United Nations

Today in class we learned about the United Nations attempt at bringing sustainability into countries around the world through a plan of action called Agenda 21. Originated at the Rio conference in 1992, this plan outlines ways for all levels of government in any country to lesson human impacts on the environment as well as grow sustainably taking into account environmental, social and economical issues. This plan uses a variety of vaguely worded statements that in an ideal world would be taken to heart. Over 178 countries committed to this agenda (Chris thinks no one in the class could name 178 countries, but I could). This agenda had good intentions and could have made a huge global impact. Instead it has fallen to the wayside, overshadowed by the oil crisis and global climate change. Chris said in class that if this agenda was adhered to strictly then maybe some of the climate change issues we are facing today would be far less severe. I agree with that statement, unfortunately, as we have seen with the UN in the past, they have no way of enforcing what people commit to. With every country in a different circumstance and with a different agenda, it seems like it would be impossible to have a global monitoring and enforcing system that would be truly fair.