16 Aug 2024
Risky times
The United Nations Environment Programme is warning countries that the world faces a “rapid rate of change combined with technological developments, more frequent and devastating disasters and an increasingly turbulent geopolitical landscape.” In a new report, Navigating New Horizons: A global foresight report on planetary health and human wellbeing the global environmental watchdog in collaboration with the International Science Council says we have a “triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste is feeding into human crises such as conflict for territory and resources, displacement and deteriorating health.” We face “competition for natural resources, new forms of conflict, mass forced displacement and migration, persistent widening inequalities, declining trust and weakened institutions, the prevalence of mis/disinformation and an increasing global multipolarity.”
It warns of the environmental impacts of growing demand for critical minerals for clean energy technologies along with growing antimicrobial resistance in the environment, emerging zoonotic diseases and ancient viruses arising from thawing permafrost. As well there are “surging fossil fuel subsidies eroding the energy transition; and a looming mental health crisis amongst adolescents whose neural systems are increasingly primed for anxiety.” Governments need to count well-being rather than simply economic growth and need more agile and responsive governance to deal with these crises. “The future must be consultative, multilateral, cooperative and integrate the voices of traditionally marginalized groups, including women, youth, local communities and Indigenous Peoples.” it says.