Sound Science Key to Saving the Planet

UN Environment Programme

Links between global warming and heavy metal pollution, soil microbes and bumper crop yields and the degree to which a degraded environment can trigger political instability, are likely to be among the pressing issues facing scientists trying to unravel the fate of planet Earth.

Next week, some of the world's leading experts will gather at the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to try and pin point "knowledge gaps" in a bid to better forecast the impact of human-kind's actions on the environment of the 21st century.

Areas in need of strengthening include the health effects of chemical hazards, the impacts of urbanization and megacities on the wider world and improved understanding of the planet's biodiversity.

Scientists are also keen to address how actions taken to solve one environmental crisis might impact on other areas of environmental, economic and social concerns.

The overall aim of the week-long set of meetings involving scientists, government officials and members of other organizations such as the European Environment Agency and the Convention on Biological Diversity, is to assess how best to boost UNEP's science base.

Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's Executive Director, said: "Sound science is vital. Governments cannot be expected to change industrial, agricultural and other practices without accurate and authoritative evidence that these are not only cost-effective but will genuinely make a difference, that they will help deliver sustainable development. So we need to plug the remaining gaps and better understand what is known in the jargon as 'interlinkages', in essence the consequences of our actions, across a wide range of issues."

In advance of the meeting, UNEP organized a survey to identify areas of concern. Between a third and half of those who responded cited issues such as environment and poverty, environment and trade and environment and conflict as important areas for improved scientific research.

Other areas in need of strengthening include studies on the disturbance of the global nitrogen cycle as a result of agricultural fertilizers and traffic fumes; biodiversity assessments of marine and fresh water environments; the wider impacts of changes in land cover as a result of forest loss and agriculture and the health and environmental effects of a build-up of toxic chemicals.

Governments were also questioned about their views on a proposed Intergovernmental Panel on Global Environmental Change, mirroring the existing Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and other institutional arrangements to strengthen UNEP's scientific base.

The IPPC was established by UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to assess the impacts and suggest solutions for combating climate change.

Over 30 Governments expressed support or considered a global environmental change panel useful. Almost 20 Governments rejected the idea.

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