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Global ecological disaster predicted in next 50 years
British Medical Journal ^ | Owen Dyer

Posted on 04/07/2005 7:48:48 PM PDT by lafroste

Humanity is heading for ecological disaster if instead of foreseeing and preventing environmental degradation we just react to it. This is the conclusion of a United Nations report compiled by 1300 leading scientists from 95 countries.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Synthesis Report previews the ecological state of the world in 2050. It lists 24 essential "ecosystem services," such as timber, clean air, and fresh water, and finds that 60% of them are being degraded or used unsustainably.

This degradation obstructs the UN Millennium Development Goals, set in 2000, the most ambitious of which was a halving of the world's population existing on less than a $1 (£0.53; {euro}0.78) a day or threatened by hunger or lack of clean water. Among the gravest threats to the environment are excessive "nutrient loading" from agricultural fertilisers and the progressive disappearance of biodiversity. The extinction rate of species is already a thousand times higher than the average rate shown by the fossil record and is set to increase 10-fold in the next 50 years.

"Humans are fundamentally and to a significant extent irreversibly changing the diversity of life on earth," says the report, noting that this could harm pharmaceutical research and development.

The scientists warn of possible "accelerating, abrupt, and potentially irreversible changes." These include the collapse of fish stocks, such as North Sea cod; rapid growth of marine algae, creating oxygen depleted dead zones in the sea; and emergence of disease.

In Africa, growing pressure on water supplies combined with regional climate change has the potential to greatly enlarge the areas in which cholera is a threat. The range of malaria bearing mosquitoes is also likely to increase.

The release of carbon into the atmosphere and the leaching of nitrogen based fertilisers into water pose serious risks for chronic disease, the report finds. Increases in ultraviolet B radiation, ozone and other air pollution, and pollen production are also predicted.

The report gives four sets of predictions for 2050, based on the approach currently adopted to counter ecosystem degradation. "The scenario we are closest to now is the one we call order from strength," said Dr Reid. This describes a world in which international cooperation is lacking, economic competition is fierce, and environmental threats are faced only after they emerge. This is likely to deliver the fastest population growth, the lowest economic growth, and the most environmental damage of the four scenarios, he said.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Synthesis Report is available at www.millenniumassessment.org//en/Products.Synthesis.aspx.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: callingartbell; climatechange; environment; predictions; theskyisfalling; weredoomed
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To: lafroste

"...we're all going to die..."
But we don't have to. Not as a planet. Look at "growing presssure on water supplies" in Africa. I wonder where that pressure is coming from. Could it be that each "family" has six or seven children? What would it hurt to give them a little advice and tell them how children are created? Why do we need trillions of Africans? Africans without water. Is it somehow God's plan? Or is it simply their own poor planning?


41 posted on 04/07/2005 8:48:06 PM PDT by henderson field
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To: TheBigB

POSSIBLE CHANGES! GOD HELP US ALLLLL!!!



Don't forget about the POTENTIALLY IRREVERSABLE CHANGES!

Look: WOLF!


42 posted on 04/07/2005 8:49:44 PM PDT by winner3000 (part)
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To: lafroste

[Humanity is heading for ecological disaster blablahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah...]







NEXT!


43 posted on 04/07/2005 8:52:35 PM PDT by spinestein
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To: RightWhale
compiled by 1300 leading scientists from 95 countries There aren't 1300 leading scientists.

Who is doing the work?

"Top men."

And who would they be?

"I said, top men."

LVM

44 posted on 04/07/2005 8:53:46 PM PDT by LasVegasMac ("God. Guts. Guns. I don't call 911." (bumper sticker))
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To: vannrox

If any of you have a little patience and care about this issue and the undeniable math underlying it, there's a professor Bartlett from out West (maybe Boulder)that has an incredible lecture that everyone should see.

It's a realplayer file at:

rtsp://edison.ncssm.edu:554/programs/colloquia/bartlett.rm

it's 57 minutes long, but it's worth it.


45 posted on 04/07/2005 8:55:09 PM PDT by potato
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To: Sooth2222
but we ain't nuttin' compared to the comet that killed the dinosaurs.

That's only 'cuz Bruce Willis was not on the scene.

LVM

46 posted on 04/07/2005 8:55:32 PM PDT by LasVegasMac ("God. Guts. Guns. I don't call 911." (bumper sticker))
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To: henderson field
"But we don't have to. Not as a planet."

You are surely mistaken!

2Pe 3:10 "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."

.

47 posted on 04/07/2005 9:00:06 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (The Lord has given us President Bush; let's now turn this nation back to him)
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To: lafroste
The extinction rate of species is already a thousand times higher than the average rate shown by the fossil record and is set to increase 10-fold in the next 50 years.

There is absolutely no way to know this. There have been many thousands of species that have appeared and died and we do not even know about them. The fossil record is not complete. In fact the fossil record we know of is just a small small small portion of the record of life that existed and died on this earth. Pure Bravo Sierra

48 posted on 04/07/2005 9:01:20 PM PDT by cpdiii (Oil Field Trash, Roughneck, Geologist, Pilot, Pharmacist, (OIL FIELD TRASH was fun))
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To: Ranxerox

When I was a wee lad, these same scientists were stating that pollution was going to cause global cooling and that people would die by the hundreds of million due to the resulting famine spurred by the man-made New Ice Age. By the year 2000, Texas was supposed to be covered in thick blankets of ice and snow every winter. The global climate is based upon natural forces well beyond our best efforts at control; this report is just another PSA for UN shakedown efforts.


49 posted on 04/07/2005 9:02:17 PM PDT by Army Air Corps (I am sick of brownshirts in black robes)
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To: potato
"If any of you have a little patience and care about this issue and the undeniable math underlying it"

There's no math what-so-ever underlying any of this socialist propaganda; but there is a great quantity of cannine feces!

50 posted on 04/07/2005 9:04:14 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (The Lord has given us President Bush; let's now turn this nation back to him)
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To: jimfree
Will somebody please name the 1300 "Misleading scientists" and provide their credentials and political leanings?

Lessee, there's Algore, Jimmy Karter, John sKerry, Muddlin Halfbright, (am I missing someone?)

51 posted on 04/07/2005 9:08:00 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (The Lord has given us President Bush; let's now turn this nation back to him)
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To: lafroste
Wow! The FLDS said the world was going to end yesterday...I'm sending this post from heaven.


#1 rule for liberals - RULE BY FEAR, doesn't matter how you do it, just be in control of the sheeples!


go to my profile page and go to links.... Massive uncoverings of U.N. B.S.








Get US Out of the UN Now!

Attitude? read about U.N. Agenda 21 here.
52 posted on 04/07/2005 9:08:02 PM PDT by Issaquahking (.)
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To: Ranxerox
When I was a kid, a previous generation of scientists told me I was going to commute to work in a flying car...or that I would have to live in an underwater house because there wouldn't be any land left to live on...but not to worry, because those were only temporary problems; apparently we would all starve to death by the year 2000.

Well, I remember them telling me that thanks to the new Ice Age, I was going to be a popsicle down here in Florida.

53 posted on 04/07/2005 9:08:09 PM PDT by CFC__VRWC (Ted Kennedy and the New York Times do NOT select our next Pope.)
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To: TASMANIANRED

That's okay. I was just making a funny. I definitely believe you read it cause I heard it someplace, too.

vaudine


54 posted on 04/07/2005 9:15:49 PM PDT by vaudine
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To: vaudine

I recognize dry wit when I see it.

I can handle teasing.


55 posted on 04/07/2005 9:18:41 PM PDT by TASMANIANRED (Rule # 4. When liberals have factual evidence that their position is wrong they ignore the evidence)
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To: Onelifetogive

"...I'm selling all my shares of "Chicken of the Sea."

Do you think it is too late to unload my shares of North American Whale Bone? First corsets went out of style and now this!


56 posted on 04/07/2005 9:20:28 PM PDT by Monterrosa-24 (Technology advances. Human nature is dependably stagnant.)
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To: vannrox
You could take every human being on the planet, give them a half an acre of land and they wouldn't fill up Texas.

There is no crisis.

L

57 posted on 04/07/2005 9:25:11 PM PDT by Lurker (Remember the Beirut Bombing; 243 dead Marines. The House of Assad and Hezbollah did it..)
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To: lafroste

Like the pit of corruption known as the UN is capable of doing anything about this


58 posted on 04/07/2005 9:26:42 PM PDT by dennisw ("Sursum corda")
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To: lafroste; All

JUST WAIT UNTIL THE YEAR 2000!!!!!

THE POLAR ICE CAPS WILL HAVE MELTED!!!!

ALL THE WORLDS OIL WILL BE USED UP!!!!!

THE POPULATION BOMB WILL HAVE EXPLODED AND AFRICA WILL HAVE DIED FROM STARVATION!!!!!!!

THERE WILL BE NO DRINKABLE WATER LEFT!!!!!

and communism will rule the world.


Yes folks! BEEEEEWWWWWAAAAAAARE THE YEAR 2000!!!!!!!!!!!!


59 posted on 04/07/2005 9:31:14 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE!)
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To: Lurker
Sorry, you are wrong. I just saw the new preview on my kid's "Incredibles" DVD. It is from Disney Pixar called "Chicken Little"
It starts out "He tried to warn us...."
I figured it was the first political movie for the 2008 Democratic Party.
60 posted on 04/07/2005 9:33:29 PM PDT by IrishCatholic (No local communist or socialist party chapter? Join the Democrats, it's the same thing.)
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