Apocalyptic week for the environment

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Overfishing

A research article in Science magazine (3 November 2006: Vol. 314. no. 5800, pp. 787 - 790) concludes that "Human-dominated marine ecosystems are experiencing accelerating loss of populations and species... impairing the ocean's capacity to provide food, maintain water quality, and recover from perturbations. Yet available data suggest that at this point, these trends are still reversible."

Erik Stokstad, ECOLOGY: Global Loss of Biodiversity Harming Ocean Bounty (3 November 2006), Science 314 (5800), 745. [DOI: 10.1126/science.314.5800.745].

"If a new analysis of marine ecosystems data is correct, commercial fish and seafood species may all crash by 2048."

Climate change

A report commissioned by UK Chancellor Gordon Brown and authored by Nicholas Stern, former chief economist of the World Bank on Global warming and climate change was released October 30, 2006.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair called the report the “final word’’ on why the world must act now. “The case for action is the final piece of the jigsaw to convince every single political leader, including those in America, China and India, that this must be top of their agenda,” he said.

The report calls climate change "the greatest and widest ranging market failure ever seen."

The approach is basically optimistic. It says that

strong action to reduce emissions - must be viewed as an investment, a cost incurred now and in the coming few decades to avoid the risks of very severe consequences in the future. If these investments are made wisely, the costs will be manageable, and there will be a wide range of opportunities for growth and development along the way. For this to work well, policy must promote sound market signals, overcome market failures and have equity and risk mitigation at its core.

The Blogger News Network provides a lengthy summary of the Stern Report along with a discussion of how climate change will affect India. The latter is based on a review of Stern from an Indian perspective by Sonu Jain at the Indian Express (October 31, 2006).
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