As policy makers prepare for the Rio+20 UN Earth Summit, the world’s science academies, through IAP with the contribution of GYA, highlight the global challenges of population and consumption.
They call upon the world leaders to take decisive action. GYA member Tilman Brück, Professor of Development Economics at the Humboldt-University of Berlin, states that “Scientific evidence is clear on where we stand and what must be done. In particular, the Statement highlights the urgent need to change patterns of consumption the world over. The need to act concerns states, firms and individuals alike.” His GYA colleague Prof Jeremy Kerr from the Canadian Facility for Ecoinformatics Research at the University of Ottawa agrees: “Human population growth, and especially associated trends of consumption, must be addressed urgently. Because consumption currently outstrips the capacity of the planet to supply resources sustainably, humanity is rapidly draining the trust fund of natural capital that sustains all of us. The messages of the statement of global human population growth must be heeded, and soon.”
Please read the Statement and the related Press Release.