nuovo libro WWI

["Alessandro Gimona" <agimona@hotmail.com>]

Cari tutti,
nuovo libro del world Watch Institute (ordinabile on-line 
http://www.worldwatch.org) su ambiente e globalizzazione.

Spero interessi (e che aiuti i futuri politici a mettere a punto politiche 
ambientali).

ciao
Alessandro Gimona



  GLOBALIZATION STRAINING PLANET'S HEALTH:
  Cross-Border Alliances Needed to Safeguard Environment



      Globalization presents growing threats to the planet and its 
inhabitants,
  according to a new report from the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington 
DC-based
  research organization. Forests are shrinking as the value of global trade 
in
  forest products climbs, from $29 billion in 1961 to $139 billion in 1998. 
And
  fisheries are collapsing as fish exports rise, growing nearly fivefold in 
value
  since 1970 to reach $52 billion in 1997. Human health is also endangered, 
with
  pesticide exports increasing nearly ninefold since 1961, to $11.4 billion 
in
  1998.

      "The surge in movements of goods, money, species, and pollution across
  international borders is placing unprecedented strains on the planet," 
said
  Hilary French, author of Vanishing Borders: Protecting the Planet in the 
Age of
  Globalization. "Ironically, the best way to tackle these problems is by 
putting
  globalization to work for us, instead of against us."

      Channeling globalization to protect, rather than undermine, the 
earth's
  natural systems, is key to building an environmentally stable society in 
the
  21st century. People are using new communications technologies to create
  powerful international coalitions, like last December's outpouring of 
citizen
  concern at the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle. And 
trade can
  help spread environmentally beneficial products and technologies, from
  shade-grown coffee to wind power.

      World exports of goods increased 17-fold between 1950 and 1998, from 
$311
  billion to $5.4 trillion; the volume of foreign direct investment has 
grown
  almost 15-fold just since 1970, reaching $644 billion in 1998; and the 
number of
  transnational corporations worldwide grew from 7,000 in 1970 to some 
60,000
  today.

      These trends pose major environmental challenges. While economists 
tout
  record-breaking increases in global commerce in recent decades, more 
sobering
  statistics are being reported by the world's leading biologists: the loss 
of
  living species in recent decades represents the largest mass extinction 
since
  the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago.

      Globalization is a powerful driving force behind today's unprecedented
  biological implosion. An upsurge of trade and investment in natural 
resources
  sectors such as forestry, mining, and petroleum development is threatening 
the
  health of the world's forests, mountains, waters, and other sensitive
  ecosystems. And the rapid growth in the movement of human beings and their 
goods
  and services has provided convenient transportation for thousands of other
  species of plants and animals that are now taking root on foreign shores. 
On any
  given day, some 2 million people cross international borders, while 3,000 
to
  10,000 aquatic species are moving around the world in ship ballasts. Once
  "exotic species" establish a beachhead in a foreign ecosystem, they often
  proliferate, suppressing native species, and imposing high economic costs.

      International commerce is also a potent mechanism through which 
hazardous
  products and technologies move around the world. Over the last few 
decades, the
  developing world has become home to a growing share of the hazard-laden
  petrochemical industry. Approximately 41 percent of U.S. foreign direct
  investment in the Philippines in 1998 was in chemicals, as was 22 percent 
of
  such investment in Colombia.

      High-tech industries such as computers and electronics have also gone 
global
  in recent years. Despite their early reputation as relatively clean, these
  industries can exact heavy environmental costs. Semiconductor 
manufacturing
  employs hundreds of chemicals, including arsenic, benzene, and chromium, 
all of
  which are known carcinogens. More than half of all computer manufacturing 
and
  assembly operations-processes intensive in their use of acids, solvents, 
and
  toxic gases-are now located in developing countries, according to the San 
Jose,
  California-based Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

      Despite the environmental risks, the forces of globalization can also
  produce environmental gains, such as helping developing countries leapfrog 
to
  the cleaner technologies of tomorrow. China has become the world's largest
  manufacturer of energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs in recent
  years, in part through joint ventures with lighting firms based in Hong 
Kong,
  Japan, the Netherlands, and Taiwan. And India has become a major 
manufacturer of
  advanced wind turbines with the help of technology obtained through joint
  ventures and licensing agreements with Danish, Dutch, and German firms.

      Several countries are working to harness the global economy to protect
  rather than decimate natural wealth. Costa Rica is now a major destination 
for
  eco-tourists, capitalizing on its moist cloud forests, sandy beaches, and 
dry
  deciduous forests. And many other countries have moved to tap into the 
booming
  international market for organic produce. Mexico now has some 10,000 
organic
  farms on 15,000 hectares of land, most of them run by small farmers. While
  coffee is their mainstay, Mexico's organic farmers also cultivate apples,
  avocados, coconuts, cardamom, honey, and potatoes.

      Redirecting the global economy away from environmentally harmful 
activities
  and into more sustainable ones will require a multi-pronged strategy, 
starting
  with requiring international economic institutions to pay more heed to the
  environmental impact of their programs. Since the World Trade Organization 
was
  established in 1994, its dispute resolution panels have ruled that several
  national environmental laws constitute illegal trade barriers, including
  provisions of a U.S. law aimed at protecting endangered sea turtles and a
  European Union (EU) ban on the sale of hormone-raised beef. And trade 
tensions
  are rising between the European Union and the U.S. over European 
restrictions on
  planting genetically modified crops and a requirement that food containing 
them
  be labeled as such.

      French calls for the WTO to incorporate a greater respect for the
  precautionary principle, which holds that lack of scientific certainty 
should
  not be used as a reason for postponing action where there are threats of 
serious
  or irreversible damage. She also advocates protecting consumers' right to 
know
  about the health and environmental impact of products they purchase by
  safeguarding eco-labeling programs, allowing countries to use trade 
measures to
  protect the global commons, and deferring to international environmental
  treaties in cases where they conflict with trade rules.

      Better integration of environmental issues into the lending programs 
of the
  World Bank and the International Monetary Fund would yield additional 
ecological
  dividends. On paper, the development-oriented World Bank is far more open 
than
  the IMF to environmental concerns.  But a recent internal review by the 
World
  Bank of more than 50 recent structural adjustment loans found that few of 
them
  paid much heed to environmental and social matters. Whereas a 1993 Bank 
report
  found that some 60 percent of such loans included environmental goals, the
  recent study concluded that this share had now plummeted to less than 20
  percent.

       A stronger international environmental infrastructure is also needed 
to act
  as an ecological counterweight to today's growing economic powerhouses.
  Environmental treaties now number more than 230, with three-fourths of 
them
  agreed to over the last thirty years. But the effectiveness of these 
agreements
  is often undermined by vague commitments and lax enforcement.

      "Environmentalists should take a page from the World Trade 
Organization and
  push for international environmental commitments that are as specific and
  enforceable as trade accords have become," says French. In Vanishing 
Borders,
  French calls for upgrading the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) into a 
World
  Environmental Organization that can coordinate and strengthen the current
  scattered collection of environmental treaty bodies.

      New information and communications technologies can be harnessed to 
forge
  powerful cross-border political alliances-a trend that is already well 
underway.
  The number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working across 
international
  borders soared during the last century, climbing from just 176 in 1909 to 
more
  than 23,000 in 1998. Empowered by e-mail and the Internet, environmental
  activists have gradually organized themselves into a range of powerful
  international networks, such as the Climate Action Network, the 
International
  Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, and the Women's Environment 
and
  Development Organization.

      Some forward-looking corporations are helping to chart the path to an
  environmentally sustainable global economy, according to the report. In 
recent
  years, some 10,000 companies worldwide, many from the developing world, 
have
  become certified under the voluntary environmental management guidelines 
forged
  by the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization, a 
worldwide
  federation of national standards-setting bodies.

      Private investors are also increasingly active on environmental 
issues. In
  1999, concerned investors introduced 54 shareholder resolutions related to
  environmental issues. In one particularly successful case, Home Depot 
announced
  a commitment to purchasing certified timber just three months after 12 
percent
  of its shareholders asked the company to stop selling wood from old-growth
  forests.

      In Vanishing Borders, French finds that innovative partnerships are 
being
  forged between activist groups, businesses and international institutions,
  including several independent eco-labeling initiatives that aim to bring
  consumer pressure to bear on behalf of environmental change. For example, 
the
  Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was established in 1993 to set standards 
for
  sustainable forest production through a cooperative process involving 
timber
  traders and retailers as well as environmental organizations and forest
  dwellers. As of late 1999, FSC-accredited bodies had certified some 17 
million
  hectares of forest in 30 countries, up from only 1 million hectares in 
late
  1995.

      Despite these encouraging developments, environmental destruction 
continues
  to outpace society's collective response. "Over the course of the 
twentieth
  century, the global economy stretched the planet to its limits," said 
French.
  "The time is now ripe to forge the international policies and institutions
  needed to ensure that the world economy of the 21st century meets peoples'
  aspirations for a better future without destroying the natural fabric that
  underpins life itself."
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