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| Water
Shortage |
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Listen
here |
The Earth has all the water it needs to supply its
six billion inhabitants with clean, safe drinking
water. Nevertheless millions of people are going
to die because of water shortage. It’s a manageable
problem which simply isn’t being managed.
In southwest Bangladesh more than 30 million people
rely on the River Ganges to irrigate their crops
and provide drinking water during the dry season.
But these people are at the end of the river’s long
route from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal. Increased
industrial and domestic consumption by India and
other countries upstream has now reduced the flow
into Bangladesh to a trickle.
The problem is being tackled in a variety of ways.
Farmers are switching to less water-hungry crops
and the government has dug more than a million tube
wells to provide drinking water. The most significant
move, however, was a water treaty signed with India
- ensuring fair shares of water during the dry season.
In a world where water is the cause of increasing
tensions between countries - it’s a major step in
right direction.
California is the richest and one of the driest
states in America. In the past it has resolved its
water problems by throwing money at them. It spent
billions of pounds building reservoirs, aqueducts
and massive pipelines carrying water to the driest
areas. But the state still faces the prospect of
increasingly frequent droughts.
Rather than switch away from their water-thirsty
crops like alfalfa and grapes - the Californians
have thrown technology at the problem - installing
sophisticated electronic equipment - including radioactive
probes - to ensure water is used efficiently and
frugally. And on the domestic front, the city of
San Fransisco is addressing water shortage by installing
tens of thousands of low-flush toilets. It’s a rather
unromantic measure - but highly effective.
As global demand for diminishing supplies of water
increases - the potential for conflict grows. Peter
Gleick argues that water is fundamental to all our
lives and yet we are very bad at protecting it.
"We can’t go on wasting it and fighting over it,"
he says. "We need a perestroika in our attitude
to water. The world must start to co-operate to
ensure that we preserve precious water supplies
for future generations." |
| Listen
to Peter
Gleick, water resources expert talk about water
resources in the 21st Century |
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| Poisoning
The Planet |
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Listen
here |
Half the world's population will be living in cities by
2025. Vast numbers of those people will suffer from acute
respiratory disorders caused by choking exhaust fumes.
That is if they haven’t already been killed by one of
a variety diseases contracted as a result of infected
drinking water or inadequate sewage systems.
In the city of Sao Paolo, in Brazil, people prefer to
spend money on cars than on their children’s education.
Six million cars cause gridlock and pump pollution into
the atmosphere. It's killing unborn babies, giving children
respiratory diseases and bringing premature death to the
elderly and infirm.
Five days after a bad pollution day in the city - the
young, old and infirm will flood into the cities hospitals
with a variety of acute respiratory disorders. The hospitals
experience a 20-30 per cent increase during these periods.
Various authorities are trying to limit the numbers of
cars on the road and have introduced cleaner fuels. But
car production is outstripping their efforts.
Politicians like Fabio Feldman, the former Sao Paolo Sate
Secretary for the Environment, who dared to suggest people
should leave their cars at home, are rapidly voted out
of office. The environment is a lower priority than cash
in pocket or cheaper food.
In the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, politicians are trying
to outlaw the fume-spewing two-stroke auto-rickshaws which
throng the streets. In San Fransisco, they have developed
an ultra friendly rapid transport system in an attempt
to encourage people to leave their cars at home. They
also allow people to drive across the famous Golden Gate
Bridge fee of charge - as long as there are at least three
people in the vehicle.
If air pollution is largely a consequence of wealth, then
water pollution is more generally generated by poverty.
In Sao Paolo in Brazil a small miracle is taking place.
Environment agencies and the state and city authorities
are conspiring with the World Bank to tackle pollution's
root cause - poverty.
Just outside the city is the Guarapiranga reservoir. It’s
one of two major reservoirs which supply Sao Paolo’s 18
million residents with water. In recent years more than
a million people have set up illegal homes around the
reservoirs - living in abject squalor and poverty.
The sewage from the slum areas runs straight into the
reservoir and so creates the potential for major pollution
problems. The Guarapiranga project is attempting to address
the problem by dealing with it’s root cause - poverty.
By improving basic living conditions, building better
houses and sewage systems, the people of the district
are encouraged to find jobs, earn money and maintain their
own environment. It’s a fundamental approach but hugely
effective. |
| Listen
to Professor
Gyorgy Bohm talk about pollution in the 21st Century |
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| Climate
Change |
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Listen
here |
Something deeply disturbing is happening to the weather
throughout the world. Something that is making it less
predictable, more capricious and very much more threatening.
Recent hurricanes in the United States and the Caribbean,
cyclones in India and floods in Venezuela have claimed
thousands of lives and caused billions in damage.
Many scientists now predict that this is just a foretaste
of far worse horrors to come. We may be heading for a
very different and more dangerous world. The whole planet
is on storm alert.
The tiny island of Kutubdia is on the front line of climate
change. In 1991 - one third of the island's 100,000 population
died in a tidal surge whipped up by a severe cyclone.
The survivors returned to their wrecked homes when the
waters subsided. However they are experiencing increasingly
frequent storms and so fear that the next devastating
hurricane may not be far away. They are calling on the
authorities to build higher sea defences, more storm shelters
and to improve warning systems. The government recognises
the need but simply doesn’t have the resources to cope.
Early warnings are the best form of defence for the people
of Bangladesh and Miami, Florida, hurricane experts like
Chris Landsea is working hard to improve the accuracy
of storm predictions. But he warns that the planet is
at the beginning of a long period of extreme hurricanes
and cyclones.
In Britain, Mick Kelly predicts an increase in frequency
of heat waves - longer summers, milder winters. Snow may
disappear completely. As the climate continues to warm
we can expect more storms, higher waves and more flooding.
But he warns that it is not the things which can be predicted
that are the problem. It's the things that take us by
surprise that we should be worried about.
In Selsey in the South East - Peter Ridgely of the Environment
agency predicts major problems with sea-level rise, high
waves and increasingly strong winds. Major sea defences
are currently protecting 60,000 people at risk of flooding
in Sussex. However, if the sea level continues to rise
at the current rate, Peter Ridgely believes that we may
have to give up the battle and let the coast roll back.
|
| Listen
to Mick Kelly,
climatologist talk about the climate of the 21st Century |
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| Bio-Diversity
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Listen
here |
Millions of peasant farmers in Brazil should be over the
harvest moon. The government is giving them grants, the
multinational corporations give them seeds and the west
buy their crops. There is only one catch - they have got
to grow soya. And as production goes up - prices go down.
The farmers are caught in a soya trap.
It's a similar story in India, the Philippines and many
other developing countries. For millions of farmers, encouraged
to switch to cash crops and invest in chemical fertilizers,
the consequence has been debt, bankruptcy and, ultimately,
the loss of their land. In India farmers have been driven
to suicide.
Environmentalists are concerned that as well as the human
cost of this drive towards monoculture, the loss of variety
of plant types could have a catastrophic impact on global
food production in the future. The Irish Potato Famine
was the direct result of the loss of crop variety and
ecologists fear similar disasters in the future.
In Rio Grande Do Sul in Brazil peasant farmers are striking
back. A landless movement, with more than a million supporters,
is encouraging families to reoccupy marginal land belonging
to big farmers. They then reintroduce traditional crops
and farming methods. The state has also taken a stand
against the influence of the multinational companies by
banning all genetically modified crops.
Similar attempts to move away from growing cash crops
for western markets are being made in many other parts
of the world. In India and Africa farmers have returned
to more sustainable farming methods that both feed their
families and make a small profit. They are also conserving
valuable bio-diversity by exchanging crop varieties at
seed fairs.
Mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow. |
| Listen
to Lori Ann Thrupp,
Director of Sustainable Agriculture at the World Resources
Institute talk about bio-diversity in the 21st Century |
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| Resources |
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Listen
here |
The developed nations of the world have become rich at
a huge environmental cost. Scientists, ecologists and
politicians are now largely agreed that 100 years of industrial
pollution has been a major cause of global warming. And
the United Nations has identified global warming as one
of the major threats to future of our planet.
Ironically it is the poorer, developing nations, who contribute
least to greenhouse gas emissions, who are suffering the
most. Small island states like Tuvalu in the South Pacific
face annihilation from sea-level rise. In densely populated
Bangladesh, the encroaching sea, tidal surges and cyclones
could turn 2O million people into environmental refugees.
The governments of Bangladesh and Tuvalu are calling on
the richer countries to take much stronger measures to
curb their greenhouse gas emissions. Environmentalist
Aubrey Meyer warns that billions could die in the coming
decades as a result of profligate consumption by developed
nations.
Gobal warming is only part of the grim global environmental
situation caused by the unequal distribution and consumption
of the earth’s resources.
According the Klaus Topfer of the United Nations Environment
Programme, the cause of most of the earth's environmental
problems is extreme poverty and extreme wealth. UNEP and
other environmental agencies have called on rich countries
to cut their use of natural resources by 90 per cent to
give the rest of the world a chance of emerging from poverty.
Scientists, businessmen and politicians all have their
parts to play in addressing the earth’s environmental
problems. But the ultimate answer lies in individual human
behaviour. A little less greed and a little more sharing
will go a long way towards saving the planet. |
| Listen
to Klaus Toepfer,
Director of the UN Environment Programme talk about
the resources issues of the 21st Century |
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