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The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
  • Reading Radar

    Three UN Millennium Development Targets Reached and a Review of the Human Drivers of Climate Change

    August 8, 2012 By Keenan Dillard
    “It is plausible that key transitions in human evolutionary history have been driven in large part by climate change,” write Eugene A. Rosa and Thomas Dietz in “Human Drivers of National Greenhouse-Gas Emissions,” a literature review published by Nature Climate Change. “Changes in climate will doubtless be a key force in the future evolution of social systems, including all aspects of social, economic, and political life, while impinging on the health and well-being of the individuals who populate them.” Rosa and Dietz cite numerous studies to argue that nearly every facet of society will be affected by climate change. “The critical point,” they write, “is that population, affluence, technology, and all other drivers act not alone or additively but in a multiplicative fashion.” For example, rapid population growth can lead to an increase in urbanization, which generates “substantial demand for goods and services that can induce emissions in distant places.” They conclude that huge changes must be made in technology and consumption in order to combat the effects of climate change that are being caused by a growing population and an increasingly affluent world.

    The United Nations’ 2012 Millennium Development Goals Report, released last month in New York City, announces that three of the eight major human development goals have been reached ahead of their 2015 targets. The Millennium Development Goals, set at a conference in 2000, were established to “uphold the principles of human dignity, equality, and equity at a global level.” The 2012 report indicates that the number of people living in extreme poverty has been halved since 1990; the proportion of people in the world without sustainable access to safe drinking water has also been halved; and more than 200 million slum dwellers have “gained access to either improved water sources, improved sanitation facilities, or durable or less crowded housing.” At the report launch, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that “these results represent a tremendous reduction in human suffering and are a clear validation of the approach embodied in the MDGs, but they are not a reason to relax.” Goals that have yet to be achieved include universal primary education; gender equality; reduced child mortality and improved maternal health; reducing rates of diseases such as HIV and malaria; and creating a global partnership for development.

    Keenan Dillard is a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point and an intern with the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program.
    Topics: climate change, consumption, development, economics, education, environment, global health, HIV/AIDS, maternal health, MDGs, population, poverty, Reading Radar, sanitation, UN, water
    • http://www.oss.net RobertDavidSTEELEVivas

      Remarkable achievements, especially in light of the general incoherence of the UN and the complete autonomy of each Specialized Agency (SA). Now imagine if the UN had a Multinational Decision Support Centre as well as a Department for Decision Support (similar to the Department of Field Support but analysts, like pilots, retain their integrity and cannot be corrupted by the bosses they support). I recently posted

      Robert Steele: Reflections on United Nations Intelligence & Counterintelligence
      with a short memorable Tiny URL Steele4UN (http://tinyurl.com/Steele4UN) and a number of links including the Class Before One that I taught for six UN mission elements in Beirut in 2007, and my letter to the Secretary General proposing an international consortium to create the World Brain and Global Game including the Earth Dashboard now underway with my colleague Professor Medard Gabel, but at a much finer level of detail.

      Today I would add emphasis on Open Source Everything, the topic of my latest book, THE OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING MANIFESTO: Transparency, Truth & Trust. The UN needs to go far beyond Open Source Software and begin an “all in” commitment to Open Access, Open Cloud, Open Data, Open Education, Open Government, Open Hardware, Open Innovation, Open Journalism, Open Knowledge, Open Security, Open Software, Open Standards….and so on. The book is least expensive at Amazon, just US$10. Each evening I post a roundup of linked headlines in English from around the world, Open Source Everything Highlights, twitter hash #openall and short URL to the stack

      http://tinyurl.com/OSE-ALL

      One final comment: governments, and international organizations, are the LEAST important of the eight information communities I have struggled to bring together these past 20 years. They are, in alphabetical order, academia, civil society including labor and religion, commerce, government at all levels, law enforcement, media, military, and non-government/non-profit. In my view the UN must set forth a strategic analytic model and a true cost data collection model such as the Earth Intelligence Network has devised, and create the Open Source Agency that the US Government refuses to create because it would instantly reveal that the Emperor is not only stark naked, but a drooling, gibbering idiot as well. The 20 year campaign for the Open Source Agency is coming to culmination point. Complete information is available at http://tinyurl.com/OSA2011

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