In 1972, in Stockholm, the United Nations organized the first world conference on the environment. Even then, it was becoming clear that the way we were developing our economy was not without consequences for our planet. The well-being of people around the world was increasingly affected by the depletion of natural resources, the pollution of air, soil and water, and the general degradation of the natural world.
On the very first page of the convention that resulted from this conference, it was therefore declared: “We are at a moment in history when we must direct our actions worldwide with greater regard to their impact on the environment.”
Since then, many more international meetings have been held on the subject, and the environmental issue has become far more central than it was at the time. However, despite these positive developments, the problem is still far from resolved, and has even worsened on several fronts.
To demonstrate this, in 2009, an international team of 26 scientists drew up the concept of planetary limits: 9 processes that must not cross a certain threshold or the stability of the biosphere will be jeopardized.
These 9 limits are: climate change; biodiversity erosion; land use change; freshwater use; disruption of the biochemical nitrogen and phosphorus cycles; ocean acidification; atmospheric concentration of aerosols; ozone depletion and chemical pollution by new entities.
Of the 8 of the 9 limits that have already been quantified by the scientific community, 6 have already been exceeded.
Fortunately, the solutions for reducing exceedances of each of these limits are known, numerous and, in many cases, relatively “simple” to implement.
For example, in many regions, the disruption of biochemical nitrogen and phosphorus cycles is due to the inappropriate use of (often synthetic) fertilizers to fertilize crops. In extreme cases, this can lead to eutrophication, i.e. the proliferation of sometimes toxic algae in lakes, rivers and coastal areas.
In some cases, raising farmers’ awareness of this problem, coupled with the introduction of agro-ecological practices to fertilize crops by reducing the use of external fertilizers, can solve the problem.
The same goes for many of the other planetary limits, in particular “new entities introduced into the environment” (plastics and other waste), as well as the fight against climate change.
The drastic and undeniable deterioration in the state of the planet has prompted us to review our areas of intervention in 2022, and to put our strengths there too from now on.
