United Nations calls for massive consumption cuts

The report is based on contributions from 200 scientists in 50 countries and from 30 environmental institutes. The findings are alarming: two-thirds of the world's population will face water shortages by 2025, land degradation is outstripping agricultural advances, air pollution is at crisis point in many cities, and global warming `now seems inevitable.'

Despite this, recent history shows that environmental problems can be tackled effectively if the will exists. The Montreal Protocol has saved the ozone layer, voluntary action from industry is reducing resource use and waste; deforestation has been reversed in Europe and North America, and air quality has improved in many industrialised cities. Although encouraging, this is still not enough, it says.

The main recommendations of the report are a reduction in `environmentally-damaging subsidies' to encourage more efficient use of resources; improvements in energy conservation measures, and encouraging the adoption of improved production techniques. It also calls for increases in funding for environmental projects: `a main obstacle to successful policy implementation is lack of money,' it says.