There was a time when the region’s species were able to travel across a continental land mass covered with forests, an ocean of vegetation. Across the length and breadth of the Americas these forests formed a massive chain of eco systems which, ever since the emergence of the Central American Isthmus, enabled the region’s emblematic species to roam between the two continents. However, little by little the giants of the forest began to disappear. Fewer and fewer links were left in what used to be a fascinating biological bridge, and more of the species that were indicative of the planet’s health disappeared from sight as they passed into extinction. Today this situation has been made even worse because of the disasters caused by climate change and now thousands of species are facing extinction.
Data on this ecological holocaust brought about by mankind’s bad habits are endless and the situation gets worse every year, as revealed by the GEO 4 report produced by the United Nations Environment Program (PNUMA) in 2007. The results of x ray tomography carried out by experts on the sick body of our continent reveal a disturbing diagnosis. Ricardo Sánchez, PNUMA regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean presents GEO 4’s scientific evidence. The scientific report updates information developed by the United Nations and confirms that climate change is resulting in increasing temperatures, rising sea levels and more extreme natural phenomena at greater frequencies.
-“Unfortunately our region has experienced a combination of extreme events that, acting on a very vulnerable natural environment, has produced disasters that have had an extraordinary impact. We can observe what happened in Tabasco and Chiapas in Mexico; and more than 30% of the landmass of the Dominican Republic was flooded following a tropical depression; look at the effects on Haiti and the eastern side of Cuba, where the economic losses of these events are estimated at more than $500million; looking further south, we are reminded of the extraordinary floods experienced in Uruguay in the month of May and what happened in some parts of Argentina; forest fires in Paraguay were also the results of climate change acting on the environment. Looked at from many different points of view, we must conclude that climate change is a fact, and these disasters are proof of that” – says Ricardo Sánchez during his presentation of the report in Panama’s City of Knowledge.
In addition to these catastrophes we are seeing glacial thawing and the desertification of the Amazonian rain forests. While consumption rises and there is no reduction in emissions of green house gases, global warming will increase; as a result we will see more areas stripped of ice in the region. Ricardo Sánchez continues with his warning: “Changes in the Amazon region will produce changes not just across the whole of South America but on a global level as well. It is therefore of primary importance to have concerted strategies for the sustainable management of the Amazon. Significant efforts have been carried out in Brazil to try and reduce the waves of deforestation, with some positive results, but the Amazon is under lot of pressure and experiencing high levels of de-forestation.”
This is why the UNEP has successfully implemented the “Plant for the Planet” campaign, with the objective of reaching the dream of one thousand million trees across the world. Now these millions of baby trees will need help – our help - to survive to maturity, so they can become producers of water, purifiers of air and natural air conditioners in the battle to combat the heat and desertification that threatens us. |
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