Today, June 5, is celebrated World Environment Day established since 1972 during the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. Despite the great progress which represented the Stockholm Conference, this date can not be celebrated due to the degradation of the environment and the threat of climate change that could jeopardize the very survival of humanity.

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NOTHING TO CELEBRATE ON WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL DAY
Fernando Alcoforado*
Today, June 5, is celebrated World Environment Day established since 1972 during the
United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. That date, which
was chosen to coincide with the realization of this conference, has as its main objective
to draw the attention of all spheres of the world population to the environmental
problems and to the importance of the preservation of natural resources, which until
then were considered, by many, inexhaustible. At this conference, which became known
as the Stockholm Conference, a change in the way of seeing and addressing
environmental issues around the world began, as well as establishing principles to guide
environmental policy around the globe. Despite the great progress made by the
Stockholm Conference, this date cannot be celebrated due to the degradation of the
environment and the threat of climate change that could jeopardize the very survival of
humanity.
The degradation of the environment results from the fact that planet Earth faces the
highest extinction rate since we lost the dinosaurs more than 60 million years ago
thanks to the predatory actions promoted from the 1st Industrial Revolution in the 17th
century to the present. Deforestation, unsustainable agriculture, pollution and use of
pesticides are some of the human causes of biodiversity decline. Since 1970, 40% of
marine animals have disappeared and insect populations in some parts of the world and
freshwater animals have declined by 75%. It is estimated that humans have negatively
impacted 83% of the terrestrial surface, from ecosystems to animal species.
In the age in which we live, humanity also faces the threat posed by global warming,
which tends to produce catastrophic climatic changes throughout the planet with serious
repercussions on economic activities and the worsening of humanity's social problems.
This threat tends to produce a real crisis of humanity that makes it imperative to build a
new society that acts in a sustainable, interdependent and rational way with common
objectives in each country and on a planetary level without which it can be placed in
check the survival of humans and life on the planet. If we do not act now to build a
sustainable society, the extinction of animals and human beings themselves can be the
great legacy of humanity.
The new society to be built would have to be sustainable from the economic, social and
environmental point of view. The concept of sustainability has become a key element in
the global movement, crucial to finding workable solutions to solve the world's biggest
problems. Global sustainability requires that the world population stabilize to a
maximum of eight billion people, sustainable economies are not driven by fossil fuels,
but by solar energy and its many direct and indirect forms (solar light for heating and
photovoltaic electricity, energy wind, hydroelectricity, and so on), nuclear power will
not be longer used due to its long list of economic, social and environmental
disadvantages and risks, energy production will be more decentralized and therefore less
vulnerable to cuts or blackouts and a much more efficient sustainable energy system
will be used.
In a sustainable society, the transport system will be more efficient and less polluting
than it is today. People will have to live much closer to their workplaces and will move
by highly developed bus and rail transport systems, there will be fewer private cars,
bicycles will be an important vehicle in the sustainable transport system, recycling will

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be the main source of raw materials in sustainable industries, and product design will
focus on durability and repeated use rather than the short and disposable life of
products. What is desirable will be a mindset based on recycling ethics when recycling
companies will take the place of current urban cleaning and disposal companies,
reducing the amount of waste by at least two-thirds.
In a sustainable society there will be a need for a restored and stabilized biological base,
land use will have to follow the basic principles of biological stability (nutrient
retention, carbon balance, soil protection, water conservation and preservation of
species diversity), rural areas will have greater diversity than currently with balanced
land management, where there will be crop rotation and species cultivation, there will
be no wasted crops, tropical forests will be conserved, there will be no deforestation to
obtain timber and other products, millions of hectares of new trees will be planted,
efforts to halt desertification will transform degraded areas into productive land, the
exhaustive use of pasture will be eliminated, as will the food chain of affluent societies,
to include less meat and more grains and vegetables.
Current value systems that emphasize quantity, expansion, competition and domination
will give way to quality, conservation, cooperation and solidarity among human beings
in the new society to be built. The decisive feature of a sustainable economy will be the
rejection of the blind pursuit of economic growth, the gross domestic product will be
recognized as a failed indicator of economic and social progress, economic and social as
well as technological changes will be measured by its contribution to sustainability,
military budgets will be a small fraction of what they are today, governments will invest
in a strengthened United Nations peacekeeping organization instead of keeping
expensive and polluting defense institutions, nations will decentralize power and
decision making within their own borders while at the same time establishing an
unprecedented degree of cooperation and coordination at the international level to
address global problems.
It is in defense of life on planet Earth that it becomes imperative to establish a
sustainable society in each country and in the world to avoid that the existence of living
beings and of humanity itself is put in check. The new sustainable society at the global
level should be able to regulate international relations based on a Planetary Social
Contract aimed at promoting sustainable development for the benefit of all human
beings. This Planetary Social Contract should result from the will of the UN General
Assembly that would constitute the new World Parliament that would elect a World
Government representative of the will of all the peoples of the world. With a World
Government, it will be possible not only to order the global economy, to fight the war
and end the bloodbath that has characterized the history of humanity, but also to avoid
the depletion of the planet's natural resources and the catastrophic climate change that
threat to life on the planet.
On World Environment Day, humanity needs to be aware of the need to build a
sustainable society in defense of life on our planet.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 79, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System,
member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional
Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of
strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is the author of
14 books addressing issues such as Globalization and Development, Brazilian Economy, Global Warming

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and Climate Change, The Factors that Condition Economic and Social Development, Energy in the world
and The Great Scientific, Economic, and Social Revolutions that Changed the World.