In 2006, Davis Guggenheim and Al Gore released a movie called "An inconventient Truth: Global Warming", and this movie basically talks about the risks associated with development. In 2007, they were honored with the Noble Peace award by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on anti-government climate change).
A new approach to development under the name Sustainable Development emerged in the 1980s seeking to strike a balance between economic growth, social justice and environmental protection. The Brundtland Report brought out in1987 puts across the principle of intergenerational solidarity. The report deals with sustainable development and the change of politics needed to achieve that.
The notion or the idea of risks or hazards is not new to our society (Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history which killed about one third of Europe's population between 1348 and 1350). But these environmental hazards are still perceived as a divine punishment in many parts of the world (for e.g., Bali).
But in an industrializing society, the risks are redefined and they become more endogenous (For e.g.: gas explosions like Courriere in 1906).
It was only after being victims of such cruel accidents, that the concept of security was born. This principle of security was applied both in private sectors (insurance, risk pooling) and public systems (Bismarck, Beveridge system).
During the 70s and the 80s, the idea that technological development could help in overcoming the natural risks and hazards was considered wrong, but industrial accidents started increasing.
[...] Some countries have not signed: the US (Clinton had signed, but the change of presidency and the rejection by the Congress blocked the process), and later when Bush became the President, he said that American lifestyle is not negotiable, same goes with Australia. As for Japan, though it has signed the Kyoto Protocol, it has not signed the moratorium to restrict fishing of bluefin tunas and whales). In any event, the summit gives rise to the notion of geopolitical environment. [...]
[...] This book has widely helped in launching the environmental movement and this book has inspired widespread public concerns about pesticides and pollution of the environment Rene Dumont was an environmental politician who stood for the Presidential elections in 1974. He was an ecologist and he wrote Utopia or Death which mainly speaks about how climate change is irrversible. Around the same time many associations like Greenpeace were established. Their goal is to “ensure the ability of the earth to nurture life in all its diversity" and focus their work on world wide issues such as global warming, deforestation, overfishing, commercial whaling and anti- nuclear issues. [...]
[...] Sweden and Finland are the only two countries that accept environmental refugees. The ecological footprint developed by a Canadian researcher, William Rees, is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. Based on development of countries, he studied all damages and hazards caused to the environment. This statistical component was taken by the UN and by NGOs (including WWF). It is calculated by adding the surfaces of each state needed to produce goods and services to meet the need, which is in turn is added to the amount of land required to absorb wastes. [...]
[...] We can take the example of a Burkinabe and a Colombian environmental footprint in line with sustainable development and their living conditions from a statistical point of view (where 2/10 children die before age 5 due to excessive poverty). III.The saved environment? "Thing Global, Act Local". A.The decisive action of States and Governments 1987: The Montreal Protocol in 1987, according to scientists is the only one that really worked (against CFCs to avoid depletion of the ozone layer). 1997: Kyoto was to limit the discharge of CO2. [...]
[...] New Environmental Global Risks Risk Society a book written by Ulrich Beck, a German sociologist who talks about global risks. The author is not concerned about the risks from a quantitative point of view, but from a "qualitative" point of view. The risks are perceived differently today. The dangers highlighted by Beck have taken on new forms and assumed even greater significance. For instance, Ulrich Beck details the new world order where terrorism and global climate change haunt our lives and engender some powerful new risks and new modes of politics, and thus remarks by telling that it's not worth living in a wealthy society if led in fear. [...]
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