Globalization in Credo: Environment

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), scientific panel created (1988) by two United Nations organizations, the UN Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was created by the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, or Stockholm Conference. Beginning with an assessment of the state of the global environment, the UNEP examines environmental issues and the means of addressing them, as well as surveying the problems encountered in different regions and countries.

From The Princeton Encyclopedia of the World Economy
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) grew out of an awareness in the 1980s of transboundary environmental problems and the accompanying recognition that efforts to improve matters would be costly (Sjöberg 1994). Launched in 1991 by the World Bank as an experimental facility, the GEF entered a three-year pilot program to test approaches and resolve competing governance schemes.

In The Chambers Dictionary
A specialized agency within the European Union, the European Environment Agency (EEA) was created in 1990, and began work in 1993.

Contamination of the air by noxious gases and minute particles of solid and liquid matter (particulates) in concentrations that endanger health. The major sources of air pollution are transportation engines, power and heat generation, industrial processes, and the burning of solid waste.

Increase in average global temperature, amounting to approximately 0.74°C/1.3°F from 1906 to 2005. The gradual increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s surface and its atmosphere has been attributed to the greenhouse effect.

Severe shortage of food affecting a large number of people, usually caused by a population explosion or failure of food crops. In the past, famines have been defined as discrete events, where a large proportion of a population dies of starvation and disease caused by undernourishment.

Fishing at rates that exceed the sustained-yield cropping of fish species, resulting in a net population decline. For example, in the North Atlantic, herring has been fished to the verge of extinction, and the cod and haddock populations are severely depleted.

The condition of having a population so dense as to cause environmental deterioration, an impaired quality of life, or a population crash. As a formal concept, overpopulation means that a human population is too large relative to some sustainable or optimal level. It pertains to global studies because it can be defined either globally or nationally; in each case, it has important consequences for international affairs.

Contamination of water resources by harmful wastes; see also sewerage, water supply, pollution, and environmentalism.

A movement or theory that applies feminist principles and ideas to ecological issues. Feminist environmentalists argue that the domination of women by men reflects and reinforces the domination of the environment by society, and that the two are understood to be linked; patriarchal gender relations in society correspond to androcentric environmental ethics.

Movement to protect the quality and continuity of life through conservation of natural resources, prevention of pollution, and control of land use. Emerged out of concerns over pollution, global warming, soil erosion, deforestation, waste disposal, and resource depletion. To the extent that many of these environmental problems have been created by industrial production, economic growth and Western-style consumption, environmentalists often offer a critique of the model of economic growth on which they are based.

Any of the political parties established in various countries to oppose the destructive environmental effects of many modern technologies and the economic systems and institutions that drive them.

International protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that was agreed at Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997.

The process of recovering and reusing waste products—from household use, manufacturing, agriculture, and business—and thereby reducing their burden on the environment. Reusing a material not necessarily in its original form. The natural recycling of the substances required for life are the keystone of our existence on earth.

From Dictionary of Energy
Often associated with religious and agricultural views and practices, the ethical concept that the proper role for humans with respect to the natural environment is to act as a steward, or watchful caretaker.

Sustainable development is the promotion of developmental patterns that will enable current human generations to meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.