We have been in a planetary emergency for 5 decades.
Five decades ago in Stockholm, the UN reported on the planetary emergency due to human population growth.
“The Stockholm Declaration, which contained 26 principles, placed environmental issues at the forefront of international concerns and marked the start of a dialogue between industrialized and developing countries on the link between economic growth, the pollution of the air, water, and oceans and the well-being of people around the world. “
Source: UN Nations.
To counteract the negative effects of human activity, several instruments have been put forward. Among them:
The United Nations Agenda 2030 is a call to reduce emissions by 45% by 2030, with which institutions such as the International Maritime Organization proposed regulatory and strategic measures since 2008 for maritime transport to reach the goal of 70% in emissions reduction by 2050. To this end, energy efficiency management plans have been consolidated and the implementation of the energy efficiency index is being promoted to achieve the goal. In this sense, the maritime and port sector, as well as maritime and port authorities must join this effort to ensure a sector that contributes to the carbon neutral goal, water care, ocean conservation and reduction of the emission of polluting elements, are part of this initiative.
SDG 6 focuses on water and its objectives include “By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing the release of chemicals and hazardous materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater, and significantly increasing recycling and safe reuse globally”.
Human activity pollutes water, using that water makes it scarce and expensive. Of the water withdrawn, 70% is used for agriculture. As it has to be cleaned, the cost of food increases, then, bad practices and the over cost of production are part of the problem of hunger of more than 800 million people on the planet. And being almost 8000 million human beings and not making a rational use of resources means that we pollute water sources and the cycle starts again.
It is necessary to join forces to achieve the proper management of water resources. It is necessary to ensure the provision of goods and services that reduce hunger in the population and promote actions to improve the health of ecosystems and water resources. Therefore, we must adopt good agricultural practices approaches to reduce the load of fertilizers and pollutants, reduce the use of plastics, and manage waste to prevent 400 million tons of chemical pollutants from being deposited in water.
We must measure what we do in order to know the current status and the positive or negative impact of the actions we take. From Fregata Space we contribute with technological solutions for monitoring and issuing alerts of water and air quality indicator variables. Because we believe in the power of technology for a sustainable world.
