Re-Connect with Nature Now … Before It Is Too Late!

World Environment Day 2017By Baher KamalROME, Jun 5 2017 (IPS)Now that president Donald Trump has announced the withdrawal of the world’s largest polluter in history—the United States, from the Paris Accord, perhaps one of the most specific warnings is what a United Nations independent expert on rights and the environment has just said: “We should be fully aware that we cannot enjoy our basic human rights without a healthy environment.” Speaking in Geneva ahead of the World Environment Day on Monday 5 June, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, John H. Knox, said “We should all be alarmed at the accelerating loss of biodiversity on which healthy ecosystems depend.”We depend on healthy natural ecosystems for so much – nutrition, shelter, clothing, the very water we drink and the air we breathe, Knox reminded. “And yet, natural forest area continues to decline, marine ecosystems are increasingly under siege, and estimated populations of vertebrate animals have declined by more than half since 1970.”Many scientists fear that we are at the outset of the sixth global extinction of species around the world, the first in over 60 million years, noted this professor of international law at Wake Forest University in the United State.“States have reached agreements to combat the causes of biodiversity loss, which include habitat destruction, over-exploitation, poaching, pollution and climate change, Knox recalled, “But the same States are w...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Biodiversity Climate Change Combating Desertification and Drought Development & Aid Environment Featured Food & Agriculture Global Headlines Health Human Rights Humanitarian Emergencies Indigenous Rights IPS UN: Inside the Glassh Source Type: news