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TechnoratiRich World's Consumerism May Cause African Famines, Experts Warn
Food production in developing countries will halve in the next 20 years unless wealthy nations lower their rate of consumption, the Stockholm Environment Institute warned at a weekend conference.
The livelihoods of more than three billion people in the world are being undermined by the wealth of the privileged few, the institute's executive director, Johan Rockstroem, warned.
"The risk is that we might halve ... food production in sub-Saharan Africa because of our lifestyles," he told AFP on the sidelines of an international conference on climate change and sustainable development, held in the Swedish town of Taellberg.
Rockstroem said that as wealthy countries increase consumption they also increase their exploitation of the world's natural resources, and in turn emit more greenhouse gases.
That ultimately speeds up the desertification of sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world.
According to scientists and experts, greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to rise by two percent a year despite hundreds of environmental agreements, including the Kyoto Protocol.
James Hansen, a climate expert and the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said tree lines moving north and melting glaciers were not only a consequence of global warming, they were also an accelerating factor.
"Forests are moving forward and that ... amplifies climate change. Ice sheets are beginning to melt earlier in the season. They become darker when they become wet and they absorb more sunlight" which warms the planet's temperature, he said.
As a result, experts have predicted that the world has at least a decade to lower emissions before it is too late.
The Stockholm Environment Institute is one of the world's top five research organisations in climate change and it is pushing for a broader dialogue on social and economic change.
"We have come to the end of the road of sustainable development as we know it today. Science alone cannot deal with this. The risk of environmental refugees, the risk of societal collapse is imminent," Rockstroem said.
"We need to make massive changes in the equity and stewardship of the planet which goes way beyond climate change," he added.
Bo Ekman, founder and chairman of the Taellberg Forum, agreed.
"We cannot continue with business as usual, rather we must change our ways to business as sustainable," he said.
Hansen suggested the possibility of introducing punitive measures to help protect the environment.
"Oil and gas, which are being exploited now and will (continue to) be, are going to take us close to the dangerous level and there are huge reservoirs of coal and unconventional fossil fuels. Countries across the world are continuing to build or plan to build coal-fired power plants and we simply can't do that, he said.
"We're going to have to put a price on carbon emissions," he said.
The Taellberg Forum each year gathers more than 500 political leaders, scientists and aid workers in the resort village of Taellberg to discuss world issues in a relaxed atmosphere, with nature walks and music concerts on the agenda.
Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse
10 Comments so far
Show AllYou said it so well jstevens. On the food aid issue, all to often the aid from America, CARE and other relief organizations is taken by the ones with guns, and never reaches those who need it. It is often discovered being sold by black market merchants.
Mother Nature will someday handle the over population problem, one way or another. Right now it is beginning with global warming, although Mother Nature is not the culprit there. Neither will she be if it's done with nuclear waste or an atomic war.
I am quite impatient to move through this finger pointing stage. Is it possible to name a single country that has not contributed to pollution and climate change? We are very wasteful in the United States, however we have kept our population under control (by accident not by design) much better than some nations. We haven't deforested to the extent that some nations have, we have some kind of pollution control and oversight.
Everybody has to change and change drastically. We also must look very critically at the effect of aid to other nations. I know that hunger is misery, and I would never agree with allowing people to starve. However, any donations of food must be coupled with measures to halt population growth. Otherwise the real effect of foreign aid is that more people are born into misery and starvation. With a population of 6.7 billion people, only a handful will have a decent standard of living.
If the Western World didn't waste so much we wouldn't be in this predicament yet, but the earth has an inherent boundary, it can only sustain so much.
Haven't "millions" of Africans been starving for over the past fifty years? No country has ever done much of anythng about it. Was the problem always global warming? I don't think so. The major problms were and are, over population, poor use of land and poor education. It will get worse and never get better until those problems are addressed also. Global warming is just making a already serious problem worse.
Global warming is a most serious problem, and no matter if we stopped EVERY single use of fossil fuels today, our atmosphere is not going to reverse for at least a hudred years. We've already screwed ourselves.
We are going to have to place a cost on emitting carbon and the use of fossil fuel. Let's try adding that to these trade agrements and enforce sanctions on trade for noncompliance. The high cost of carbon emission would encourage the use of wind, solar etc..
And to those who say it is futile, remember that when something must be done, people will eventually do it. Saying it is all futile only delays the start of that doing. When something is necessary, it has to be done either now or later but it will have to be done. It is not the IF but the WHEN. Futility is not an option you would consider if it concerned your own immediate survival. Well, our survival is at stake but you just don't feel it yet. When it starts to hurt then you'll start screaming but it won't be to say it is futile and there is no point in trying. To say it is futile is only to delay what will HAVE to be done anyway.
What's amazing is that there IS something we can do but.. there may not be enough time. In other words, what we CAN do isn't happening fast enough. I hate when mother nature starts taking matters into her own hands because she usually doesn't back down.
Desertification
The US Dust Bowl is a good historical example. The Western US is suffering from desertification -- maybe it would be helpful for people to conceptualize some of the traits if one went and looked at desertification first hand. Take an informative vacation, of sorts.
Things that also contribute are overgrazing, and off road vehicles (ORVs).
the leaders of this country and the energy industries need to be exterminated, fast. It's just that simple.
Our noble and God fearing leaders don't care about New Orleans or the people sick from the twin towers pile or soldiers from Iraq, sick from depleted uranium. Why would they care about the poor anywhere else? Jesus reserved his real disgust not for prostitutes or thieves or lepers, but for pious, arrogant, self righteous rich people who cared nothing for the poor.
And, if you are Jewish, the old testament prophets fought the same battles.
if you clicked on their website SEI you would see what they are trying to do. and at least they are trying to do something on this doomed planet. they have optimism. i commend them for that. but in the long run, it's futile. shame on us.
It's all talk here so far. What are they going to do as an organization, as advocates, as individuals?