Rio+20 Earth summit: scientists call for action on population

Joint report by 105 institutions urges negotiators to drop political inhibitions and confront rising global population and consumption



A worker, left, hauls a bag of charcoal produced from illegally harvested Amazon rainforest wood onto a truck in Rondon do Para, Brazil. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images



The Rio+20 Earth summit must take decisive action on population and consumption regardless of political taboos or it will struggle to tackle the alarming decline of the global environment, the world's leading scientific academies warned on Thursday.


Rich countries need to reduce or radically transform unsustainable lifestyles, while greater efforts should be made to provide contraception to those who want it in the developing world, the coalition of 105 institutions, including the Royal Society, urged in a joint report.
It's a wake-up call for negotiators meeting in Rio for the UN conference on sustainable development.


The authors point out that while the Rio summit aims to reduce poverty and reverse the degradation of the environment, it barely mentions the two solutions that could ease pressure on increasingly scarce resources.


More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...on-consumption