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A Kenyan child holding a tree seedling, soon to be planted as part of the nationwide Green Belt Movement. Photo courtesy of Marika Rosen |
Population Summit of the World's Scientific Academies, New Delhi, India
The Population Summit reported that if the current population of almost 6 billion does not level off until 10 billion or even 19 billion by the end of the next century, as some projections estimate, the likelihood of widespread biodiversity loss and ecological degradation may be inevitable. As the current effects of ever-increasing resource use and waste production become more obvious in the declining health of the world's lands and waters, the Summit concluded that it is increasingly imperative that nations confront these issues. Accordingly, one of the central resolutions of the summit was the need to gain a better understanding of the interactions among population growth, resource consumption, and environmental protection. To achieve this, the Summit encouraged scientists, engineers, and health professionals to take on a greater societal role by focusing on applied research and by advising governments in a variety of areas -- the role of poverty, population growth, and technology in environmental change; the formulation of environmentally sustainable policies and economies; how to increase the capacity of developing countries in natural sciences and resource management; strategies for sustainable development; and support for international treaties and conventions that promote and enforce more responsible environmental policy.
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