The UN gathered more than 3,000 scientists and experts covering a variety of fields in London from March 26-29, 2012 for a “Planet Under Pressure” conference serving as a precursor of a larger conference to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June. The fields represented included the following:
- Climate change
- Environmental geo-engineering
- Food security
- Marine ecosystems & biodiversity
- Global trade
- International governance
- Poverty alleviation
At the conclusion of the conference, the group issued a declaration that will be used to steer the conference in June. The experts declared that “society must not delay taking urgent and large-scale action” to counteract the threat to resources on Earth that affect ocean, air, land, humans, and animals. They also stated it was time to add other factors when measuring the progress of societies instead of just using GDP.
Additionally, it was recommended that all nations establish a new structure for creating a collection of goals to reach for the Earth’s sustainability. The UN has plans to put more people on its payroll by creating a “Sustainable Development Council” to unify policies globally that are of a social, environmental, and economic nature. They also pushed for moving ahead quickly on suggested changes since “a highly interconnected global society has the potential to innovate rapidly,” as opposed to the way international agreements work now, which they feel is inefficient and ineffective.
Basically, the changes the UN wants would be small steps toward erasing the idea of the autonomy of nations by using the ever popular marketing ploy of making people feel that what they currently have is passé and should be replaced by their new and improved product. Their new buzzwords are “interconnectedness” and “rapid innovation” to make their proposed expansion of global governance more palatable to the masses.
Sources: Owen Gaffney. Planet under Pressure conference, London: Final statement. Eurekalert.org. March 30, 2012.
Planet Under Pressure Conference. State of the Planet Declaration. 29 March 2012.
–Harry A. Gaylord–
