From the Earth System Science Partnership
International scientific community issues first “State of the Planet Declaration”
Scientists issued the first “State of the Planet” declaration at a major gathering of experts on global environmental and social issues in advance of the major UN Summit Rio+20 in June.
The declaration opens: “Research now demonstrates that the continued functioning of the Earth system as it has supported the well-being of human civilization in recent centuries is at risk.” It states that consensus is growing that we have driven the planet into a new epoch, the Anthropocene, where many planetary-scale processes are dominated by human activities. It concludes society must not delay taking urgent and large-scale action.
“This is a declaration to our globally interconnected society,” said Dr Lidia Brito, director of science policy, natural sciences, UNESCO, and conference co-chair.
“Time is the natural resource in shortest supply. We need to change course in some fundamental way this decade,” she added.
Over 3,000 experts in climate change, environmental geo-engineering, international governance, the future of the oceans and biodiversity, global trade, development, poverty alleviation, food security and more discussed the intricate connections between all the different systems and cycles governing our ocean, air, land and the human and animal life dependent on those environments.
Dr Mark Stafford Smith, Planet Under Pressure conference co-chair, said, “In the last decade we have become a highly interconnected society. We are beginning to realise this new state of humanity can be harnessed for rapid innovation.”
“But we need to provide more open access to knowledge, we need to move away from GDP as the only measure of progress, and we need a new way of working internationally that is fit for the 21st century,” he added. “This conference has provided new ideas and practical solutions for the way forward.”
The declaration concludes that, “a highly interconnected global society has the potential to innovate rapidly. The Planet Under Pressure conference has taken advantage of this potential to explore new pathways.”
But, say Brito and Stafford Smith, effective planetary stewardship also requires: “More ways of participation at all levels, stronger leadership in all sectors of society; greater connectivity between those generating new knowledge and the rest of society; and rethinking the roles of science, policy, industry and civil society.”
The conference presented new initiatives as recommendations for the Rio+20 Summit:
- Going beyond GDP by taking into account the value of natural capital when measuring progress.
- A new framework for developing a set of goals for global sustainability for all nations.
- Creating a UN Sustainable Development Council to integrate social, economic and environmental policy at the global level.
- Launching a new international research programme, Future Earth, that will focus on solutions.
- Initiating regular global sustainability analyses.
The conference also previewed the first Inclusive Wealth Report, developed by UN University’s International Human Dimensions Programme (UNU-IHDP) and the UN Environment Programme.
Based on a new economic indicator that measures natural, human and produced capital, the tool goes beyond GDP and can provide guidance for economic development towards sustainability.
Says Professor Anantha Duraiappah, Executive Director of UNU-IHDP: “Until the yardsticks which society uses to evaluate progress are changed to capture elements of long-term sustainability, the planet and its people will continue to suffer under the weight of short-term growth policies.”
The report, scheduled to be published at Rio+20, will describe the capital base of 20 nations: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, India, Japan, Kenya, Nigeria, Norway, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, USA, United Kingdom and Venezuela.
Off the back of the declaration and recognizing the interconnectedness of the current challenges, the four major international research programmes under ICSU that direct global environmental change science (the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme; DIVERSITAS; the International Human Dimensions Programme; and the World Climate Research Programme) aim to rapidly reorganize to focus on global sustainability solutions.
Additionally, the programmes are proposing to develop platforms that facilitate cooperation with all sectors of society to develop a new strategy for creating and rapidly translating knowledge into action. “Such interactions should be designed to bring societal relevance and trust to science-policy interfaces, and more effectively inform decision-making to keep pace with rapid global change,” reads the declaration. This strategy will form part of “a new contract between science and society” and includes the launch of a new international research programme, Future Earth.
The Planet Under Pressure conference marked the beginning of this new shift in direction, according to the conference co-chairs.
Delegates in London were joined by almost 8,000 people online worldwide and reached more than a million people through social media in the first three conference days.
Dr Brito said, “We have a positive message: strong leadership from all sectors and harnessing the increased connectivity offers some hope that the risk of long-term environmental crises can be minimized.”
“This new connectivity is the beginning of how the scientific community needs to operate. We need a powerful network of innovation, North and South. This approach needs to be part of our DNA from now on,” she added.
In recorded remarks, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said today that “climate change, the financial crisis and food, water and energy insecurity threaten human wellbeing and civilization as we know it.”
“My High-level Panel on Global Sustainability has just recommended that I consider naming a chief scientific advisor or establishing a scientific board to advise me and other organs of the United Nations.
“I also intend to engage the scientific community on other projects, such as the Global Sustainable Development Outlook report,” he added, “I am also ready to work with the scientific community on the launch of a large-scale scientific initiative.”
UN Rio+20 Executive coordinator, Elizabeth Thompson, said, “politician or public servant, scientist or citizen, community or company, we are the shareholders of Earth Incorporated and have a joint responsibility to protect our common patrimony.”
“The scientific community can help us make sense of these complex and interconnected challenges.”
Conference delegates also heard how research advances in the previous decade have shown humanity’s impact on Earth’s life support system has become comparable to planetary scale geological processes such as ice ages. “Consensus is growing we have driven the planet into a new epoch, the Anthropocene, in which many Earth system processes are now dominated by human activities,” the declaration states.
This new force risks pushing parts of the Earth system – the sum of our planet’s interacting physical, chemical, and biological processes including life and society – past so-called tipping points.
Tipping points include the disappearance of summer sea ice in the Arctic, permafrost in Arctic regions releasing large quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and the drying out of the Amazon rainforest. If these tipping points are crossed they can increase the likelihood of going beyond other thresholds generating unacceptable and often irreversible environmental change on global and regional scales with serious consequences for human and all forms of life on the planet.
The declaration stated that existing international arrangements are failing to deal with long-term development challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss in an interconnected way indicating that it would be a mistake to rely on single international agreements. Research indicated that comprehensive sustainability policies at local, sub-national, national, and regional levels should be encouraged to provide “essential safety nets should singular global policies fail.”
* The State of the Planet Declaration is by the Co-Chairs of the Planet Under Pressure conference, Dr Lidia Brito and Dr Mark Stafford Smith, supported by the conference Scientific Organizing Committee.
The statement in full is available online athttp://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/
The research discussed in the press releases, the conclusions drawn and the opinions offered are those of individual speakers or research teams at the Planet Under Pressure conference.
More information about Planet under Pressure Conference
The international science conference will be the biggest gathering of global environmental change specialists in advance of the United Nations Rio+20 Summit: 3,000 scientists, policymakers, industry and media representatives will meet to hear the latest research findings on the state of the planet and discuss concepts for planetary stewardship and societal and economic transformation towards global sustainability.
More information on the web: www.planetunderpressure2012.net/
More like this:
How to tax more.
How to hide the tax.
How to best lie about the tax.
How to split up the lie tax.
How to keep on the tax dole.
The era (error) of Global Warming is over. For the priests and priestess of ACGW, the mighty (though a bit dodgy) thermometer refused to cooperate. To avoid any connection to reality, we now have the completely subjective term ‘Sustainability.’ The future is in doubt as xkcd has demonstrated, sustainable is not sustainable. http://xkcd.com/1007/
I searched this document and did not find one use of the word “concern”. To be scientific there has to be CONSENSUS and CONCERN. Obviously the 3000 individuals who discussed this are not real scientists.
The writer needs to take an English course and learn to write a sentence without using every word in the dictionary. Can you say BAFFLEGAB? What was it about anyway?
The current madness involves many good hearted people, or not so clever people, as to make them believe they will fix the world and fix human society. If there would be, here in WUWT, a complete data base including ALL the objectives of the ideology generated at the UN: From Gay Marriage , promote abortion, leaving a small “carbon foot print”,”renewable energies”, etc.,etc., the people would realize the enormity of such an absurd ideology and they hopefully would stop drinking “kool aid”.
I just saw this animated video, which seems to be targeting school children. here’s a look at the totalitarian Brave New World the Green fascists want for humanity:
Planned-opolis
the people behind this are serious and this is a promotional video for the Green Cities of the Future. there’s only 13,000 views. more people should watch this 4 min video.
#1. As a technical editor I’m impressed with the sheer mass of bloviation, pointless maundering, and vague generalities littering their documents.
#2. The breathtaking hypocrisy of a hiking-lover (the Oregon professor) advocating the closing of the countryside.
#3. The de-population of the countryside is already under way in the Third World, via armed gangs that drive people out to make way for enviroparks and biofuel plantations. They are the true ‘climate refugees’, in the millions yet, assiduously ignored by the Media, of course.
#4. When its America’s turn to be depopulated, it will be enforced by our own killer drones. I dare Hollywood to make a movie of that!
#5 Have Josh pen a cartoon of a Predator Drone with UN markings and a green happy-face on its Hellfire bombs, flying over an empty, roadless Yosemite.
The first thing that has to stop, is repeating the meme “democracy”. Democracy is tyrrany by the majority, it is no freedom, it is slavery.
We all have natural rights to personal freedom which cannot be given or taken from us by any government, elected or not. Americans need to reclaim their republic, the Brits need to understand Common Law which is the only Law of the Land, and the Europeans need to be taught that their Napoleonic law is dictatorship [everything is forbidden except if specifically allowed] – if they knew the difference they would be aware of what they have foisted on the rest of us, unlawfully.
Primer: http://www.britsattheirbest.com/freedom/f_british_constitution.htm
“…Going beyond GDP by taking into account the value of natural capital when measuring progress…”
One of the current problem is the developing/developed nation status. A country can remain “developing” for decades, with no real benchmark to show advancement.
You can bet that if China and India see a threat to their current “developing” status, they’ll be kicking and screaming.
Their “developing” status allows them free-reign over the civilized laws the rest of the world follows.
Are you sure that this isn’t an April Fool’s joke from the Onion?
Associate Professor Kari Norgard on her University of Oregon blurb-
“Over the past ten years I have published and taught in the areas of environmental sociology, gender and environment, race and environment, climate change, sociology of culture, social movements and sociology of emotions.”
What the hell is “gender and environment”????
The only solution is global governance and increasing the research grants. /Sarc Off
From the children (and a few leftover old geezers, no doubt) of the Club of Rome “Limits to Growth” crowd, which hysterically had us running out of oil and many other critical raw materials by the 1980’s and 90’s if we did not radically change our lives.
The sky is falling. Put us in charge of your lives or you are all goners.
adolfogiurfa says: April 2, 2012 at 10:10 am
“The 2012 Earth Summit is planning to declare the Amazon Jungle a Heritage of Humanity”
Why don’t more people recognize this for the obscenity it is?
If they really want forests, tell them to go and grow their OWN forest, it does not take long!
This kind of stuff frightens me in an “Atlas Shrugged” kind of way.
Dennis Wingo (@wingod) says:April 2, 2012 at 8:40 am
“….humanity can be harnessed…”
Hmmm. NOW they are starting to worry me!
Conference delegates also heard how research advances in the previous decade have shown humanity’s impact on Earth’s life support system has become comparable to planetary scale geological processes such as ice ages. “Consensus is growing we have driven the planet into a new epoch, the Anthropocene, in which many Earth system processes are now dominated by human activities,” the declaration states.
Behold hubris at a pathological level.
And they produced a cartoon to go with it…
http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/images/anthropocene_cartoon.jpg
(humour level comparable to ‘No Pressure’)
“…society must not delay taking urgent and large-scale action.”
And what large-scale action would that be? Mass murder of billions of humans to relieve pressure on the planet? Or a more “humane” approach of levying huge taxes on energy use so millions slowly starve to death and the rest can’t afford to reproduce? Eco-nuts always seems to end up advocating one or the other.
“Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on earth, social and environmental.”
— Dave Forman (founder of Earth First!)
michael says:
April 2, 2012 at 10:41 am
“I just saw this animated video, which seems to be targeting school children. here’s a look at the totalitarian Brave New World the Green fascists want for humanity:
Planned-opolis”
Looks like The-Projects-o-polis… I think the artist did a splendid job on cashing in on propaganda cash while at the same time delivering a sublimininal message…. “Hate this!”
@mkelly says:
April 2, 2012 at 11:49 am
Associate Professor Kari Norgard on her University of Oregon blurb-
“Over the past ten years I have published and taught in the areas of environmental sociology, gender and environment, race and environment, climate change, sociology of culture, social movements and sociology of emotions.”
What the hell is “gender and environment”????
=================================================================
A: If you’re in a cold environment such as the Antarctic, you’ll freeze your ‘nads off if you don’t wear pants which may affect your gender, eh?
BTW, good find. What I’d like to know is, if she hung out her shingle in a shop in the mall, who would stop in to pay a penny for any of her expertise? Not much of a market for that stuff except from the government and students who will wonder why they can’t get a job after graduation.
“The conference presented new initiatives as recommendations for the Rio+20 Summit:
* Going beyond GDP by taking into account the value of natural capital when measuring progress.
* A new framework for developing a set of goals for global sustainability for all nations.
* Creating a UN Sustainable Development Council to integrate social, economic and environmental policy at the global level.
* Launching a new international research programme, Future Earth, that will focus on solutions.
* Initiating regular global sustainability analyses.”
These are extensions of the United Nations Agenda 21and its local implementation strategy known as ICLEI, the ‘International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. The intent is to bypass national governments and secure agreements and compliance from states, cities, and local governments. It is already more deeply embedded in the US than most of us would have imagined. We are finding references to ICLEI tenets within our school systems, city and county governments here in Washington state, USA.
A decent backgrounder on UN Agenda 21 and ICLEI can be found at
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/tech-mainmenu-30/environment/6235-your-hometown-a-the-united-nations-agenda-21
Open the file and scroll down into the story to the heading “ICLEI, the Hidden UN Component”. This is the point where the background on Agenda 21 and ICLEI are developed and explained.
This is a topic none of us can afford to ignore any longer.
MtK
It’s been noted here before, but this writing evidences the notable shift from the bullet riddled target of “anthropogenic climate change” toward something even more difficult to disprove, sustainablitiy. If you thought climate model output illustrated broad untestable hypotheses, try testing “sustainablility”. It’s a completely unscientific term, and so the argument is now entirely political.
The good news is that no one can accuse us of denying the facts with this meme. Nothing lasts forever, but sustainable does not mean forever. Only fools would think otherwise.
The question is, why are these cockroaches being paid to tell us things we already know?
Young folks today are not entertained unless the imagery is fast moving and Hi Def.
They don’t seem very interested in such a dry, dreary, unfocused expression as “Sustainablity.”
They also expect more than slick graphic presentations and dramatic speeches. They demand real, tangible innovation, exploration and discovery from their scientists and engineers.
These folks going to Rio are just riding the momentum of a popular wave that has subsided. Governments are always the last to react to social change.
Actually, churches are even slower to react than governments, but participation in church dogma is voluntary.
mkelly asks- ‘What the hell is “gender and environment”????’
Clearly if you have to ask that you do not comprehend the sociology of emotions among other pressing matters like gender spaces. In any case you are most likely an ignorant lay bloke and therefore you cannot hang around gender spaces to find out about such things. If you were paying attention properly you would have noted Kari Norgard is merely an Associate Professor and any deeply nuanced enquiries about such highly technical stuff should clearly be directed to the Professor of Sociological Emotions at Oregon for a definitive epistemological rulling.