From water to waste
StarTwo, Tuesday 20 May 2003
Fisherman commonly cut the fins off the sharks, but throws their less valuable boodles back in the water. This practice is called shark-finning. A United Nations agency has issued an 11-year schedule to address global environmental issues ranging from clean drinking water waste management and tourism. The UN Commission on Sustainable Development formulated a schedule through 2017 devoting two-year periods to each of a series of environmental issues raised by last year's World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg . South Africa .
The initial two-year period for 2004/2005 will focus on issues of water, sanitation, and human settlements. In 2006/2007, the focus will be on energy for sustainable development, industrial development, air pollution and atmosphere, and climate change.
In 2008/2009, the issues will be agriculture, rural development, land, drought, desertification and Africa .
Subsequent two-year cycles will focus on: agriculture, rural development, land, drought, desertification and Africa (2008/2009): transport, chemicals waste management, mining, sustainable consumption and production patterns (2010/2011): forests, biodiversity, biotechnology, tourism and mountains (2010/2013); oceans and seas, marine resources, small island developing States, disaster management and vulnerability (2014/2015).
In every cycle, a number of cross-cutting issues will be addressed, such as poverty eradication, changing unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, health, education and sustainable development in a globalizing world, as well as means of implementation.
The years 2016 to 2017 will see an appraisal of the implementation of Agenda 21 (the blueprint for sustainable development drafted at the 1992 Earth summit) and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. The Johannesburg Summit had set goals for key environmental areas such as reducing the number of people without access to proper sanitation, restoring depleted fish stocks, and improving biodiversity by cutting the rate at which rare animals and plants are becoming extinct.-Reuters
Eco events
If we buy “green” products and services, we create incentives for business to be eco-friendly. But if we buy products manufactured by polluting business, we become partly responsible for the pollution.
A talk will be held this Friday on the topic of “green purchasing.” The speaker Lee Kiyau Loo is the secretary-general of the Green Productivity Association of Malaysia and the pro-tem president of the Green Purchasing Network Malaysia . He will highlight the need to adopt a Green Purchasing Policy, and to develop Green Purchasing Guidelines and Green Products Databases.
Organized by the Environmental Management & Research Association of Malaysia (ENSEARCH), the talk will be held at 5pm at Kristal Suite 1 & 2, Petaling Java Hilton. Fee is RM20 for non-ENSEARCH members. To register, contact Jennifer / Puan Shaf (03-6156 9807 / 6156 9808 / fax: 03-6156-9803 / e-mail: ensearch@tm.net.my).
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