Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Pay now and later

Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations, speaking in Geneva, says billions of dollars will be needed to rehabilitate and reconstruct Pakistan,...
"Initial indicators are that just for the northern part of Pakistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, the requirement would be in the tune of about $2.5 billion," Akram said. "So, it is going to be a massive effort for reconstruction and rehabilitation. And, according to our estimate, the time it would take would be around five years."
...
Akram says Pakistan has received $301 million in multilateral and bilateral aid. He says this is not enough to provide millions of people with basic life-saving relief.

Pakistani Envoy: Billions Needed to Rebuild After Floods
So we don't have enough money to arrest global warming, but we'll have to find it somewhere to pay for the consequences.


And an update to one of the other posts found here Addicted to Plastic

A must watch






So now you've had a laugh and maybe promised to foregoe plastic bags from now on...

Here's some alarming news that addresses the same point this blog was created to address.

Britain and other countries face a collapse of their economies and loss of culture if they do not protect the environment better, the world's leading champion of nature has warned.

"What we are seeing today is a total disaster," said Ahmed Djoghlaf, the secretary-general of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. "No country has met its targets to protect nature. We are losing biodiversity at an unprecedented rate. If current levels [of destruction] go on we will reach a tipping point very soon. The future of the planet now depends on governments taking action in the next few years."
...
A major UN report in the impacts of biodiversity loss that will be launched in October is expected to say that the economic case for global action to stop the destruction of the natural world is even more powerful than the argument for tackling climate change. It will say that saving biodiversity is remarkably cost-effective and the benefits from saving "natural goods and services", such as pollination, medicines, fertile soils, clean air and water, are between 10 and 100 times the cost of saving the habitats and species that provide them.

Protect nature for world economic security, warns UN biodiversity chief

And check this out:
How Many Cities Have a Ban on Plastic Bags?

1 comment:

  1. The book 'Collapse' by Jared Diamond documents several populations of human beings that consumed their way through one or more necessary resources until they were forced to move or die. There is nowhere to move!

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