I. State of the Global Environment and Key Challenges

1. Increasingly Serious Global Environmental Issues

A sound environment abundant with natural blessings is the creation of the interactions, since time immemorial, among numerous habitats and natural systems on the earth. These blessings of the environment are for all generations, and thus should not be consumed solely by the present generation but should be managed in such a way as to preserve them for future generations as well. However, the environmental impacts of human activities have increased to a point that exceeds the limits that the global environment can manage, and the global ecosystem is losing its intricate balance. Furthermore, in the context of the population growth and economic development in developing countries, there is the risk that environmental impacts will increase dramatically. If this situation continues, ecosystems could be further degraded on a global scale. Various sustainable development issues that the world is facing, such as water shortages, food crises, and poverty, could become much more severe, while the sustainability of our society and the foundations for the existence of humanity could be threatened. Global environmental issues are closely intertwined with issues of human security and can be called the most difficult challenges facing humanity.

1. (1)The Threat of Climate Change
   

In view of the enormity and seriousness of the predicted impact of climate change, we can conclude that it is the most critical environmental issue, having the potential to undermine the very foundation of human existence. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that climate change is indisputable and that the increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions is almost certainly the cause of climate change . The current emissions of greenhouse gases worldwide are more than double the volume that the nature can absorb. If we continue on our current course, greenhouse gas emissions are expected to increase continuously over the next several decades. A society that manages to balance environmental conservation and economic development on a global scale may see an increase of approximately 1.8oC (1.1 to 2.9oC) in the earth’s average temperature at the end of the century as compared to the period 1980 to 1999. A society that relies mainly on fossil-fuel energy, on the other hand, is expected to see a rise of approximately 4.0 oC (2.4 to 6.4 oC) in temperature. In addition to having an impact on ecological systems, climate change may not only lead to occurrences of abnormal weather conditions and drastic shifts in climatic systems, but may also have various compounding adverse effects on our social and economic activities, including further aggravating water shortages that affect millions, disrupting agriculture, increasing the occurrence of infectious diseases, and intensifying disasters. At present, climate change is already having an adverse effect on water resources and fragile ecosystems. With temperature increases in the future, adverse effects of even greater severity are expected to occur in all regions of the world.

2. (2)Threats Resulting from the Unsustainable Use of Natural Resources
   

Carbon dioxide is not the only substance that humankind emits into the environment in massive quantities. While the socio-economic activities of mass production, mass consumption, and mass disposal have given us great comfort and convenience, such activities have also wasted the earth’s finite resources, disrupted its sound material cycle, and exerted a tremendous burden on the earth’s environment. Consequently, these activities raise concerns about the depletion of natural resources, resource constraints due to higher prices, environmental destruction from the stripping of natural resources, environmental pollution resulting from the improper treatment of hazardous wastes, and so on. In particular, the demand for resources and the waste problem are becoming even more acute in developing countries, including the Asian region, which is experiencing remarkable economic growth. A provisional calculation even indicates that the world’s waste will more than double in weight by 2050 as compared to 2000. If humankind continues its socio-economic activities in the same way in the future, we will eventually see a limit in the environment’s capacity to provide resources and to accommodate waste.As a result, the sustainable development of our socio-economy will be hindered.

3. (3)Threats to the Ecosystems
   

Living organisms on the earth have evolved since their first appearance on earth by adapting to and interacting with various environments over a history of approximately 4 billion years. Each organism plays its own role in ecosystems such as forests, rivers, lakes, and coral reefs, exerts influence on other organisms, and helps to balance and shape the global environment over the years. Rich biological diversity means that such balance is maintained, and the natural environment is sound at all ecosystem, species, and genetic levels. Biological diversity is the source of various kinds of benefits for humans, providing drinking water and food as well as mitigating the severe climate, for example. It is also the basis of existence for humankind and, indeed, all life on the earth. Unfortunately, land alteration, environmental pollution, and other human activities have seriously degraded the habitats of living things. As a result, biodiversity has suffered tremendous losses and degradation of ecosystems is taking place at an unprecedented rate. According to IPCC reports, if climate change continues, a rise in temperature of over 1.5oC is highly likely to increase the risk of extinction of approximately 30% of the earth’s species. The situation in Japan now is also critical, with problems including the degradation of the habitats of wildlife, possible extinction of various species, degradation of ecosystems due to insufficient care of satochi-satoyama (community-based semi-natural landscape managed through traditional and sustainable use of natural resources), and disruption of local ecosystems by alien species.

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Increasingly serious global environmental issues

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