Unius

they knew over 50 years ago

As conformation of the complete unwillingness or incompetence or impotence of governments to respond to the evironmental crisis, read through the following list of agreed principles (pledges) regarding the environment, made as a declaration following the United Nations Conference held in Stockholm in 1972 – well over half a century ago!

UN Environmental Pledges 1972

  1. Human rights must be asserted, apartheid and colonialism condemned 
  2. Natural resources must be safeguarded
  3. The Earth’s capacity to produce renewable resources must be maintained
  4. Wildlife must be safeguarded
  5. Non-renewable resources must be shared and not exhausted
  6. Pollution must not exceed the environment’s capacity to clean itself
  7. Damaging oceanic pollution must be prevented
  8. Development is needed to improve the environment
  9. Developing countries therefore need assistance
  10. Developing countries need reasonable prices for exports to carry out environmental management
  11. Environment policy must not hamper development
  12. Developing countries need money to develop environmental safeguards
  13. Integrated development planning is needed
  14. Rational planning should resolve conflicts between environment and development
  15. Human settlements must be planned to eliminate environmental problems
  16. Governments should plan their own appropriate population policies
  17. National institutions must plan development of states’ natural resources
  18. Science and technology must be used to improve the environment
  19. Environmental education is essential
  20. Environmental research must be promoted, particularly in developing countries
  21. States may exploit their resources as they wish but must not endanger others
  22. Compensation is due to states thus endangered
  23. Each nation must establish its own standards
  24. There must be cooperation on international issues
  25. International organisations should help to improve the environment
  26. Weapons of mass destruction must be eliminated

…and they did get a bone china plate as a souvenir.

THIS BONE CHINA PLATE…IS MADE IN CONNECTION WITH THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON THE HUMAN ENVIRONMENT HELD IN STOCKHOLM 5-16 JUNE 1972 WITH THE AIM TO IDENTIFY THE MOST URGENT ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS AND OBTAIN AGREEMENT ON ACTIONS TO DEAL WITH THEM.

Since then, every environmental issue and human crisis has worsened exponentially, and yet the supposed grown ups have convened every year to have their photos taken under the COP banner, having achieved absolutely nothing in real terms other than think themselves important.

We do not need leaders, they’re just puppets to the system, who flap around in a swamp of confusion, trying to say things that will pacify our own awareness that something’s dreadfully wrong with the world. We should stop asking politicians to do the right thing, because they are incompetent, and clearly do not care about anything but their own self aggrandisement.

United Nations Pledge No. 26, agreed in 1972, was to eliminate weapons of mass destruction. The super powers are now planning on weaponising space. If there are any well-meaning politicians out there, will you please do the decent thing and stop supporting this outrageous system.

reality check

Do you really think that we, as citizens, can effect change on the global stage? The largest demonstration ever was a visceral response to the decision of the Israeli Prime Minister to launch a military assault on Gaza. Millions of people right across the world marched in opposition to Israel’s actions against the Palestinians, and despite that unprecedented reaction the subsequent murder of tens of thousands of innocent lives and the displacement of a whole population went ahead unimpeded. It’s also worth noting that the majority of western politicians were anything but condemning of such excessive aggression, therefore implicitly condoning war as a justifiable course of action. 

A similar public outrage was levelled at Russia’s President following the invasion of Ukraine, but notably in this case, western politicians were distinctly critical of his actions. War, and the devastating effect it has on so many people, only seems to matter to politicians when it is in their own ‘professional’ interest to do so. 

And we naively think that democracy represents the voices of the people. We, the people, are not here to question the authorities, our job is to focus on sport and reality TV, waste our time on social media and other undemanding and trivial distractions, become desensitised to violence, and see overindulgence as an aspiration, meanwhile they suffocate the life out of our future.

War is unnatural. We evolved to be compassionate and generous, but it is the deliberate social programming we undergo that reduces us to accepting violence as an expression of being human. We are reduced to that because the ruling elite profit from war – it’s as simple as that.

Dec 2023

Back to Part 2
Next Article