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Europe and North America often prioritize the health effects of outdoor particulate matter and ozone gases, as well as how these substances affect agricultural productivity, as well as nitrogen emissions into ecosystems.

Highly degradable organic pollutants (POPs) and mercury represent a global problem. There are high levels of POP and mercury in the food chains, and this can affect the health of both humans and animals. Many environmental toxins are transported through the air, while their effects are spread via water and land-based food chains. For the most part, they accumulate in the polar region.

Challenges and opportunities: It is possible to significantly reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere, both through technological improvements and policy measures. But increasing human activity (more people and greater needs) offsets some of the gains. The main challenges are rapid growth in transport and other forms of energy consumption that have continued to result in harmful emissions with effects on health and the environment.

According to PARADISDACHAT, car traffic together with weak urban planning causes queues and air pollution to increase. Air transport is one of the fastest growing modes of transport; the number of passenger kilometers increased between 1990 and 2000 by 76%. Also ship traffic has increased noticeably and mirrors the thus the rise in the international trade – from about 4 billion tons of goods in 1990 to more than 7 billions in 2005).

Economic studies in air pollution show that the costs of the negative effects far exceed the costs of going to environmental action no – often with the multiple. Strong political leadership is crucial for developing institutions and reaching out to public opinion to ensure adequate funding and national and international coordination.

4: Climate change

A warmer value: Climate change is a major global challenge that will have a significant and long-lasting impact on human welfare and development. They constitute an obstacle to being able to meet the basic development needs.

Global warming is happening no. Eleven of the twelve years from 1995 to 2006 were among the warmest since 1850. There is overwhelming evidence that climate change is taking place. Among other things, the average temperature on earth has risen by 0.74 ° C during the 20th century. Specifically, we see warming in the many glaciers that shrink, permafrost that thaws, river and lake ice that disappear earlier, longer growing seasons, more and more powerful storms, changing precipitation patterns and more frequent heat waves and droughts in some parts of the world, more fluff in others.

Changes in access to water and food security are expected to have a dramatic impact on the lives of many millions of people. Rising sea levels threaten both humans and important economic centers in coastal areas as well as the very livelihoods of small island states.

Poor communities, especially in developing countries, are highly dependent on rain-based survival agriculture and natural resources. They are completely dependent on, among other things, monsoon rains and are also very vulnerable to the destruction that accompanies extreme weather, such as hurricanes.

Continued warming is likely to change the geographical spread of infectious diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever, and food-borne infections such as salmonella will become more common. Illness and death due to malnutrition, diarrhea and malaria are associated with warmer climates and are increasing year by year worldwide, and especially in Africa and some Asian countries.

Challenges and opportunities: Increasing man-made emissions of greenhouse gases (especially CO2) are the most important engines in climate change. Researchers and other experts have calculated that an increase of 2 ° C in the global average temperature – measured in relation to the pre-industrial level (approx. 1800) – is an important limit when it comes to how strong a rise in temperature nature can tolerate. (And only in the 20th century did it rise by 0.74 ° C. )

If the temperature rises further, the climate effects will be far more serious. Then it will probably also be far more difficult to repair the damage – they could become irreversible . The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) expects an increase in this century of a further 1.8–4 ° C – ie an overall rise from pre-industrial times to a level far above the danger line. Correspondingly, the sea level in the same period is expected to rise between 0.18 and 0.59 meters. It will amplify the effects of climate change and could have violent consequences.

Adaptation : The pace of temperature rise will largely depend on the choices society and states make to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the meantime, adapting to the expected climate change has become a global priority. Drastic measures must be implemented to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy, transport, forestry and agriculture to avoid serious consequences of climate change in the future.

International agreements that deal with problems exist – such as the Kyoto agreement (it will be renegotiated in Copenhagen 2009). But these agreements are far from global – they do not cover all countries at all. The United States has not signed, and developing countries have our exceptions. In fact, there has been a marked lack of emphasis on managing greenhouse gas emissions for most of the last 20 years.