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have shaped and directed the development of the world in the last decade
are related to peace and security.
Environmental crisis
By the middle of the last century, the most well-known negative impacts
and problems in relationship to nature and the environment were local.
Since then, the degree of changes in respect to the environment increased
dramatically with many problems, such as the decline of biodiversity,
deforestation on a large scale, and increased pollution of water resources,
all of which further led to the inevitable globalization of these challenges.
If we take into account the fact that we have exponential population
growth from 1 billion in 1820 to 2 billion in 1930, 3 billion in 1960, 4
billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1987, 6 billion in 1999, up to 7 billion in 2012,
everything becomes much more serious and the consequences for the
environment more dramatic. Moreover, according to estimates, by 2050
there will be more than 9 billion people in the world.^16 In particular,
climate changes are already part of our everyday life. The arctic ice cap
has been reduced by about 3% per year since 1978. Eleven of the hottest
years from 1850 until now have occurred in the last twenty years, and the
last decade was the warmest one ever recorded. Global climate changes
are indicated as a threat to the future of humanity exceeding global
terrorism and the maximum possible decline of world markets.^17 Climate
changes and other environmental disturbances induced by human beings
are directly related to the expansion of energy-intensive development. As
the UNDP has recently pointed out, a standard air conditioner in Florida
emits more carbon dioxide in one year than the average person in
Cambodia or Afghanistan during the entire life. Also, the population of
New York City produces a larger amount of carbon dioxide than the 766
million people living in the 50 least developed countries.^18 While countries
such as China and India increase their production of carbon dioxide
emissions per capita to dangerous levels (especially considering the size of
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/mdgoverview
(^16) Jones and Dewing, Futureagenda – The World in 2020, 5; The World Factbook
(^17) See: King, “Climate Change Science: Adapt, Mitigate, or Ignore?” 177; Stern
and Tubiana, “A Progressive Global Deal on Climate Change.“
(^18) UNDP, Human Development Report 2007/2008, 43-44.