UN report a 'call to arms'

26th Oct 2007

Endless pursuit of profit is costing us the earth

UN GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT OUTLOOK 'CALL TO ARMS'

Green Party Principal Speaker Caroline Lucas MEP today described the publication of the fourth UN Global Environment Outlook report as a 'call to arms.'

The South- East's Green MEP said: "We can change the way in which we live, and survive, or we can continue along the well-worn grooves that will consign us - and the planet - to history."

'GEO 4' warns that almost all of the key indices used to assess the planet's health have worsened in the last twenty years. Carbon dioxide levels have risen by a third, and there is now "visible and unequivocal" evidence that climate change is causing further impacts on the global environment. (1)

Caroline said:

"We are on the brink of irreversible decline. Only urgent and radical action to change the way in which we live will give us a fighting chance of halting this descent into extinction.

"We need nothing short of a revolution in the way we run our economies, the way we produce and consume, and the way we measure human welfare. It is clear that as long as we go on using GDP as a measure of progress, we will continue to deplete the very natural resources which we depend on.

"This endless pursuit of profit is costing us the earth and it has to stop.

"Today's report spells out what the Greens have long been saying: there is an inherent, undeniable link between environmental degradation and traditional economic growth.

"The UN has found that many farming systems have reached their limits of production. Warmer temperatures and ocean acidification threaten food supplies and furthermore, 1.8 billion people face water shortages by 2025. Three-quarters of marine fisheries have been exploited to or beyond their limits. Exposure to pollutants is causing 20 per cent of disease in developing nations - pollution is being "exported" to developing world.

"At the same time, the world's rich have got richer. Our wallets are bulging and our stocks are rising. It's clear that the last 20 years of booming economic growth, wrapped up in business-as-usual politics, has cost the planet dear. And the question must also be asked: has this abundant material wealth made us any happier?

"Reversing the economic and environmental devastation wrought by globalisation, transforming our economies, asserting real global leadership on climate change, challenging the business as usual politics that have got us into the mess - the Greens believe that all these things are possible, but they will require political will.

"Today's report is a call to arms.

"We can change the way in which we live, and survive, or we can continue along the well-worn grooves that will consign us - and the planet - to history."

ENDS

(1) The full report can be seen at www.unep.org