The World Summit on Sustainable Development WSSD

1
The World Summit on Sustainable Development WSSD

• The Meaning of
• Sustainable Development
• Roger Dittmann
• President, U.S. Federation of Scholars and
  Scientists
• U.S. Affiliate of the World Federation of
  Scientific Workers
• UN Representative of the WFSW
• Professor of Physics Emeritus
• California State University
• Fullerton, CA 92834-6866
• RDittmann_at_Fullerton.edu

2
The Road to Rio10

• Developing Countries Ministerial Conference
• Beijing June 1991
• ICUNP Victoria British Columbia, February 1992
• The Road to Brazil
  92
• UN Conference on Environment and Development
• UNCED Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992
• UN Conference on Population and Development
• ICPD Cairo, Egypt , 5-13 September 1994
• UN World Summit on Sustainable Development
• WSSD Rio 10 Johannesburg 26 August - 4
  September 2002

3
Population

• No matter what your cause, its a lost cause
  without population control.Elaine Stansfield
• The rich get richthe poor get childrenPop
  song from the 30s

4
The Correlation

• Economic Development Low Birth Rates
• coupled with womens liberation, social
  security, and child labor laws
• Cases-in-Point
• Spain.
• 99 Roman Catholic
• gt44 Reduction/Generation (.55 female
  children/woman)
• Italy
• Home of the Vatican
• gt42 Reduction/Generation (.427 female
  children/woman)

5
The Dilemma

• Direct family planning measures may be taken, but
  encounter stiff opposition.
• Development is the obvious solution, but
• The Environment cannot sustain historical
  patterns of development, therefore
• It must be environmentally tolerable,
  sustainable development.

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The Three official Components of Sustainable
Development

• economic development
• social development
• environmental protection

WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PLAN OF
IMPLEMENTATION Advance unedited text 5 September
2002
7
Sustainable Development

• Official Definition "development that meets the
  needs of the present without compromising the
  ability of future generations to meet their own
  needs."
• World Commission on Environment and Development
  (the Brundtland Commission), 1987 emphasis
  added.

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My Definition

• Economic and other development that leads to
  reduction in population toward an optimum level
  for maximization of the quality of life.

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Sustainable Environment

• The United Nations Framework Convention on
  Climate Change

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Sustainable Population

• ...growing global population
• .. consistent with ...The United Nations
  International Conference on Population and
  Development 5-13 September 1994, Cairo, Egypt.
  
• WSSD PLAN OF IMPLEMENTATION

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Sustainable Population

• population policies and programmes to support
  the objectives and actions agreed upon in Agenda
  21
• The United Nations International Conference on
  Population and Development (ICPD) 5-13 September
  1994, Cairo, Egypt.

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MULTILATERAL TREATIES RELATING TO SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT UN List

• Human Rights
• Penal Matters None yet in force
• Ocean Affairs None yet in force
• Environment
• No mention of any that are directly related to
  population.

13
Sustainable Development

• Nature Bats Last
• The Big Die Off has begun.

14
Prognosis

• Rising global temperature and greenhouse gases.
• Shrinking amount of cropland per person.
• Decline in amount of wheat and rice/person.
• Shrinking area of tropical moist forests.
• Decreasing oceanic fish harvest per person.
• Increasing number of people dying of AIDS.
• Declining human sperm count.
• Growing gap between rich and poor
• Reduced biodiversity
• Ehrich and Schneider

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Prognosis

• Slowing, but continuing growth, already far
  beyond what is estimated to be the earths
  maximum carrying capacity.
• Continuing unsustainable economic growth.

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Population Focus

• Focus on
• maximum carrying capacity to the neglect of
  optimization.

17
Population Conclusion

• Need for
• sustainable development,
• i.e., for
• environmentally benign development that
• reduces the birth rate.

18
Population Progress

• Inadequate, spotty, national.
• Global attention is focused on other, more
  immediate issues.
• U.S. government obstructionism.
• Here religious fundamentalism is a problem.