SCIENTISTS ADVANCE DOOMSDAY CLOCK NEARER TO MIDNIGHT

Source: GMA NEWS NETWORK (http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/244593/scitech/science/scientists-advance-doomsday-clock-nearer-to-midnight?ref=latest)

January 14, 2012 6:12pm

Lamenting continuing inaction on climate change and inadequate progress on nuclear weapons reduction and proliferation, scientists have moved the notional “Doomsday Clock” one minute closer to midnight.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which maintains the “Doomsday Clock,” said this means the world is getting closer to annihilation.

“It is five minutes to midnight. Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed. For that reason, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is moving the clock hand one minute closer to midnight, back to its time in 2007,” it said.

BAS said the last time the Doomsday Clock minute hand moved was in January 2010, when the Clock’s minute hand was pushed back one minute from five to six minutes before midnight.

A separate article on tech site CNET said that since the clock was turned on in 1947, its hands have moved back and forth several times.

“Starting off at 7 minutes to midnight, the clock was set to two minutes in 1952 after the first test of the hydrogen bomb ... It fell back as far as 17 minutes to midnight in 1991 when the U.S. and Russia began cutting down on their nuclear weaponry,” it said.

Climate change

The BAS said the global community may be near a point of no return in efforts to prevent a catastrophe from changes in Earth’s atmosphere.

It said the International Energy Agency (IAEA) projects that unless societies begin building alternatives to carbon-emitting energy technologies over the next five years, the world is doomed to a warmer climate.

This means “harsher weather, droughts, famine, water scarcity, rising sea levels, loss of island nations, and increasing ocean acidification,” it said.

“Since fossil-fuel burning power plants and infrastructure built in 2012-2020 will produce energy — and emissions — for 40 to 50 years, the actions taken in the next few years will set us on a path that will be impossible to redirect. Even if policy leaders decide in the future to reduce reliance on carbon-emitting technologies, it will be too late,” it warned.

Among the existing alternatives for producing base-load electricity with low carbon dioxide emissions is nuclear power, it said.

Russia, China, India, and South Korea will likely continue to construct plants, enrich fuel, and shape the global nuclear power industry, it added.

Countries that had earlier signaled interest in building nuclear power capacity, such as Vietnam, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and others, are still intent on acquiring civilian nuclear reactors for electricity despite the Fukushima disaster.

However, a number of countries have renounced nuclear power, including Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. In Japan, only eight of 54 power plants currently operate because prefecture governors, responding to people’s opposition to nuclear power, have not allowed reactors back online.

In the United States, increased costs of additional safety measures may make nuclear power too expensive to be a realistic alternative to natural gas and other fossil fuels.

The hopeful news is that alternatives to burning coal, oil, and uranium for energy continue to show promise, BAS said.

It said solar and photovoltaic technologies are seeing reductions in price, wind turbines are being adopted for commercial electricity, and energy conservation and efficiency are becoming accepted as sources for industrial production and residential use.

“Yet, we are very concerned that the pace of change may not be adequate and that the transformation that seems to be on its way will not take place in time to meet the hardships that large-scale disruption of the climate portends,” it said.

“As we see it, the major challenge at the heart of humanity’s survival in the 21st century is how to meet energy needs for economic growth in developing and industrial countries without further damaging the climate, without exposing people to loss of health and community, and without risking further spread of nuclear weapons,” it added.

It added the challenges to rid the world of nuclear weapons, harness nuclear power, and meet the nearly inexorable climate disruptions from global warming are complex and interconnected.

But it said its Science and Security Board is heartened by the Arab Spring, the Occupy movements, political protests in Russia, and by the actions of ordinary citizens in Japan as they call for fair treatment and attention to their needs.

“For this reason, we ask other scientists and experts to join us in engaging ordinary citizens. Together, we can present the most significant questions to policymakers and industry leaders. Most important, we can demand answers and action. As the first atomic scientists of the Bulletin recognized in 1948, the burden of disseminating information about the social and economic ‘implications of nuclear energy and other new scientific developments rests with the intelligent citizens of the world; the intense and continuing cooperation of the scientists is assured,’” it said.

On the other hand, BAS called for urgent attention to avert catastrophe from nuclear weapons and global warming. Such measures include:

• Ratification by the United States and China of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and progress on a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty;
• Implementing multinational management of the civilian nuclear energy fuel cycle with strict standards for safety, security, and nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, including eliminating reprocessing for plutonium separation;
• Strengthening the International Atomic Energy Agency’s capacity to oversee nuclear materials, technology development, and its transfer;
• Adopting and fulfilling climate change agreements to reduce carbon dioxide emissions through tax incentives, harmonized domestic regulation and practice;
• Transforming the coal power sector of the world economy to retire older plants and to require in new plants the capture and storage of the CO2 they produce;
• Vastly increasing public and private investments in alternatives to carbon emitting energy sources, such as solar and wind, and in technologies for energy storage, and sharing the results worldwide.

Nuclear disarmament

Despite the promise of a new spirit of international cooperation, and reductions in tensions between the United States and Russia, the BAS Science and Security Board said the path toward a world free of nuclear weapons is not at all clear, and leadership is failing.

It said the ratification in December 2010 of the New START treaty between Russia and the United States reversed the previous drift in US-Russia nuclear relations.

“However, failure to act on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by leaders in the United States, China, Iran, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Israel, and North Korea and on a treaty to cut off production of nuclear weapons material continues to leave the world at risk from continued development of nuclear weapons,” it said.

It said the world still has approximately 19,500 nuclear weapons, enough power to destroy the Earth’s inhabitants several times over.

“Obstacles to a world free of nuclear weapons remain. Among these are disagreements between the United States and Russia about the utility and purposes of missile defense, as well as insufficient transparency, planning, and cooperation among the nine nuclear weapons states to support a continuing drawdown,” it said.

The resulting distrust leads nearly all nuclear weapons states to hedge their bets by modernizing their nuclear arsenals, it said.

“While governments claim they are only ensuring the safety of their warheads through replacement of bomb components and launch systems, as the deliberate process of arms reduction proceeds, such developments appear to other states to be signs of substantial military build-ups,” it said.

The Science and Security Board also reviewed progress in meeting the challenges of nuclear weapons proliferation.

It said ambiguity about Iran’s nuclear power program continues to be the most prominent example of this unsolved problem — centrifuges can enrich uranium for both civilian power plants and military weapons.

It said it remains to be seen how many additional countries will pursue nuclear power, but without solutions to the dual-use problem and without incentives sufficient to resist military applications, the world is playing with the explosive potential of a million suns and a fire that will not go out.

Also, it said the potential for nuclear weapons use in regional conflicts in the Middle East, Northeast Asia, and particularly in South Asia is also alarming.

“Ongoing efforts to ease tensions, deal with extremism and terrorist acts, and reduce the role of nuclear weapons in international relations have had only halting success. Yet we believe that international diplomatic pressure as well as burgeoning citizen action will help political leaders to see the folly of continuing to rely on nuclear weapons for national security,” it said.

Nuclear energy

The BAS said it is disheartening that the world has suffered another calamitous accident - the Fukushima disaster in March 2011, which raised significant questions that the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board believe must be addressed.

“Safer nuclear reactor designs need to be developed and built, and more stringent oversight, training, and attention are needed to prevent future disasters. A major question to be addressed is: How can complex systems like nuclear power stations be made less susceptible to accidents and errors in judgment?” it said. — TJD, GMA News

PHILIPPINE GREEN PARTY (PARTIDO KALIKASAN) NEEDS YOU!

Dear Party Supporters,

We are now recruiting coordinators for the Party!

City/Town Coordinators for Partido Kalikasan (PK) can serve two purposes for the Party. In the long-term, it is to build the core group of the Party in forming our basic EcoSystem Chapters and eventually the Bio-Regional Assemblies. In the immediate, it is to build the organizational structure of the Party necessary for to prove our capacity to operate as a national political party. The latter is important as we file our petition for accreditation as a national political party this January 2012.

The coming together of various city/town coordinators into legislative district-level core groups will also form the basis for the local Governance Committees which will be mobilized as the main electoral campaigning machinery in 2012 through 2013 election process.


The target is to recruit coordinators from at least 61 cities and 756 municipalities which represent 50% of all cities and towns all over the country. We currently cover less than 200 cities and towns in 17 provinces nationwide.

In the meantime, we will already be circulating to all our members and supporters the directory if PK City/Town Coordinators to ask everyone interested to sign up.

May I request everyone to please sign up yourselves to the appropriate city/town that you will be accountable for in building Partido Kalikasan.

You can do that in this online excel form: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsKNNw1B4HW0dGxtYXFOT2VUMWZtLS1VajdhU2Y5Q3c.

If you are having difficulty using the online excel form, kindly just email us at partidokalikasan@yahoo.com the following information:

City/Town: ____________
Province: ______________
Full Name (First, MI, Last): __________________
Home Address: _______________________
Mobile Phone: ________________________
Email: __________________________
Occupation: _____________________
Birthday: _________________________

Thanks!

PK National Secretariat

RISK Award launched at the Global Platform for Disaster Reduction

The first RISK Award was launched during the 3rd Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva this year. For the first time, the Global Risk Forum, Munich Re Foundation, and United Nations Secretariat for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) decided to join forces and offer a €100,000 award. The award will support the most promising proposal in risk reduction and disaster management. The award will be handed over at GRF Davos' biennial IDRC Davos conferences – for the first time on 26 August 2012 at the 4th IDRC Davos 2012.

The objective of the RISK Award is to increase people’s resilience to risks and disasters, especially in developing countries. A further objective is to stimulate new and innovative approaches towards improved disaster prevention.

The first 2012 award will focus on Early Warning in Urban Areas. Deadline is on 31 December 2011.

To apply to the Risk Award please download the proposal form at www.risk-award.org and send the complete form by 31 December 2011 to info@munichre-foundation.org

Also find additional information on the RISK Award on the Munich Re Foundation website www.munichre-foundation.org.

Record-high greenhouse gases to linger for decades —UN

By Tom Miles

Source: GMA News at http://www.gmanews.tv/story/239253/technology/record-high-greenhouse-gases-to-linger-for-decades-un(Viewed on 22 November 2011).

GENEVA - Concentrations of the three main greenhouse gases blamed for global warming reached record levels in 2010 and will linger in the atmosphere for decades, even if the world stops emissions output today, the U.N.'s weather agency said on Monday.

Carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, rose by 2.3 parts per million to 389 ppm in 2010 from the previous year, higher than the 1990s average (1.5 ppm) and the past decade (2.0 ppm), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.

If the world is to limit global average temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius, scientists say emissions volumes must not have more than 450 ppm of carbon dioxide.

"The atmospheric burden of greenhouse gases due to human activities has yet again reached record levels since pre-industrial time," said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.

"Even if we managed to halt our greenhouse gas emissions today, and this is far from the case, they would continue to linger in the atmosphere for decades to come and so continue to affect the delicate balance of our living planet and our climate," he said.

The report adds to a number of warnings that time is running out to act on climate change and prevent worsening extreme weather as the Earth's temperature rises.

BP data earlier this year showed global carbon dioxide emissions grew at their fastest rate since 1969 last year, as countries rebounded from economic recession.

In 2010, countries agreed in Cancun, Mexico, that deep emissions cuts were needed to hold an increase in global average temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a threshold beyond which scientists say risks even more extreme weather, crop failure and major floods.

Delegates from nearly 200 countries will meet in South Africa next week for a U.N. summit but only modest steps towards a broader climate deal are seen as likely.

HOTTING UP

The WMO said greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere increased by 1.4 percent last year from 2009 and 29 percent since 1990, mainly driven by fossil fuel use and agriculture.

The WMO measured the overall amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, based on monitoring stations in more than 50 countries, including natural emissions and absorption processes - so-called sources and sinks - as well as emissions caused by human activity.

Three of the most dangerous gases, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, were more prevalent in the atmosphere in 2010 than at any time since the industrial revolution.

The second biggest greenhouse gas, methane, has been growing in the past five years after levelling off between 2000 and 2006, for reasons that are not fully understood.

The third biggest greenhouse gas is nitrous oxide, which can trap almost 300 times as much heat as carbon dioxide. Its main human source is the use of nitrogen-based fertilisers, which the report said had "profoundly affected the global nitrogen cycle".

The impact of fertiliser use is so marked that more nitrous oxide is detected in the northern hemisphere, where more fertiliser is used, than in the south.

The WMO data showed no pause in the growth of greenhouse gases and more work needs to be done to help understand which policies would have the most effect, the report's authors said.

So far, the clearest discernable impact of policies was a decrease in chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which were banned because they caused depletion of the ozone layer.

But hydrofluorocarbons, which have replaced CFCs, are also potent greenhouse gases and their abundance in the atmosphere, while still small, is rising at a rapid rate. — Reuters

News to Go interviews Climate Change Commission Vice-Chairman Lucille Sering

Climate change blamed for storms, flooding, drought

An inconvenient truth for Philippines: Wetter, drier
By Cathy Yamsuan, Kristine L. Alave

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer, October 3, 2011 at http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/69281/climate-change-blamed-for-storms-flooding-drought#disqus_thread

Officials have warned Filipinos to brace against the inconvenient truth of devastating storms, flooding and drought unless policies and projects are put in place to mitigate climate change.

Undersecretary Graciano Yumul of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) said that in the next 20 to 50 years, the Philippines would find “the dry seasons drier and the wet seasons wetter.”

“With the climate change scenario, we will see more of this as a frequent reality,” Yumul said in an interview. “What we used to consider as abnormal we should now consider as normal,” he noted.

Scientists describe the phenomenon as any distinct changes in weather patterns, such as temperature, rainfall, wind and snow over a long period of time.

A major factor is global warming—the increase in the oceanic and atmospheric temperatures of the planet resulting in the melting of the ice caps and the rising of the seas.

The doomsday scenarios, depicted in Al Gore’s 2006 award-winning documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” are now playing out in the Philippines.

The climatology division of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) has released the results of a study in 2010 concluding that climate data from 1960 to 2003 showed significant increases in the frequency of hot days and warm nights in many areas of the country.

On the other hand, Pagasa observed that cooler days had decreased. This trend mirrors the experience of other countries in Southeast Asia, Pagasa said as it predicted more rains in the Philippines in the coming decades.

“Reduction of rainfall is seen in March, April and May in most provinces, while rainfall increases are likely in Luzon and Visayas in 2020 and 2050 during the June-July-August and September-October-November seasons,” the study said.

“Greater increase in rainfall is expected in the provinces of Luzon (0.9-63 percent) and Visayas (2-22 percent) during the peak southwest monsoon period (June-July-August).”

The number of days where temperature will breach 35 degrees Celsius will also increase in 2020 and 2050, according to Pagasa models.

Fishponds

Antonio Apostol Jr., chief geologist of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, said human activities in the regions that bore the brunt of Typhoons “Pedring” and “Quiel” that struck the country last week exacerbated the hazards and the risks.

The plains of Bulacan and Pampanga have always been prone to floods, he said.

But the proliferation of fishponds and aquaculture projects in the major waterways and in the coasts has slowed down the flow of water from the typhoons and the dams, resulting in prolonged flooding in residential and rural areas, Apostol said.

“These have a multiplier effect. So when the water was released from the dams, the natural drainage could not handle it anymore,” he said.

If there were no fishponds and garbage clogging the canals and rivers of the region, “the outflow would have been quicker,” Apostol said.

Floods and landslides will be more widespread until officials realize that they should adapt to the changes in weather and lessen their effects on the general population, Apostol and Yumul said.

“In other parts of the country, we are seeing the same situation. In the cities of Butuan and Cotabato, there were floods, too, because the rivers were clogged with water lilies,” Apostol said.

“In Cotabato, for instance, the industries pollute the river there with nitrates which induce the growth of the lilies,” he added.

Deforestation

Yumul also noted that deforestation had caused flooding in areas which did not experience it in the past. “The deforestation in the last 20, 50 years has come back to us,” he said.

Local officials, he said, should be more prepared to respond to extreme weather events to prevent the loss of lives and properties. “We’ve been telling them this for the last 10 years,” Yumul said.

Ricardo Calderon, regional executive director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said yesterday that forest cover in the western side of Nueva Ecija and Bulacan was still adequate. He blamed flooding on heavy rainfall, the release of dam water and high tide.

“Although our forest cover may be high, the trees could not retain the volume of water,” Calderon said.

He denied illegal logging was rampant, disputing claims by Philippine Daily Inquirer informants that local officials were collaborating with the activity.

‘Ondoy’ scenario

Senator Loren Legarda, chair of the Senate climate change committee, said she called Yumul on Saturday night to ask whether protocols in releasing water from dams in Central Luzon were observed last week.

“The undersecretary said floods will be the norm, that even if a typhoon brings a lighter volume of water, we can expect this scenario happening now with Typhoons Pedring and Quiel. He said Pedring brought only 30 percent of Ondoy’s volume and yet the damage was nearly the same,” Legarda told the Inquirer.

“That means if Tropical Storm ‘Ondoy’ happens again, a typhoon with that huge amount of rain, we have to brace for even deeper floods,” she warned.

Legarda said the confluence of events she had been warning against for years had now led to disturbing images of helpless residents waiting for help on rooftops, long lines of people queuing for potable water, and whole barangays transformed into river extensions.

Soil erosion

The senator said that illegal logging, slash-and-burn farming and quarrying in mountain areas would lead to soil erosion and flooding.

Representatives of the Central Luzon dam operators have been summoned to a hearing of the Senate on Monday afternoon.

“If (Pagasa) can predict the volume of rainfall, dam operators can already release water in increments that would not be destructive,” Legarda explained.

“If this kind of meteorological information can be determined, say, one week before a typhoon arrives, does it not make common sense that the dam operators would not release the water only on the day it finally arrives,” she asked.

She noted that dam reportedly released water on September 27, after Pedring struck.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile cautioned that predicting rainfall would not be easy.

“The nature of calamity is that weather is really unpredictable. Who really knows if the rainfall prediction is correct? What if the amount of water released by the dams based on Pagasa’s advisory could not be recovered from the expected rains?” Enrile said.

He said that while the government could always attempt to determine accountability, “we’ll have to find long-term solutions and planning, instead of just prosecuting anybody.” With reports from Tonette Orejas and Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon

Definition of ‘Environmental Governance’ Revisited

Posted by Walker on Aug 1, 2011 in Environmental Governance | 0 comments

You know those moments when you are at a social event and get introduced to a stranger for the first time? It is almost inevitable thaht the conversation will turn to career and personal interests.

What do you do?

I’m a consultant and an avid enthusiast in environmental governance issues.

Wow. That sounds really (ahem) interesting! Excuse me while I bury my head in the sand.



Yes, that is the point at which my new acquaintance tends to lose interest in this new conversation. Now, I’m pretty sure it’s not me personally that causes this haze of boredom in the poor fellow’s eyes. I don’t have a monotone voice like the professor in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (played spectacularly by Ben Stein) which would cause my audience to fall asleep.

No, I’m afraid the culprit is often the words “environmental” and “governance” put together. Environmental governance. Did your eyelids just close a notch? If they did, you are not alone. It seems that environmental governance is a poorly understood topic which rarely gets discussed at parties, social gatherings, or just about anywhere for that matter. But don’t let that fool you. Environmental governance is one of the most important and crucial topics of our time. But what exactly is it?

Well, like most words in our modern lexicon, there are varying definitions of environmental governance. Is it fair to just dissect the words at their most basic, and call environmental governance the ‘process of governing the environment and those issues associated with the environment’? Well, let’s take a look at how some other use the term ‘environmental governance’:

Wallace Partners, an advisory firm, says on their website that “environmental governance is where sustainability performance and traditional corporate governance intersect”. Great! Perfect topic then, for the Convergence Journal. But this definition is actually much narrower than other definitions because it has limited the scope to corporate governance alone. Surely more other stakeholders beyond corporations have an interest and stake in how the environment is governed!

Wikipedia sums up environmental governance as “a concept in political ecology or environmental policy related to defining the elements needed to achieve sustainability.” That seems more acceptable for the academic or research associate, but in turn drops off the corporate governance aspect. And, of course, civil society… where are the people?!

On a post titled Definition of Environmental Governance, Prof. Ebinezer R. Florano of the EcoGov blog states that “There are many definitions but I found them all wanting”, and goes on to formulate a fantastic definition:

“ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE can be defined or characterized as: Multi-level interactions (i.e., local, national, international/global) among, but not limited to, three main actors, i.e., state, market, and civil society, which interact with one another, whether in formal and informal ways; in formulating and implementing policies in response to environment-related demands and inputs from the society; bound by rules, procedures, processes, and widely-accepted behavior; possessing characteristics of “good governance”; for the purpose of attaining environmentally-sustainable development.” – Prof. E.R. Florano, University of the Philippines

Of the three, I feel that Prof. Florano’s definition is by far the most accurate and complete with respect to how the term “environmental governance” is used by academics, policy makers, and the environmental community interested in governance issues. It’s ironic that Prof. Florano opened his post by confessing that he found all other definitions “wanting”; I sense that many others (you, maybe?) agree with Prof. Florano, which is part of the reason why my acquaintance at the cocktail party zoned out when the idea of environmental governance is raised — because the very sound of it (and indeed, the usage of it) — is nuanced, complex and wanting.

Still, as spot on as Prof. Florano’s definition may be, it is still complex and lengthy for the average person with no background in environmental policy. Many topics are nested in the definition: “sustainable development” (and everyone agrees on what ‘sustainable’ means, right? Wrong), “society”; “widely-accepted behavior”; and of course, “good governance”. All of these terms are rife with their own debatable definitions. Can’t we follow the straight talk of the second century Greek satirist, Lucian, and just call “a fig a fig and a boat a boat” and leave it at that? Perhaps. It would serve the environmental governance community well to proceed with a common understanding so we can excite more friends, family and community members to engage in environmental governance rather than grow weary of it. But part of the trouble in mainstreaming environmental governance, in my opinion, is that it remains a complex topic to define in layman’s terms.

Hence, I will offer a much slimmer and “easier-to-digest” definition of environmental governance which you can use at the water cooler to pique your colleagues’ interest without overwhelming them:

“Environmental governance is the way in which you or I choose to engage with communities, schools, businesses and politicians to manage the process and structure by which our natural resources and environment are used but also sustained for future generations — for our children and their children thereafter.” – Walker Young

Let’s break this definition down to its fundamental pieces.

This definition is given in ‘first person’ — notice the use of “you or I”. This is intentional, so that the controls and reigns of civil society remains with the people. Indeed, if people like “you or I” work in the businesses which power the private sector, then we too have a role to play in market-driven governance. If people like “you or I” democratically elect politicians to represent our interests, then we too have a role to play in the political process. Hence, “you or I” lets the audience know that “we” are also the drivers of environmental governance, for better or worse.

Governance is a choice. We choose to be involved and engaged or we choose to ignore. Again, the choice is ours in how the process is managed, but we need to choose. If we choose disinterest over engagement, isolation over multilateralism, then we make the bed which we sleep in. This definition requires citizens to make a stand and be a part of change, otherwise the governance process falls apart. There are certainly examples of the latter scenario in many places today.

The reference to “communities, schools, businesses and politicians” makes sure that all stakeholders are included. The choice of “schools” over the more formal “academia” was intentional; it feels more grounded and relevant to all communities since schools are nearly universal in reach at the local level while universities are not.

Other definitions of environmental governance usually focus on the “process”; however, the process is only one aspect of establishing proper governance at any scale. Equally important is the “structure”, which I have purposefully included in my definition above. In terms of global governance, UNEP (and the UN in general) are process experts. There are processes for dealing with all sorts of environmental issues, from climate change to soil erosion to invasive species like Australia’s problematic cane toad. But one important area where UNEP needs improvements are in its structure — the architecture by which the process is implemented and carried out. Proper environmental governance needs systems thinking to develop a generative model by which processes occur efficiently and fluidly, and where decisions lead to results without multiple detours and sidetracks in between. Every good plan starts with a proper design and strategy.

It’s not enough to refer to “sustainable development” in the definition of environmental governance. Although sustainable development has become common parlance for those following current events and news, it is easy for outsiders to write it off as technocratic babble. Most people are not familiar with the Brundtland Commission or “Our Common Future”: The Brundtland Report, which lays out the commonly accepted definition of sustainable development. This is why I instead include the phrase “by which our natural resources and environment are used but also sustained” and then proceed to reference “for future generations” in homage to the Brundtland definition. Again, I simplify “future generations” by ending with “for our children and their children thereafter” so that readers take to heart that “future generations” is not some alien race millions of years into the future; it is our generation and that which follows us. This hits home with much more impact than “future generations”. Parents already can envision a future for their children, and most parents will want to be able to envision that future as a bright one.
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While I am not ultimately sure if my offered definition of environmental governance is any more useful than its predecessors, I do hope that my rationale above is useful for the reader to think about and consider. If you do enjoy the definition, please do start using it and spreading the word. I feel strongly that environmental governance needs more engagement from us, the people, in order for the outcomes we so desperately desire to take root. I think the definition offered helps place the ball in our court — now it’s up to us to take it forward.

Source: Walker Young at http://walker-young.com/2011/08/definition-revisited/ (viewed on 7 September 2011).