Our Country, The Planet [antikvár]

Foreword We are confronted with indisputable evidence that the struggle to keep our planet habitable for the human race is at a critical juncture. As Sir Shridath Ramphal, the former secretary-general of the Commonwealth and foreign minister of Guyana, documents in this authoritative study, the debate among experts on the central issues of survivability has been resolved. Scientists agree and attest that the progressive thinning of the ozone layer and the effects of global warming will put world civihzation at risk unless prompt action is taken to curb current polluting practices. Without effective worldwide programs to protect the biosphere, those images of our descendants existing in domed communities designed to shield against ultraviolet radiation or sheltering behind dikes in cities such as New York to guard against rising seas as a consequence of global warming become credible. The call by the scientific community to immediate action to forestall disaster extends to other ecological threats. We are urged to consider the impact of population pressures on the shrinking resources of the Earth, the desertification of much of its surface, and the loss of biodiversity essential to a balanced ecosystem. In 1991 the human race totaled some 5.4 billion; by the year 2000 the number will be 6.25 biUion, leveling off, according to UN demographers, in the middle of the twenty-second century at 11.6 billion. Sir Shridath reminds us that 3.3 billion hectares of land are under assault by desertification. This carries immense implications for human hunger and deprivation, especially in the developing world. Researchers estimate that as many as 25 percent of all species inhabiting the Earth in the mid-1980s will have disappeared by 2015 if current deforestation trends hold. Given this momentum of devastation we cannot help but ask the question, is it already too late? Is it too late to expect realistically that the human XI