- Email: [email protected]
What are the critical environmental trends for the NAFTA countrie?
Jane Barr
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
What Are the Critical Environmental Trends for the NAFTA Countries? By Jane Barr The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) has compiled an extensive report to provide its Emerging Trends Experts Group with an overview of critical environmental trends and issuesand those that appearto beemeyhg assomeof the likely environmental problemsof the future, globally and in North America. With this article, CESprovidesa focusedexamination of the critical trends that CEC has identified as effecting North America and what thesetrendsmean fm companies in the NAFTA reg’on. This insight into the dominant environmentaltrendsaccordingto the CEC may shedlight on the potential drivers of corporate environmental strategyfor the next century.
I
n the past, environmental problems were often perceived to be isolated issues. As a result, policy responses addressed one goal or objective at the expense of others, creating the potential for unproductive competition between environmental goals and human needs and failing to adequately recognize the links between global environmental issues and local and regional ones.
Jane Barr is employed as a project coordinator at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), the international organization created to oversee the environmental side accord to the NAFTA. She coordinated the CEC’s first state of the environment report for North America, to be released in June 2000, and more recently has been helping to manage projects under the Trade and Environment Program. MS Barr has an MA in Geography from McGill University.
In contrast, critical environmental problems of the past decade often illustrate surprising, unpleasant, complex or newly discovered connections among the physical, chemical and biological systems of the planet, among social, economic, institutional and environmental realms, and between the environment and human health. Indeed, they reflect how today, more than ever, we live in an interconnected, integrated world. Humans are the principal agents of change, and there is general consensus in the literature on the underlying processes that together result in global environmental problems, namely, growth in population numbers and density, per capita consump tion and technology choices. This article identifies the major changes in the quantity and quality of the planet’s forests, agricultural land, urban areas, marine ecosystems, biodiversity, air, and freshwater. It highlights only the most critical trends; improvements in environmental quality due to human endeavor are not included. This description of global trends focuses on North America, while recognizing that North America is part of larger glob al environmental and economic systems. A trend or issue documented in North American implies that the problem concerns at’least two of the region’s countries.
Forests and Woodlands Although the state of the world’s forests has been recognized as a critical global problem for the past decade, forests remain threatened. Citing the latest Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports, the literature shows that, globally, total forested area continues to decline significantly. Forest losses are accelerating again, following a slight drop in deforestation rates between 1990 and 1995. In North America, however, the extent of forest cover has stabilized in many regions, particularly in Canada and the United States, as replanting and natural regeneration (largely as a result of farmland being abandoned) makes up for harvesting losses. On the other hand, the conversion to monocultures is leading to deteriorating forest quality. In
214
CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY 1066.7936/00/$
- see front matter 0 2000 Elsevier
Science
Inc. All rights reserved.
ENVIRONMENTALPOLICY
Jane Barr
many regions of North America, forests are becoming increasingly fragmented, biologically impoverished and weakened or stressed. Deforestation is mainly concentrated in the developing world, especially in the generally species-rich tropics, and logging pressures in many of the remaining large, virgin rain forest areas continue to increase. The United Nations reports that about two-thirds of tropical deforestation is due to farmers clearing land for agriculture,. The conversion of forests to large-scale ranching operations is most common in Latin America. In North America, Mexico’s forests suffer the greatest losses as land is cleared for crops and grazing. Although deforestation rates in the tropical forests of southeastern Mexico have declined somewhat in recent years, these forests are still undergoing high rates of loss. It has been estimated that Mexico has already lost ninety-five percent of its tropical humid forests, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) ranks Mexico the fifth most rapidly deforesting country in the world in terms of total forest loss. A recent study by the World Resources Institute focuses on increasing threats to frontier forests which are defined as original forests remaining in large, relatively undisturbed natural ecosystems. Outside of boreal forests, seventy-five percent of the world’s frontier forests-including all temperate forests-are endangered by human activity. Logging represents by far the greatest danger, while exotic invasions, air pollution, vast fires and climate change also exert severe pressures. In North America, about twenty-five percent of frontier forests are threatened. Old growth habitat in many of the temperate and boreal forests of both North America and Western Europe continues to be lost.
Agricultural
land
Land degradation is the greatest threat to agricultural land. Globally, erosion, salinization, compaction and other forms of land degradation affect twenty-five percent of the Earth’s land area and Vol. 7, No. 2 2000
continue to impoverish the world’s crop and pasture lands. World Resources 1998-99 cites an analysis of global soil erosion, estimating that, “depending on the region, topsoil is currently being lost sixteen to three hundred times faster than it can be replaced.” In industrialized countries, there is evidence of an accelerated rate of soil degradation through erosion and related forces. Although soil loss through wind and water erosion in North America is generally decreasing due to better conservation practices and programs, soil degradation and loss still outpace gains. About ninety-five million hectares in Canada and the United States are affected by soil degradation. Each year, Mexico loses between 150,000 and 200,000 hectares of soil due to erosion, and in 1995, over thirty-two million hectares were considered severely eroded. Salinization affects 1.5 million hectares of Mexico’s agricultural lands.
Biodiversity Loss of species biodiversity is a global problem of great magnitude. Due to human activity, species loss is now globally estimated to be fifty to one hundred times the average natural rate of extinction. The United States and Mexico are among the top nineteen countries with the greatest number of threatened species. In Mexico, the deforestation of critical over-wintering sites for migratory birds may threaten the survival of some populations. The most endangered communities of species are those found in lakes, rivers and wetlands. Worldwatch Institute (1996) points out that “[as] biological assets, freshwater systems are both disproportionately rich and disproportionately imperiled.” In recent years, at least one fifth of all freshwater fish species have become extinct, threatened, or endangered. Ten North American fish species have disappeared in the past decade, and one-third of its freshwater fish stocks is threatened or rare. In Mexico, sixty-eight percent of fish species native to river systems in arid regions are threatened with extinction. The United States contains the world’s 215
Jane Barr
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
greatest diversity of freshwater mussel species, but now more than sixty-five percent of them are extinct or threatened. Over the past few decades, habitat loss and degradation has become the leading threat to biodiversity. For example, as wild lands, hedgerows, fallow fields and other habitats are converted to human-dominated landscapes, there has been a decline in the availability of wild foods. The inability to find suitable habitat has led to the decline of at least seventy percent of already threatened vertebrate species. Habitat change is implicated in ninety-three percent of declines in freshwater fauna. Half of North America’s most diverse ecoregions are now severely degraded. Many observers believe that bioinvasion, or the spread of exotic species, is now one of the greatest threats to biological diversity. It is the second most common factor in the loss of freshwater species, affecting about sixty-eight percent of cases. Between ten and twenty percent of the world’s endangered vertebrates are now at risk from competition, predation and other threats from introduced species. Approximately one fifth of the 4,500 established exotic species in the United States cause serious ecological or economic harm. Increased trade and the expansion of aquaculture provide dangerous opportunities for many more non-native species to be introduced into North American ecosystems.
Marine Ecosystems Chronic overexploitation of some commercial ocean-fish species continues to threaten marine ecosystems worldwide. The total wild marine fish catch has been declining since 1989, when it peaked at 74.4 million tonnes. The record high for the total world fish catch (wild and farmed) was 108.9 million tonnes in 1996, a six fold increase over the 1950 catch. In 1950 there were almost no overexploited fish species. By 1996, thirty-five percent were overexploited, and a further twenty-five percent were close to being exhausted. The literature cites studies by FAO showing that eleven of the 216
world’s fifteen major fishing grounds are seriously depleted, and seventy percent of the commercially important marine fish stocks are either fully fished or overexploited such that reproduction cannot or can only barely keep up. Certain fish stocks have experienced precipitous drops, with Atlantic cod, haddock, and redfish all but collapsed in some areas of the North Atlantic. The Atlantic finfish catch off the east coast of North America declined from 2.5 million tonnes in 1971 to less than 500,000 tonnes in 1994. Twentyone of the forty-three ground fish stocks in Canada’s North Atlantic are in decline. Sixteen others are showing no signs of growth, and nearly one third of US federally managed fishery species are overfished.
Air Global emissions of carbon from the burning of fossil fuels continue to rise, accompanied by a simultaneous increase in concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere and the warming of the Earth’s climate. The literature cites the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) conclusion that human activities have contributed to the warming trend and that global climate change has the potential for serious effects on human and natural systems. The burning of fossil fuels is the primary source of greenhouse gases, and carbon dioxide (Cop ) is the dominant greenhouse gas. Global CO:, emissions have risen nearly fourfold since 1950 as emissions from fossil fuel burning reached a new high of 5.7 billion tonnes in 1997, an increase of 1.5 percent over the previous year. The net increase in carbon to the atmosphere each year is about 3.2 billion tonnes. More than eighty percent of yearly CO:, emissions come from the production of energy, and motor vehicles account for more than fifteen percent of global fossil fuel CO2 releases. The transportation sector is the fastest growing source of CO* in industrialized countries.
CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY
JaneBarr
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
On a percapita basis, the developing world’s emissions are well below those of the industrial countries. Worldwatch Institute estimates that the average American accounts for twenty-one times as much carbon as the typical Indian. North America emits more greenhouse gases than any other region except Asia, and emissions are increasing. The United States, the leading emitter of carbon, is responsible for twenty-three percent of total emissions. It also emits more per capita than any other country. Between 1990 and 1996, its output expanded by 8.8 percent, with a 3.5 percent increase in 1996 alone.
municipal solid waste in the world, generating more than twice the amount of Mexico on a per capita basis. As with other industrialized countries, North America has faced problems of diminishing landfill space, and while incineration was once an alternative, there has been a decline in disposal by incineration due to concerns about air pollution. While there is a clear trend toward recycling in North America, recycling rates there are still low compared with those in most other industrialized countries.
There has been a strong climatic warming trend over the last two decades that many scientists tie to carbon emissions from human activities. The Earth’s climate has warmed by about one-half degree Centigrade this century. Human-influenced changes in the global climate are likely to cause serious problems in many parts of the world.
Since the early 199Os, concerns about water quality have come to be matched by the issue of water scarcity in many parts of the world. The gap between available supplies and human demands for water widens, and regional scarcities threaten political stability, food production and aquatic ecosystem health. The literature cites a 1997 UN assessment of freshwater resources that found that one-third of the world’s population lives in countries experiencing moderate to high water stress.
Urban Areas The increasing number of people living in cities is a function of underlying socioeconomic forces and is fueled by natural population increase and rural-to-urban migration. Cities exert heavy pressures on the environment. They consume seventyfive percent of the world’s resources, produce huge amounts of waste, and often expand onto agricultural, forested, protected, or other valuable lands. The quality of city life for a great many people is compromised by poor environmental conditions. The generation of municipal and industrial waste continues to increase worldwide both in absolute terms and per person. In industrialized countries, waste generation has increased in proportion to economic growth, growing by forty percent between 1980 and 1995. North America experienced the highest absolute increase in waste generation among industrialized countries. However, due to population growth rather than to decreased per capita consumption, the per capita increase was the lowest. Indeed, citizens of Canada and the United States are among the largest producers of Vol. 7, No. 2 2000
Freshwater
Since 1940, global water withdrawals have risen by an average of 2.5 percent annually, and between 1900 and 1995, they rose at more than double the rate of population growth. Since 1970, growth in population pressures, increased water pollution and degradation, and changes in land use have resulted in a thirty-seven percent reduction in the per capita availability of fresh surface water. Globally, water supplies are abundant, but they are unevenly distributed among and within countries. Although North America has a large supply of freshwater, its unequal distribution means that water scarcities occur in many areas, including some parts of Canada’s prairie provinces and in the US southwestern states. Although Canada and the United States have increased water use efficiency, these two countries are the world’s largest consumers of water. The average annual per capita withdrawal of water resources was 1, 798 ms for the two countries in 1991 compared with a world average 645 ms in 1987. 217
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
Jane Barr
In most countries, there is increasing competition for limited freshwater resources among agricultural, rural, urban, industrial, and environmental uses. Worldwide, agricultural use is responsible for the largest proportion of freshwater withdrawals (sixty-nine to seventy percent), although in highincome countries, it is now surpassed by industrial usage. A critical trend related to freshwater resources is the growth in exploitation of groundwater aquifers for various farming needs such that groundwater extractions are beginning to exceed rates of replenishment in some locations. Water tables are now falling in the major foodproducing regions, particularly where irrigated agriculture depends on fossil water. In North America, pumping exceeds natural recharge in the High Plains Aquifer System of the United States, California’s Central valley, the southwestern United States, Mexico City and the Valley of Mexico. About twenty-one percent of US irrigated cropland draws on underground aquifers, and in some regions, water tables have fallen by up to 120 cm a year. Despite increasing efficiency in water use and a recent slowdown in the rate of water table decline in the Ogallala aquifer, depletion is still faster than recharge. In northern Mexico, several regions have groundwater tables that continue to decline dramatically. Pumping exceeds natural recharge in about 80 of the 459 groundwater aquifers that have been identified. Growing populations and vulnerable groundwater supplies along the US-Mexico border suggest an urgent need for the extension of coordinated, binational strategies.
Looking Ahead
both global and local levels. In the absence of more concerted efforts by the global community to address natural resource depletion and the threats of climate change, ecosystems will increasingly be incapable of providing the resources and the cleansing and productive services that we depend upon for our present life-style or for future economic development. 3
Endnotes 1. This article is a condensedversion of a survey prepared for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation’sEmerging Trends project. The following is a list of the sourcescited in this article. For a more detailed list of references,pleasecontact the author. Commissionfor Environmental Cooperation. 2000. Are We On Track? Moving Toward Sustainabilityin North America: A Stateof the Environment Rqbort. Montreal: CEC (forthcoming). l
United Nations Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development. 1997. Critical Trends: Global Change and Sustainable Development. New York: DPCSD. l
United Nations Environment Programme, U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, The World Bank.1998. Protecting Our Planet, Securing Our Future: Linkages Among Global Environmental Issues and HumanNeeds. l
l
United Nations Environment Programme.. 1999a. Global Environment Outlook 2000.Nairobi: UNEP.
United Nations Environment Programme.. 1999b. Emerging Environmental Problems. URL: http://www.unep.ch/earthw/Emergin.htm: UN Systemwide Earthwatch Web Site. l
Worldwatch Institute. 1996. State ofthe World 1996: A Wmldwatch Institute Report on Progress Toward a Sustainable Society. NewYork: W.W. Norton & Company. l
The Commission for Economic Cooperation has identified deforestation, land degradation, declining biodiversity and shrinking fish stocks as critical trends affecting the environmental quality in North America. Along with climate change, these trends are not new and are on the global agenda for improvement. Still, they remain persistent problems that affect not only environmental health but also economic and social well-being at 218
l
Worldwatch Institute, 1997.State ofthe World 1997: A Wmldwatch institute Report on Progress Toward a Sustainable Society New York: W.W. Norton & Company. l
Worldwatch Institute. 1997. Vital Signs 1997: The
Environmental
Trends that are Shaping
Our Future. New
York: W.W. Norton & Company.
CORPORATEENVIRONMENTALSTRATEGY
ENVIRONMENTALPOLICY
Jane Barr
l
Worldwatch
Environmental
Institute.
1998. Vital Signs 1998: The
Trends that are Shaping
Our Future. New
York: W. W. Norton & Company,Inc. Worldwatch Institute. 1999. Stateof& World1999: A Worldwatch Institute Reporton Progress Towarda Sustainable Society. NewYork: W.W. Norton & Company. l
World Resources Institute, United Nations Environment Programme,United NationsDevelopment l
Vol. 7, No. 2 2000
Programme,and The World Bank. 1996. WorldResources 1996-97, A Guide to the Global Environment: The Urban Environment. NewYork: Oxford University Press. World Resources Institute, United Nations Environment Programme,United NationsDevelopment Programme,and The World Bank. 1998. World Resources l
1998-99, A Guide to the Global Environment: Environmental Change and HumanHealth. NewYork: Oxford University
Press.
219
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
What Are the Critical Environmental Trends for the NAFTA Countries? By Jane Barr The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) has compiled an extensive report to provide its Emerging Trends Experts Group with an overview of critical environmental trends and issuesand those that appearto beemeyhg assomeof the likely environmental problemsof the future, globally and in North America. With this article, CESprovidesa focusedexamination of the critical trends that CEC has identified as effecting North America and what thesetrendsmean fm companies in the NAFTA reg’on. This insight into the dominant environmentaltrendsaccordingto the CEC may shedlight on the potential drivers of corporate environmental strategyfor the next century.
I
n the past, environmental problems were often perceived to be isolated issues. As a result, policy responses addressed one goal or objective at the expense of others, creating the potential for unproductive competition between environmental goals and human needs and failing to adequately recognize the links between global environmental issues and local and regional ones.
Jane Barr is employed as a project coordinator at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), the international organization created to oversee the environmental side accord to the NAFTA. She coordinated the CEC’s first state of the environment report for North America, to be released in June 2000, and more recently has been helping to manage projects under the Trade and Environment Program. MS Barr has an MA in Geography from McGill University.
In contrast, critical environmental problems of the past decade often illustrate surprising, unpleasant, complex or newly discovered connections among the physical, chemical and biological systems of the planet, among social, economic, institutional and environmental realms, and between the environment and human health. Indeed, they reflect how today, more than ever, we live in an interconnected, integrated world. Humans are the principal agents of change, and there is general consensus in the literature on the underlying processes that together result in global environmental problems, namely, growth in population numbers and density, per capita consump tion and technology choices. This article identifies the major changes in the quantity and quality of the planet’s forests, agricultural land, urban areas, marine ecosystems, biodiversity, air, and freshwater. It highlights only the most critical trends; improvements in environmental quality due to human endeavor are not included. This description of global trends focuses on North America, while recognizing that North America is part of larger glob al environmental and economic systems. A trend or issue documented in North American implies that the problem concerns at’least two of the region’s countries.
Forests and Woodlands Although the state of the world’s forests has been recognized as a critical global problem for the past decade, forests remain threatened. Citing the latest Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports, the literature shows that, globally, total forested area continues to decline significantly. Forest losses are accelerating again, following a slight drop in deforestation rates between 1990 and 1995. In North America, however, the extent of forest cover has stabilized in many regions, particularly in Canada and the United States, as replanting and natural regeneration (largely as a result of farmland being abandoned) makes up for harvesting losses. On the other hand, the conversion to monocultures is leading to deteriorating forest quality. In
214
CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY 1066.7936/00/$
- see front matter 0 2000 Elsevier
Science
Inc. All rights reserved.
ENVIRONMENTALPOLICY
Jane Barr
many regions of North America, forests are becoming increasingly fragmented, biologically impoverished and weakened or stressed. Deforestation is mainly concentrated in the developing world, especially in the generally species-rich tropics, and logging pressures in many of the remaining large, virgin rain forest areas continue to increase. The United Nations reports that about two-thirds of tropical deforestation is due to farmers clearing land for agriculture,. The conversion of forests to large-scale ranching operations is most common in Latin America. In North America, Mexico’s forests suffer the greatest losses as land is cleared for crops and grazing. Although deforestation rates in the tropical forests of southeastern Mexico have declined somewhat in recent years, these forests are still undergoing high rates of loss. It has been estimated that Mexico has already lost ninety-five percent of its tropical humid forests, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) ranks Mexico the fifth most rapidly deforesting country in the world in terms of total forest loss. A recent study by the World Resources Institute focuses on increasing threats to frontier forests which are defined as original forests remaining in large, relatively undisturbed natural ecosystems. Outside of boreal forests, seventy-five percent of the world’s frontier forests-including all temperate forests-are endangered by human activity. Logging represents by far the greatest danger, while exotic invasions, air pollution, vast fires and climate change also exert severe pressures. In North America, about twenty-five percent of frontier forests are threatened. Old growth habitat in many of the temperate and boreal forests of both North America and Western Europe continues to be lost.
Agricultural
land
Land degradation is the greatest threat to agricultural land. Globally, erosion, salinization, compaction and other forms of land degradation affect twenty-five percent of the Earth’s land area and Vol. 7, No. 2 2000
continue to impoverish the world’s crop and pasture lands. World Resources 1998-99 cites an analysis of global soil erosion, estimating that, “depending on the region, topsoil is currently being lost sixteen to three hundred times faster than it can be replaced.” In industrialized countries, there is evidence of an accelerated rate of soil degradation through erosion and related forces. Although soil loss through wind and water erosion in North America is generally decreasing due to better conservation practices and programs, soil degradation and loss still outpace gains. About ninety-five million hectares in Canada and the United States are affected by soil degradation. Each year, Mexico loses between 150,000 and 200,000 hectares of soil due to erosion, and in 1995, over thirty-two million hectares were considered severely eroded. Salinization affects 1.5 million hectares of Mexico’s agricultural lands.
Biodiversity Loss of species biodiversity is a global problem of great magnitude. Due to human activity, species loss is now globally estimated to be fifty to one hundred times the average natural rate of extinction. The United States and Mexico are among the top nineteen countries with the greatest number of threatened species. In Mexico, the deforestation of critical over-wintering sites for migratory birds may threaten the survival of some populations. The most endangered communities of species are those found in lakes, rivers and wetlands. Worldwatch Institute (1996) points out that “[as] biological assets, freshwater systems are both disproportionately rich and disproportionately imperiled.” In recent years, at least one fifth of all freshwater fish species have become extinct, threatened, or endangered. Ten North American fish species have disappeared in the past decade, and one-third of its freshwater fish stocks is threatened or rare. In Mexico, sixty-eight percent of fish species native to river systems in arid regions are threatened with extinction. The United States contains the world’s 215
Jane Barr
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
greatest diversity of freshwater mussel species, but now more than sixty-five percent of them are extinct or threatened. Over the past few decades, habitat loss and degradation has become the leading threat to biodiversity. For example, as wild lands, hedgerows, fallow fields and other habitats are converted to human-dominated landscapes, there has been a decline in the availability of wild foods. The inability to find suitable habitat has led to the decline of at least seventy percent of already threatened vertebrate species. Habitat change is implicated in ninety-three percent of declines in freshwater fauna. Half of North America’s most diverse ecoregions are now severely degraded. Many observers believe that bioinvasion, or the spread of exotic species, is now one of the greatest threats to biological diversity. It is the second most common factor in the loss of freshwater species, affecting about sixty-eight percent of cases. Between ten and twenty percent of the world’s endangered vertebrates are now at risk from competition, predation and other threats from introduced species. Approximately one fifth of the 4,500 established exotic species in the United States cause serious ecological or economic harm. Increased trade and the expansion of aquaculture provide dangerous opportunities for many more non-native species to be introduced into North American ecosystems.
Marine Ecosystems Chronic overexploitation of some commercial ocean-fish species continues to threaten marine ecosystems worldwide. The total wild marine fish catch has been declining since 1989, when it peaked at 74.4 million tonnes. The record high for the total world fish catch (wild and farmed) was 108.9 million tonnes in 1996, a six fold increase over the 1950 catch. In 1950 there were almost no overexploited fish species. By 1996, thirty-five percent were overexploited, and a further twenty-five percent were close to being exhausted. The literature cites studies by FAO showing that eleven of the 216
world’s fifteen major fishing grounds are seriously depleted, and seventy percent of the commercially important marine fish stocks are either fully fished or overexploited such that reproduction cannot or can only barely keep up. Certain fish stocks have experienced precipitous drops, with Atlantic cod, haddock, and redfish all but collapsed in some areas of the North Atlantic. The Atlantic finfish catch off the east coast of North America declined from 2.5 million tonnes in 1971 to less than 500,000 tonnes in 1994. Twentyone of the forty-three ground fish stocks in Canada’s North Atlantic are in decline. Sixteen others are showing no signs of growth, and nearly one third of US federally managed fishery species are overfished.
Air Global emissions of carbon from the burning of fossil fuels continue to rise, accompanied by a simultaneous increase in concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere and the warming of the Earth’s climate. The literature cites the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) conclusion that human activities have contributed to the warming trend and that global climate change has the potential for serious effects on human and natural systems. The burning of fossil fuels is the primary source of greenhouse gases, and carbon dioxide (Cop ) is the dominant greenhouse gas. Global CO:, emissions have risen nearly fourfold since 1950 as emissions from fossil fuel burning reached a new high of 5.7 billion tonnes in 1997, an increase of 1.5 percent over the previous year. The net increase in carbon to the atmosphere each year is about 3.2 billion tonnes. More than eighty percent of yearly CO:, emissions come from the production of energy, and motor vehicles account for more than fifteen percent of global fossil fuel CO2 releases. The transportation sector is the fastest growing source of CO* in industrialized countries.
CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY
JaneBarr
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
On a percapita basis, the developing world’s emissions are well below those of the industrial countries. Worldwatch Institute estimates that the average American accounts for twenty-one times as much carbon as the typical Indian. North America emits more greenhouse gases than any other region except Asia, and emissions are increasing. The United States, the leading emitter of carbon, is responsible for twenty-three percent of total emissions. It also emits more per capita than any other country. Between 1990 and 1996, its output expanded by 8.8 percent, with a 3.5 percent increase in 1996 alone.
municipal solid waste in the world, generating more than twice the amount of Mexico on a per capita basis. As with other industrialized countries, North America has faced problems of diminishing landfill space, and while incineration was once an alternative, there has been a decline in disposal by incineration due to concerns about air pollution. While there is a clear trend toward recycling in North America, recycling rates there are still low compared with those in most other industrialized countries.
There has been a strong climatic warming trend over the last two decades that many scientists tie to carbon emissions from human activities. The Earth’s climate has warmed by about one-half degree Centigrade this century. Human-influenced changes in the global climate are likely to cause serious problems in many parts of the world.
Since the early 199Os, concerns about water quality have come to be matched by the issue of water scarcity in many parts of the world. The gap between available supplies and human demands for water widens, and regional scarcities threaten political stability, food production and aquatic ecosystem health. The literature cites a 1997 UN assessment of freshwater resources that found that one-third of the world’s population lives in countries experiencing moderate to high water stress.
Urban Areas The increasing number of people living in cities is a function of underlying socioeconomic forces and is fueled by natural population increase and rural-to-urban migration. Cities exert heavy pressures on the environment. They consume seventyfive percent of the world’s resources, produce huge amounts of waste, and often expand onto agricultural, forested, protected, or other valuable lands. The quality of city life for a great many people is compromised by poor environmental conditions. The generation of municipal and industrial waste continues to increase worldwide both in absolute terms and per person. In industrialized countries, waste generation has increased in proportion to economic growth, growing by forty percent between 1980 and 1995. North America experienced the highest absolute increase in waste generation among industrialized countries. However, due to population growth rather than to decreased per capita consumption, the per capita increase was the lowest. Indeed, citizens of Canada and the United States are among the largest producers of Vol. 7, No. 2 2000
Freshwater
Since 1940, global water withdrawals have risen by an average of 2.5 percent annually, and between 1900 and 1995, they rose at more than double the rate of population growth. Since 1970, growth in population pressures, increased water pollution and degradation, and changes in land use have resulted in a thirty-seven percent reduction in the per capita availability of fresh surface water. Globally, water supplies are abundant, but they are unevenly distributed among and within countries. Although North America has a large supply of freshwater, its unequal distribution means that water scarcities occur in many areas, including some parts of Canada’s prairie provinces and in the US southwestern states. Although Canada and the United States have increased water use efficiency, these two countries are the world’s largest consumers of water. The average annual per capita withdrawal of water resources was 1, 798 ms for the two countries in 1991 compared with a world average 645 ms in 1987. 217
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
Jane Barr
In most countries, there is increasing competition for limited freshwater resources among agricultural, rural, urban, industrial, and environmental uses. Worldwide, agricultural use is responsible for the largest proportion of freshwater withdrawals (sixty-nine to seventy percent), although in highincome countries, it is now surpassed by industrial usage. A critical trend related to freshwater resources is the growth in exploitation of groundwater aquifers for various farming needs such that groundwater extractions are beginning to exceed rates of replenishment in some locations. Water tables are now falling in the major foodproducing regions, particularly where irrigated agriculture depends on fossil water. In North America, pumping exceeds natural recharge in the High Plains Aquifer System of the United States, California’s Central valley, the southwestern United States, Mexico City and the Valley of Mexico. About twenty-one percent of US irrigated cropland draws on underground aquifers, and in some regions, water tables have fallen by up to 120 cm a year. Despite increasing efficiency in water use and a recent slowdown in the rate of water table decline in the Ogallala aquifer, depletion is still faster than recharge. In northern Mexico, several regions have groundwater tables that continue to decline dramatically. Pumping exceeds natural recharge in about 80 of the 459 groundwater aquifers that have been identified. Growing populations and vulnerable groundwater supplies along the US-Mexico border suggest an urgent need for the extension of coordinated, binational strategies.
Looking Ahead
both global and local levels. In the absence of more concerted efforts by the global community to address natural resource depletion and the threats of climate change, ecosystems will increasingly be incapable of providing the resources and the cleansing and productive services that we depend upon for our present life-style or for future economic development. 3
Endnotes 1. This article is a condensedversion of a survey prepared for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation’sEmerging Trends project. The following is a list of the sourcescited in this article. For a more detailed list of references,pleasecontact the author. Commissionfor Environmental Cooperation. 2000. Are We On Track? Moving Toward Sustainabilityin North America: A Stateof the Environment Rqbort. Montreal: CEC (forthcoming). l
United Nations Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development. 1997. Critical Trends: Global Change and Sustainable Development. New York: DPCSD. l
United Nations Environment Programme, U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, The World Bank.1998. Protecting Our Planet, Securing Our Future: Linkages Among Global Environmental Issues and HumanNeeds. l
l
United Nations Environment Programme.. 1999a. Global Environment Outlook 2000.Nairobi: UNEP.
United Nations Environment Programme.. 1999b. Emerging Environmental Problems. URL: http://www.unep.ch/earthw/Emergin.htm: UN Systemwide Earthwatch Web Site. l
Worldwatch Institute. 1996. State ofthe World 1996: A Wmldwatch Institute Report on Progress Toward a Sustainable Society. NewYork: W.W. Norton & Company. l
The Commission for Economic Cooperation has identified deforestation, land degradation, declining biodiversity and shrinking fish stocks as critical trends affecting the environmental quality in North America. Along with climate change, these trends are not new and are on the global agenda for improvement. Still, they remain persistent problems that affect not only environmental health but also economic and social well-being at 218
l
Worldwatch Institute, 1997.State ofthe World 1997: A Wmldwatch institute Report on Progress Toward a Sustainable Society New York: W.W. Norton & Company. l
Worldwatch Institute. 1997. Vital Signs 1997: The
Environmental
Trends that are Shaping
Our Future. New
York: W.W. Norton & Company.
CORPORATEENVIRONMENTALSTRATEGY
ENVIRONMENTALPOLICY
Jane Barr
l
Worldwatch
Environmental
Institute.
1998. Vital Signs 1998: The
Trends that are Shaping
Our Future. New
York: W. W. Norton & Company,Inc. Worldwatch Institute. 1999. Stateof& World1999: A Worldwatch Institute Reporton Progress Towarda Sustainable Society. NewYork: W.W. Norton & Company. l
World Resources Institute, United Nations Environment Programme,United NationsDevelopment l
Vol. 7, No. 2 2000
Programme,and The World Bank. 1996. WorldResources 1996-97, A Guide to the Global Environment: The Urban Environment. NewYork: Oxford University Press. World Resources Institute, United Nations Environment Programme,United NationsDevelopment Programme,and The World Bank. 1998. World Resources l
1998-99, A Guide to the Global Environment: Environmental Change and HumanHealth. NewYork: Oxford University
Press.
219