Dear Sceptics please see below for your education: (p.s. hello
Uckles)


Earth audit demands action
The Age - April 6, 2005
The moral of the story of Chicken Little, who jumps to the
ill-informed conclusion that the sky is falling, is so well
understood that it is often invoked to dismiss "greenie"
doomsayers. It is a different matter when indifference greets an
authoritative study that finds humans are stretching natural
systems to breaking point. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment -
a $31 million, four-year project involving 1360 researchers from
95 countries - serves as "a stark warning", say its authors, who
undertook an audit of the planet's ecosystems for United Nations
agencies, the World Bank and others. The warning cannot be
dismissed as baseless, but it won little attention in Australia.
The report's findings are startling: 
*	24 per cent of land is cultivated and 60 per cent of
ecosystems are degraded by pollution or exploitation; 
*	a quarter of fish stocks are overharvested; 
*	20 per cent of corals have been lost in 20 years; 
*	extinction rates are 100 to 1000 times the historical norm; 
*	disease outbreaks, floods and fires are more frequent
- there is no shortage of such statistics. 
The key conclusion is: "Human actions are depleting Earth's
natural capital, putting such strain on the environment that the
ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations
can no longer be taken for granted." 
The idea of sustainability is widely accepted, but often without
meaningful parameters. This study is the most comprehensive
attempt to set some. As with climate change, debate about the
precision of conclusions does not alter the need to manage and
minimise the risk. Because the potential costs of complacency
are so terribly high, good policy must err on the side of
caution.
The study notes that the decline of the planet's life-support
systems puts all other global goals, such as economic
development and eradication of hunger and poverty, in doubt. Yet
the report contains seeds of hope in the ability of developed
nations to restore the health of ecosystems, replant forests and
clean up their air and water, often through advances in
technology - although much more must be done. Many of its
recommendations are, in fact, consistent with the goals of
global development; poverty and environmental degradation go
together. Even those who mockingly quote Chicken Little - and
they, in turn, invite reference to the tragedy of Cassandra -
ought to see the sense in better management of Earth's wonderful
but finite living resources.
See the following link for more sobering details:
<http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.aspx>

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