Climate change |
Sustainable development is a way of meeting the needs of present day generations without compromising the capacity of future generations to meet their needs, for instance by improving the quality of water and the environment, by minimizing the differences in the standard of living throughout the world, and by changing certain ways of living and consuming. UNESCO is helping to open up an avenue of sustainable development focused on human beings and based on respecting the rights of human and democratic principles, on solidarity, dignity, sharing and equality.
1987. The Brundtland Commission defined for the first time the concept of sustainable development before the United Nations.
1992. Government met in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil ) for the first Earth Summit (United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development). The summit focused on the key question of how to reconcile the demands of the present day with expectations for the future. There were many debates and alarming observations concerning the current state of our planet and the likely evolution of living conditions. To set the problems aright, more than 150 countries worked on a common programme for the twenty first century, called the ‘Action 21 Programme’. Since then this programme has served as the basis for measuring the progress of the made in change in question.
Carbon |
Sea Pathfinder |
Warm Shallow Water |
One country alone cannot study and monitor the world’s oceans on a continuous basis but it should at least be able to tackle the problems that touch its littoral. Subsequent to extensive urban growth in the 1970s, Brazilian cities such as Sao Paulo and its surrounding areas still have major air and water pollution problems. Their beaches are suffering today because the most polluting industries have been relocated on the littoral. All countries depend either directly or indirectly on the world’s oceans for survival and each must thus assume responsibility for its current condition. In addition, countries for which the economy and living conditions depend directly on the ocean must be provided with the means to solve problems on the local leave.