Just in case you thought the world’s environment might be doing well, the United Nations Environment Program released a comprehensive 550-page, 5-year report this week declaring that things are officially not OK, environment-wise. The UNEP’s Global Environmental Outlook attempted to strike that rare balance between cataloguing the world’s substantial eco-ills without making the situation seem as truly grim and overwhelming and monumentally depressing as it is. The report said that population growth, unsustainable patterns of consumption, species extinction, water crises, overfishing, and of course climate change are important environmental stressors that are severely messing with the Earth and putting humanity at risk too. UNEP called for world reductions of greenhouse gases of 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, with developed nations slashing emissions 60 to 80 percent. “The need couldn’t be more urgent and the time couldn’t be more opportune, with our enhanced understanding of the challenges we face, to act now to safeguard our own survival and that of future generations,” the report said.
