Solutions to Diminishing Ground Water

Water is a defining feature of the earth and absolutely essential for sustaining life. In total, 70 percent of the earth's surface is covered with water. However, 97.5 percent of that is salt water, which makes it undrinkable for humans and unusable for irrigation. Fresh water accounts for the other 2.5 percent, but about two thirds of that is locked up in glaciers and thick ice sheets on the north and south poles.

Only 1 percent of that 1 percent is easily accessible. That leaves about .01 percent of all the water on earth available to sustain life.

The world's aquifers provide the majority of potable water and they are being used faster than they can be replenished. With 70 to 80 percent of global groundwater being used for agricultural irrigation, it accounts for most of the increase in demand.

Over a third of the world's population suffers from water scarcity and this directly contributes to the loss of agricultural lands. Some of the most serious potential zones of groundwater depletion include Africa, northeastern China, northwestern India, Iran, northeastern Pakistan, southeastern Spain, California's Central Valley and central United States.

The Ogallala Aquifer of the central United States is being rapidly depleted. This is a huge aquifer which underlies portions of eight states, but it is being recharged, in the more arid parts of the aquifer, at a rate of only about 10 percent of annual withdrawals.

Groundwater depletion is a serious issue and it is growing more serious every year. The problem of diminishing water supply is being compounded by the fact that aquifers can be easily contaminated by a variety of sources including ground storage tanks, septic systems, hazardous waste sites, landfills, road salts, fertilizers, pesticides, and various chemicals.

We need to see better water conservation and protection if we are to address the problem of diminishing ground water. Some viable techniques include using more sophisticated irrigation techniques, developing crops that can survive with less water, and redirecting water on the landscape so that a higher proportion soaks back in to replenish the groundwater. Another technique involves aquifer storage and recovery which involves re-injecting water back into an aquifer for later recovery and use.

A study commissioned by the Britain’s Department for International Development and released by Britain-based NGO Forum for the Future, shows that regional cooperation in sharing scarce water resources must be promoted over hoarding.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Lowering Expectations for UN Climate Negotiations

Conflicting positions are undermining efforts to find agreement on greenhouse gas reductions. Delegates at the recent climate talks in Bonn made no progress on binding targets to reduce carbon emissions, nor were they able to agree on a deal to replace the soon to expire Kyoto Protocol.

The climate change talks began with a document called "A Shared Vision for Long-Term Cooperative Action." The problem is, there is no shared vision and insufficient cooperative action. Delegates at the Bonn conference had to contend with a wide range of competing provisions.

Some less developed nations want to see developed nations assume their share of the carbon space. They argue that industrial countries have 16 percent of the world's population, but they occupy 74 percent of the carbon space. They further argue that each country’s historical carbon emissions should be taken into account. Although this would allow poorer countries with large populations to build their economies, wealthier nations have already dismissed the idea. A global deal to limit GHGs is also being impeded by China’s resistance to compliance monitoring.

As the world's largest economy and biggest producer of emissions, the lack of legislation in the US is another major impediment to progress on a climate change treaty. Although the recession and the vote for change inspired unprecedented international cooperation last year, the collaborative international mood was short-lived and has subsequently subsided.

Politically motivated misinformation has eroded American support for comprehensive climate and energy legislation and this has also dampened efforts to find agreement on a global climate change treaty.

Although last year’s Copenhagen Accord made some progress reducing emissions, the accord was never formally adopted and as such, it is non-binding. Developing nations appear to be reversing their positions by suggesting that their Copenhagen carbon reduction commitments were voluntary, while emissions targets for industrial countries are binding.

Tianjin, China will host a final preparatory meeting in October before the summit in Cancun, Mexico at the end of the year. Although we are unlikely to see a global treaty before the 2012 climate summit in South Africa, we can still see agreements on financial assistance and technology transfer.

The Kyoto Protocol is due to expire in 2012 and international disagreements obscure the urgency of binding agreements to manage climate change. Although some delegates have begun considering the possibility of extending the Kyoto Protocol until a replacement can be developed, we also need a binding agreement that addresses the rapidly growing emissions of developing countries.

For three years the world has unsuccessfully pursued an elusive formula that could pave the way for an international climate change treaty. Last year there were high expectations, this year, already low expectations have been lowered further still.
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This article was originally published in GWIR on Wednesday 11 August 2010.

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G20 Must Cooperate for a Sustainable Recovery

The cooperation of G20 member states is the key to a sustainable recovery. Although the global financial crisis revealed the interconnectedness of the modern economy, it also underscored the importance of cooperation.

The Toronto G20 meeting was billed as a final checkup to ensure agreements reached in Pittsburgh would be finalized at a November gathering in Korea, where leaders would then plan for a post-crisis world.

"Our highest priority in Toronto must be to safeguard and strengthen the recovery," President Barack Obama wrote in a letter to his G20 colleagues. "We worked exceptionally hard to restore growth; we cannot let it falter or lose strength now."

"This crisis proved, and events continue to affirm, that our national economies are inextricably linked," Obama said. "And just as economic turmoil in one place can quickly spread to another, safeguards in each of our nations can help protect all nations."

In 2009, despite disagreements between wealthier and developing nations, the financial and climate change crises spurred unprecedented levels of global cooperation.

In 2010, although we are in recovery, a slowdown has been signaled by the Economic Cycle Research Institute's weekly leading index.

Issues that threaten the recovery include Europe's debt difficulites, slow US job growth, and an unstable US housing market. With interest rates near zero, the most powerful policy tool remaining is resuming asset purchases, but printing money will cause inflation.

Economic uncertainty is highlighting disagreements between the United States, Europe and China.

Jose Vinals, director of the IMF's monetary and capital markets department, said G20 unity was one of the biggest positive economic developments in recent years, but disunity would damage the recovery. "It's fundamental that you keep your house in order, but it's also fundamental that when the going gets rough, you cooperate," he said at a conference in Washington.
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G20 and Central Bank Governors Joint Communique

The economy is in recovery and a sustainable economy is the best way to preserve that recovery. On June 5, G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors issued a “joint communiqué” which indicated that despite regional and national imbalances, the world economy is recovering faster than expected.

However, the recent sovereign debt crisis in Europe and international financial market volatility demonstrate that their are still serious challenges ahead.

Financial reform and sustainable finance are important, but we need to see balanced growth and a mechanism for shared medium-term goals.

We need specific policy actions by governments, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. The government needs to take measures to improve hedge funds, credit rating companies, subsidies, financial derivatives and transparency. The banks also need to increase capital flow, and reduce the need for moral hazard.

We also need to see international accounting standards. Above all we need to see national, bilateral and multilateral efforts to deal with the capital markets to limit the spread of instability and crisis.

Ultimately it comes down to a sustainable framework for cooperation between member states.
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G20 Disagreements and Global Economic Reforms

There are a number of disagreements between G20 member nations. Although the passage of a US financial reform bill was an important step for the recovering world economy, diverging national assessments threaten a coordinated global strategy.

The UN would like to see the developed world assume a greater share of its responsibilities for the green economy. Americans and Europeans disagree on whether to maintain or withdraw stimulus. The US warns against choking off nascent growth, while European countries are imposing austerity measures to manage rising levels of debt.

Canada disagrees with key European nations on taxing banks. Canada has argued against taxing banks to guard against future financial crises, while Britain, France and Germany want to see a tax on the banking sector.

China's recent announcement of renewed flexibility in its currency, the yuan, will probably succeed in deflecting attention away from new protectionist measures.

There appears to be agreement that the global system is under-capitalized and a there is a broad consensus on the need to invest more capital. Although there is agreement on the broader issue, there is disagreement on implementation time frames. Europe wants to move slowly to give its banks time to adjust, while the U.S. would prefer to see a faster pace.

The G20 has a pivotal role to play, decisions made by economic leaders in Toronto will not only determine the future of the economy, they will decide the future of our environment. While there seems to be agreement on the need for sustainable growth, charting a strategy to get there is proving difficult.

We need international economic reforms that will help maintain stability. We also need a strategy that positions green as the engine that will drive the global economy.
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A Sustainable World Order

Green is not a new movement, although buried under a mountain of cynical conspiracy theories, many of the logistics for a sustainable world order have been around for more than a decade.

The current economic hardships serve as a catalyst for change. According to William E. Halal, professor emeritus of science, technology and innovation at George Washington University, "the normal level of social resistance and political stalemate is likely to oppose change. Thus, it may take an occasional environmental collapse, global wars and terrorism, or yet unknown calamities to force the move to global consciousness...Even with the turmoil that is sure to follow, this will mark the serious beginning of a unified global intelligence - a fine web of conscious thought directing life on the planet." [1]

Despite the current Conservative government, Canadians have a proud heritage of environmental leadership. Before the dawn of the 21st century Canadians were actively exploring global interdependence and strategies for greater global cooperation. A cynical article entitled "A New World Agenda," written 10 years ago, follows the work of United Nations reformer, Canadian Maurice Strong. He chaired a task force that revealed that the post-cold war period has "become nothing less than a global experiment in international development." [2] He went on to say, Canada "is in a position to make a unique contribution...by committing itself to be a model of sustainable development...It offers the prospect of uniting Canadians behind a new vision of their own future and a new generation of leadership internationally." [3]

As former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien once said, "We are one world. We in Canada feel this deeply. Responsible international citizenship is one of our proudest shared values. And the place we exercise that responsible citizenship is in multilateral organizations the town hall meetings of the world community." [4]

Here is a condensed summary of Canada's past environmental efforts as the planetary meeting ground and sponsor for major sustainable development events.

- Canada co-sponsored the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (the first Earth Conference) held in Stockholm, Sweden.
-The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), producer of the influential report Our Common Future, convened a special meeting in Ottawa, Ontario in 1986. At this WCED meeting, the idea of a "world conservation bank" was forwarded. The WCED was the key organization promoting the term "sustainable development" in the late 1980's.
-The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer formatted international rules to combat "global warming" and was adopted in Montreal, Quebec.
-The World Environment Energy and Economic Conference (WEEEC) hosted by the Manitoba provincial government and held in Winnipeg in October, 1990. It was attended by over 3000 delegates from around the globe, it's official theme was "Sustainable Development Strategies and the New World Order." [13]
-Canada played an influential role at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Maurice Strong acting as the summit's Secretary-Gerneral.
-The creation of The Earth Council, which is headquartered in Costa Rica. Led by Mr. Strong, The Earth Council [drafted] the global Earth Charter -- a new world-wide Green constitution. [5]

In the words of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, "Canada [was] at the forefront of efforts to ensure that the United Nations is prepared for the challenges of the future." [6] Consider the following quotes from a 1992 meeting of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation.

"We need a unified one world order to replace the collectivity of nation states at the international level. The Euro-American model which now dominates the world systematically disables people, destroys the earth and creates dependency on wage labour." [8]

"In this model, politics loses its left-versus-right conflict and moves instead towards a fundamental concern for the health of the ecosystem...Democracy remains a need within this model, at both local and global levels, but as one part of the whole system. "Participation" becomes more than people's physical presence and deepens to contain a cultural and spiritual dimension...To implement these concepts, we start with bringing the community together and look at the land resources available. We decide how we want the community to evolve and decide who has control of the resources." [9]

Likewise, the following statement from the Canadian federal government to the United Nations contains a similar thread -- a sustainable world order based on complete world management.
"Canada believes the establishment of an international financial and economic system that is conducive to sustainable development must be a cornerstone of efforts to implement Agenda 21. Canada strongly supports efforts to reform international organizations to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in the promotion of global sustainable development." [10]

[An] international tax on world monetary transactions, known as the Tobin tax...would be "a feasible part of a new world order and new world vision," as stated by Lorne Nystrom, member of the Canadian House of Commons. [11] "If there were a 0.1% Tobin tax on foreign currency transactions, that would raise, in 1995 dollars, $176 billion U.S. A Tobin tax of 0.003% would be enough money to fund United Nations peacekeeping around the world. One of the consequences would be the establishment of a global village which would have a common good amongst the nations of the world. There would be a strengthening of international organizations. The United Nations would become a meaningful world government. There could be permanent international peacekeeping forces. There are many things that could be done. How would this be implemented? There are a number of ways of doing it. The International Monetary Fund could be reformed to do it or the World Bank could be reformed to do it. [Or we could create] a new international financial agency to administer the Tobin tax. National governments would collect the tax around the world." [12]

The introduction to the WEEEC's final report [contained] the revolutionary concept of Sustainable Development Strategies as the New World Agenda." [14] The forward to the report explained, "sustainable development principles that will affect policies, plans and the direction of programs in the coming years on a global scale." [15]

Chisman and Holbrook further explained the importance of education, "The overall strategy is to design courses so as to prepare for a 'sustainable development' literate society." [17] [Here we are talking about] the concept of sustainable education, [and] the importance of global "values" for education, including "population control and support," "intercultural tolerance," "the transfer of appropriate technology," and "environmental literacy." [18] The WEEEC educational platform [also included a] presentation on creating a "Global Green Constitution," or "a global perestroika," it was explained that this "revolutionary" global green political machine would encompass a form of "human rights." [19]

The concept of framing a global "green" constitution was directly linked to national education contributions aimed at furthering this new world agenda. As explained in the report, uncooperative nations would not be tolerated.

"[G]reen governments will oppose any culture if it proves to be prejudicial by means of gender, age, colour, race, religion, belief, sexual orientation, mental or physical condition, marital status, family composition, source of income, political belief, nationality, language preference or place of origin." [20]

"Eventually, a public referendum would be held in each nation state with the objective of obtaining a simple majority in favour of enshrining a Global Green Constitution....Every nation's government would ultimately be a signator to the Global Green Constitution. Obligation to do so would come from grass roots pressure within democratic societies. Less democratic nations or dictatorships would be brought on side through sanctions." [21]

"The question is how do we achieve binding agreements in Law complete with effective programs for applying sanctions against non-compliance that would oblige each nation, regardless of size, to abide by a set of principles that are required to guarantee the survival of life on this earth. Perhaps we will find that there is no other alternative to a system of rigid controls that some would equate to a police state. Unfortunately, in order to save the planet from biocide, there have to be very powerful constraints from doing the 'wrong' things. The constraints must transcend national boundaries, be world-around and enforceable. There would be a need for an agency for preventing eco-vandals from acting unilaterally. Enforcement agencies would need the power to act without being invited by the offending nation. Therefore, there needs to be an agency that is acceptable to all nation states on the planet. We can probably accept the fact that there will always be one or more nations that will not go along but there must be effective sanctions in place. If sanctions do not work, then physical occupation and the installation of a World Trusteeship would be imposed upon the offending nations." [22]

As former Prime Minister Jean Chretian said, the United Nations is "the centre piece of Canadian foreign policy." [23] However the author of worries "that this foreign policy, this promotion of "global order," is taking North America down the fast track to international socialism. Hidden under the guise of sustainable development, our two nations are trading freedom for a draconian world agenda."

The idea of a world government animates the ghosts of the cold war and inspires the conspiratorial musings of anarchists. But these sinister allegations should be taken as seriously as a man in a monkey suit passing for Sasquatch. That is not to say that we can afford to leave our democracies to our elected officials, quite the contrary, we need to be ever vigilant, for where there is power, there is also room for corruption. But the pressing need for international cooperation demands that we develop frameworks within which we can assume our respective environmental and social responsibilities.

As British PM Gordon Brown said, “This crisis demonstrates beyond doubt that a global capital market requires much stronger global cooperation and supervision. And we need to ensure that we have an effective global early warning system to alert us across continents to economic and financial risk.” [24]

Recession and global warming are the defining crises of our time and these issues are powerful justifications for a system of world governance. As stated by Halal, "Some new form of global order is needed to avert disaster." A sustainable world order is a pragmatic corollary of our efforts to manage the global environment.[25]

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Endnotes

1. William E. Halal, Emerging Technologies and the Global Crisis of Maturity

2. International Development Research and Policy Task Force, Connecting With The World, p.15.

3. Maurice Strong, Beyond Rio: A New Role For Canada (External Affairs and International Trade Canada, November 10, 1992), p. 20.

4. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Opening Statement by Jean Chrétien to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, (Speech at Auckland, New Zealand, November 10, 1995)

5. International Development Research and Policy Task Force, Connecting With The World, p.39.

6. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Inauguration Diner for the Lester B. Pearson Chair of International Relations, (Speech at Oxford University, February 22, 1996).

7. These points were taken from a private report by Carl Teichrib titled, Charting The Sustainable Society: Agendas for Creating a New Global Future.

8. James Robertson, "Toward a New Economic Paradigm," Canadian Council for International Co-operation, Sustainability: From Vision to Reality (Ottawa, ON: Canadian Council for International Co-operation, February 1992), pp. 5-6.

9. Maximo Kalaw, "A Community-based Model of Sustainable Development," Canadian Council for International Co-operation, Sustainability: FromVision to Reality, p. 8.

10. Government of Canada, Report of Canada to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (Ottawa, ON: Government of Canada, 1996), p. 25.

11. Hon. Lorne Nystrom, "Tax on Financial Transactions," (Private Members' Business) Edited Hansard - Number 144, Wednesday, October 28, 1998, Canadian Federal Government House of Commons, p. 1735.

12.Ibid., p. 1745.

13.Colin N. Power (UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education), "Preface," John E. Penick and John R. Stiles (editors), Sustainable Development For A New World Agenda (A STAM/CASE/ICASE Publication, Proceedings of the World Environment Energy and Economic Conference, Winnipeg, Manitoba, October 17-20, 1990) ISBN 962-7532-01-3.

14. Robert Lepischak, "Introduction: Sustainable Development Strategies...The New World Agenda," Sustainable Development For A New World Agenda, p. viii.

15.Evhan Uzwyshyn, "Forward: Principles of Sustainable Development," Sustainable Development For A New World Agenda, p. v. 16.Dennis Chisman and Jack Holbrook, "The Future Direction of Sustainable Development in the Curriculum," Sustainable Development For A New World Agenda, p. 237.

17. Ibid., p. 234.

18.Ibid., p. 235.

19.Jim Bohlen, "Towards A Global Green Constitution," Sustainable Development For A New World Agenda, p. 10.

20.Ibid., p. 11.

21.Ibid., p. 16.

22.Ibid., p. 15.

23.Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, National Forum on Canada's International Relations (Speech in Toronto, ON, September 11, 1995).

24. Gordon Brown, Speech on the Global Economy, October 13, 2008

25. William E. Halal, March-April 2009 edition of The Futurist.