in safeguarding the earth, but also that those who have more economic resources must contribute more."
