Excerpt from Jersey Evening Post
New Perspectives offers hope, however, indicating belief that the right economic model in the Island can help address these problems.
‘The most commonly used definition of sustainability derives from the Brundtland Commission in 1987,’ the report says.
‘Understanding how to meet the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations to meet their own needs.
‘Whilst in 1987 there was a plethora of scientific understanding that changing planetary systems would be detrimental to human life on Earth, the threat seemed more distant.’
The report says that Jersey must play its part in tackling environmental issues, not just for moral reasons but also because it will not be immune to its dangers.
‘Global food supply insecurity, infectious disease outbreaks, mass migration from collapse of freshwater access, are just a few of the consequences of tipping the planet out of balance,’ it says.
‘There is a temptation to say, but we, Jersey, are a small jurisdiction, with little contribution to global failures of policy, increasing emissions or depleting biodiversity.
‘However, we will be impacted by the changes under way. Sea-level rise is a true threat and the Jersey Sea Level Rise report (2017) detailed the likely scenarios we face.
‘Defences will be overtopped and coastal businesses and homes threatened without interventions (Jersey Shoreline Management Plan, 2020).
‘Storm systems globally are changing, becoming more frequent and of greater magnitude. As an island nation our connectivity to the UK and the continent is crucial for resource supplies, whether by boat or plane.
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