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'More than
a billion people in the world never drink a glass of clean water'
Earth Summit 2002
A Factfile
Nitin Desai - Secretary General of
the Earth Summit 2002
"There can be no global security
without an agenda for global equity."
- Gerhard Schroeder, Chancellor of
Germany
"The World Summit for Sustainable
Development," was the largest United Nations meeting in history —
with more than 100 world leaders and 65,000 delegates meeting in
Johannesburg to resolve the thirst, hunger, disease, unfair trade, and
environmental emissions faced by the poorer nations of the world. Unlike the
1992 earth summit in Rio, multinational firms such as McDonald's, Rio
Tinto, Nike, Nestle and British American Tobacco were there too.
The Johannesburg Summit was a sequel to the
1992 Earth Summit at Rio in Brazil — where environmental and eco-diversity
issues such as global warming, species extinction and shrinking natural
resources were put on the global agenda for the first time.
Few of the Rio goals have been met.
Our factfile on the Earth Summit 2002 was
compiled from various sources, acknowledged at the end of the article.
Earth Issues between Rio 1992 and
Johannesburg 2002
Earth’s condition has worsened.
-
Carbon-based emissions
increased globally by almost 10 percent in the past 10 years — and
by 18 percent in the United States. (The
Bush administration has rejected the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which seeks to
make emissions reductions binding. President Bush says the treaty would
cost the U.S. economy $400 billion and 4.9 million jobs.) He suggests
voluntary, incentive-based emissions reductions.)
-
11,000 species are
threatened with extinction. In Rio, 182 nations had pledged to
prevent the loss of species through a biodiversity treaty.
"However, only one in three nations have submitted national
conservation plans. In a U.N. report, scientists say species extinction
is unrivaled since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago.
Example: One in four mammal species risks extinction within 30
years." - The Guardian
-
World forests declined
by around 90,000 sq km a year during the 1990s. According to UN reports,
2.4 percent of the world’s forests were destroyed during the 90s,
almost all in tropical regions in Africa and Latin America. It is
estimated that the total area destroyed is 220 million acres —
larger than the size of Venezuela.
Human conditions have
worsened even further
-
more than a billion people
lack clean drinking water
-
2 million children under
five die every year from drinking dirty water
-
30,000 people die each day
from water-related diseases
-
By 2025, half the world’s
projected 8 billion population is expected to be thirsty.
-
child mortality is 19 times
greater in low-income nations
-
60 million people have
been infected with AIDS, with 20 million deaths. An additional 45
million infections are predicted in the next 8 years, largely in Africa.
-
2.7 million people die from
malaria each year. Most of the victims are young and live in sub-Saharan
Africa, but the mosquito-borne disease is reappearing in South America
and parts of Asia.
-
More than 3 million people
die every year from the effects of air pollution
-
2.8 billion people live on
less than $2 per day
-
2 billion people live
without mains electricity supply
-
More than 12 million people
are
currently at risk of starvation in Africa
The ever widening gulf between the
rich and the poor nations
-
During the 80s, 20 per cent
of the world's population were 30 times richer than the poorest 20 per
cent. By 1997, they were 74 times richer.
-
The United Nations estimates
that rich nations pay their own farmers about $1 billion a day in
subsidies — six times aid payments to the developing world.
-
the combined sales of the
five largest companies in the world are greater than the combined
incomes of the world's 46 poorest countries.
What the rich nations demand
from the poor:
-
Open markets for electronic
goods and services
-
more effort on eradicating
government corruption.
-
to protect rain forests or
endangered species – but not at a huge economic cost to the rich
countries
What the poor nations want
from the rich:
-
more aid
-
greater trade liberalisation,
especially in agriculture where many of the rich countries impose huge
tariffs. The poorer nations cannot compete with farmers in the wealthy
nations who receive more than $300 bn in subsidies - several times more
than poor countries get in aid payments.
-
environmentally-sound
enterprises by multinationals, that benefit the countries they operate
within.
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