Al Gore Back in the Spotlight with 'New Deal for Nature'
United Nations has joined forces with former Vice President Al Gore to promote a sweeping environmental agenda that seems all too familiar: a “New Deal For Nature.”
The U.N. is calling for a “New Deal For Nature” ahead of a biodiversity summit next year where some sort of global compact is expected to be agreed to, that is, if environmentalists get their wish.
This newest New Deal got a boost at the World Economic Forum (WEF) underway in Davos, Switzerland at a dinner co-hosted with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The dinner featured a rousing speech by Gore as guests ate their meals.
“I refuse to believe that we are the generation who willingly and passively allowed the destruction of the world on our watch! Who is with me?” Gore said at the Thursday evening dinner.
Environmentalists with Conservation International say such a New Deal is “essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement” to fight global warming.
At its heart, however, this New Deal is a call back to warnings that underpinned “population bomb” fears, that humanity was sucking up Earth’s natural resources faster than they could be replenished.
Those warnings fell flat as global population, food production and indicators of human and environment health improved despite predictions of ecological collapse. However, the U.N. thinks now is the time to focus on halting what it sees as the coming ecological collapse.
“We use more ecological resources and services each year than nature can regenerate,” the U.N. Environment Program tweeted Friday. “This is a global crisis, calling for an ambitious agenda for action across all sectors of society.”
We use more ecological resources and services each year than nature can regenerate.
This is a global crisis, calling for an ambitious agenda for action across all sectors of society.
We need a #NewDealForNature. https://t.co/CljUYi6RIK pic.twitter.com/v8hSM9ogYm
— UN Environment (@UNEnvironment) January 25, 2019
“New Deal For Nature” proponents are clearly trying to capitalize on the reported popularity on the left of the so-called “Green New Deal” being pushed by New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and U.S.-based environmental activists.
The Voice for the Planet initiative was also launched at this year’s WEF to push the “New Deal For Nature,” which is a partnership of environmentalists, including Gore’s Climate Reality Project group and U.N. agencies. The initiative was launched during a WEF panel Tuesday with Gore, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and businessman Anand Mahindra.
According to environmentalists, the U.N.’s Convention on Biological Diversity in November laid the groundwork for a “New Deal for Nature and People” when diplomats meet in Beijing, China next year.
WWF said the U.N. meeting took “a vital step to ramp up global efforts to halt today’s unprecedented and dangerous biodiversity loss,” according to a November release. However, the group also said most countries were unlikely to meet biodiversity targets for 2020.
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