Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability 1

natural capital. According to environmental expertNorman Myers,If a nation’s environmental foundations are degradedor depleted, its economy may well decline, its socialfabric deteriorate, and its political structure becomedestabilized as growing numbers of people seek to sustainthemselves from declining resource stocks. Thus,national security is no longer about fighting forces andweaponry alone. It relates increasingly to watersheds,croplands, forests, genetic resources, climate, and otherfactors that, taken together, are as crucial to a nation’ssecurity as are military factors.Proponents of this view call for all countries tomake environmental security a major focus of diplomacyand government policy at all levels. This wouldbe implemented by having a council of advisers madeup of highly qualified experts in environmental, economic,and military security who integrate all threesecurity concerns in making major decisions.xHOW WOULD YOU VOTE? Do you believe that environmentalsecurity is just as important as economic and militarysecurity? Cast your vote online at http://biology.brookscole.com/miller14.What Is the Role of InternationalEnvironmental Organizations? Major PlayersInternational environmental organizations gatherand evaluate environmental data, help developenvironmental treaties, and provide funds and loansfor sustainable economic development.A symphony of international environmental organizationshelps shape and set environmental policy.Perhaps the most influential is the United Nationswith a large family of organizations such as the UNEnvironment Programme (UNEP), the World HealthOrganization (WHO), United Nations DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP), and the Food and AgricultureOrganization (FAO).Other organizations that make or influence environmentaldecisions are the World Bank, the GlobalEnvironment Facility (GEF), and the World ConservationUnion (IUCN). The website for this chapter has alist of major international environmental organizations.These organizations have played important roles in■ Expanding understanding of environmental issues■ Gathering and evaluating environmental data■ Helping develop and monitor international environmentaltreaties■ Providing funds and loans for sustainable economicdevelopment and reducing poverty■ Helping more than 100 nations develop environmentallaws and institutionsDespite their often limited funding, these diverseorganizations have made important contributions toglobal and national environmental progress since 1970.Since the 1972 UN Conference on the HumanEnvironment in Stockholm, Sweden, progress hasbeen made in addressing environmental issues at theglobal level. Political scientist Keith Caldwell creditsthe Stockholm conference with forcing many governmentsto develop domestic environmental programsand legitimizing not harming the biosphere as anobject of national and international concern and policy.It also created the United Nations EnvironmentProgramme (UNEP) to help develop the global environmentalagenda. But the UNEP is a small and underfundedagency. Figure 27-8 (p. 624) lists some of thegood and bad news about international efforts to dealwith global environmental problems such as poverty,climate change, biodiversity loss, and ocean pollution.Carefully study this figure.The primary focus of the international communityon environmental problems has been the developmentof various international environmental laws and nonbindingpolicy declarations called conventions. Over500 international environmental treaties and agreements—knownas multilateral environmental agreements(MEAs)—have been developed, two-thirds of themsigned in recent decades. The website for this chapterlists some of the major MEAs.To date, the Montreal and Copenhagen Protocolsfor protecting the ozone layer are the most successfulexamples of how the global community can work togetherto deal with a serious global environmentalchallenge (p. 488). Figure 27-9 (p. 624) lists some majorproblems with MEAs and solutions to these problems.During the past 30 years James Gustave (Gus)Speth has either created or run many of the world’smost important environmental organizations, includingthe Natural Resources Defense Council, the WhiteHouse Council on Environmental Quality, and theUnited Nations Development Program, and is nowdean of Yale University’s School of Forestry and EnvironmentalStudies. In 1994, he wrote the book Red Skyat Morning, summarizing his insider view of globalenvironmental efforts. He gives a failing grade to almostevery effort.Here are some of his observations. The UnitedStates “led the fight for national-level [environmental]policies in the 1970s. But with the exception of theMontreal and Copenhagen Protocols for protecting theozone layer, the United States has largely failed to giveinternational leadership on the global environmentalagenda.... The world needs a United States that leadsby example and diplomacy, with generosity andcompassion.”“The current system of international efforts to helpthe environment simply isn’t working. ...The climatehttp://biology.brookscole.com/miller14623