U.N. Study: Earth's Health Deteriorating
By CATHERINE McALOON, Associated Press Writer

Thursday, March 31, 2005


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(03-31) 02:48 PST LONDON, United Kingdom (AP) --


Growing populations and expanding economic activity have strained the
planet's ecosystems over the past half century, a trend that threatens
international efforts to combat poverty and disease, a U.N.-sponsored
study of the Earth's health warned on Wednesday.


The four-year, $24 million Millennium Ecosystem Assessment found humans
have caused heavy damage or depleted portions of the world's farmlands,
forests and watercourses.


Unless nations adopt more eco-friendly policies, increased human
demands for food, clean water and fuels could speed the disappearance
of forests, fish and fresh water reserves and lead to more frequent
disease outbreaks over the next 50 years, it warned.


"This report is essentially an audit of nature's economy and the audit
shows that we have driven most of the accounts into the red," Jonathan
Lash, a member of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment board, said in
London.


The report said degradation of ecosystems was a barrier to achieving
development goals adopted at the U.N. Millennium Summit in
Johannesburg, South Africa in September 2000: halving the proportion of
people without access to clean water and basic sanitation by 2015 and
improving the lives of 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.


Walter Reid, director of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, said over
the past 50 years humans had changed ecosystems more rapidly and
extensively than any comparable period in human history.


"These changes have resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible
loss to the biological diversity of the planet," Reid said.


U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment "tells us how we can change course," and urged nations to
consider its recommendations.


The study was compiled by 1,360 scientists from 95 nations who pored
over 16,000 satellite photos from the U.S. National Aeronautics and
Space Administration, and analyzed statistics and scientific journals.


Their findings highlight the planet's problems at the end of the 20th
century, as the human population reached 6 billion.


Conservation groups called on governments, businesses and individuals
to heed the study's warnings.


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