19/01/2006
- 'Ecosystems and Well-Being: Scenarios' a new report, will
be released in Washington today. A sub-report of the Millennium
Assessment (MA), it looks at potential global developments
and their impacts on ecosystems by 2050. The report considers
the knock-on effect of these impacts for human health. The
EEA was heavily involved in writing the report as part of
its ongoing work in the field of scenarios. Scientists involved
in the report were recently awarded the Zayed International
Prize for the Environment.
Day-to-day policy making usually addresses the immediate or
short term needs of a society. By building future scenarios
based on data in the Millennium Assessment, the authors of
the report hope to encourage longer term environmentally sensitive
planning from governments around the globe. The Millennium
Assessment (MA)
The product of a 4-year global research initiative involving
over 1,300 scientists, the MA was sanctioned by Kofi Annan,
Secretary-General of the United Nations and 180 governments.
Although global environmental forecasts have been done
before, the MA represents the first study to look at how
the health of the environment contributes to human well-being
and quality of life, and how policy decisions we make today
will shape the world of tomorrow.
The scientists involved in the Millennium Assessment report
were awarded the prestigious Zayed International Prize for
the Environment worth $300,000 for Scientific and Technological
Achievement. The jury described it as a "landmark study"
which "demonstrates that the degradation of ecosystems
is progressing at an alarming and unsustainable rate".
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