THE ENVIRONMENT

The condition of the environment affects all the people in the world and it also affects our next generation. The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, said “… If we don’t act against the climate change, we won’t go out of poverty”. Similarly, the General Director of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, said “…the climate change is dangerous for our health…”. Today, seven hundred million people can’t get any water and one thousand four hundred million people haven´t got electricity.

One of the problems is the biodiversity lost, we lose more than one hundred species per million each year,  experts consider it is bad when we lose more than ten species per million each year. We have lost fifty-two species per cent since 1970. The biodiversity lost affects food security. We can improve it if we stop cutting trees or if we use wood from controlled forest by The Forest Stewardship Council.

Other problem is the waste water without treatment which affects the life in the seas. Only two per cent of the water around the world is fresh water and a bad use of it attacks the marine ecosystems. We must make an efficient use of  water.

The change of nitrogen (N), phosphorus and other nutrients used for growing or from the vehicle emissions, pollute the water and the air. They kill animals, ecosystems and contribute to the climate change.

The stratospheric ozone destruction affects people with skin diseases and it also affects the wildlife.

The worst problem is the Climate Change produced by Carbon dioxide and other emissions. These emissions affect the wildlife and produce diseases and the global warming. The climate change has produced an increase of one degree since 1901. The seventy eight per cent of emissions was produced by burning of fossil fuels between 1970 and 2010.

Nowadays we need one and half the speed of production of the Earth in a year. Our model isn’t sustainable.

The real consequences are two thousand seven hundred natural disasters per year, one hundred and forty thousand people dead per year (WHO), the ecosystem destroyed,… The World Bank said “The fight against poverty, famine and diseases is in danger”.

We must act to breath clean air, drink good water and eat healthy food. The reductions of emissions are possible using renewable energy, efficient transport and if we make a good use of the natural resources. We can´t forget that the population nowaday, seven thousand million, will grow in two thousand million citizens in 2050. The cost of the damage will be eleven per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

There are not magical solutions but we can make it, it isn´t impossible; we can look after nature, produce and consume better, … The ecosystem sustains the society that makes economies.