In Johannesburg, South Africa, government representatives and nongovernmental leaders from across the globe convened the World Summit on Sustainable Development to discuss the future direction of global development. Delegates to the meeting examined issues including global poverty, women's role in society, protection of the environment and natural resources, and the eruption of the bubbling human population, currently tallying over six billion people and expected to rise to somewhere between nine and eleven billion people by 2050. More people results in more pressure on the already fragile environment and the inevitable destruction of entire ecosystems and a terrible loss of biodiversity. It means more wild animal extinctions and more animal cruelty. Distinguished Harvard Professor and Pulitzer Prize winner E.O. Wilson laments that we treat the environment "with such unnecessary ignorance and recklessness" and notes "When we destroy ecosystems and extinguish species, we degrade the greatest heritage this planet has to offer and thereby threaten our own existence."  Full Story >>

Additional Information

Wildlife Extinction: Homo Sapiens, Both Witnesses and Executioners
by Werner Fornos - AWI Quarterly

It’s the Population
by Lance Olsen - AWI Quarterly

The Livestock Revolution:  Problems for the Environment, Development, Human Healthy and the Animals - CIWF WSSD Workshop with Presentation by Adam M. Roberts

Congressional Action

Resources

The World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002 (official website)
Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26 August-4 September 2002

Global Balance - CNN.com In-Depth Special - up to date articles and resources relating to the WSSD and the Earth.

Human Overpopulation - New AWI educational brochure which takes a close look at the deleterious impact that human overpopulation is having on wild and domestic animals across the globe. (PDF)

Up The River Endeavors - The participants of Up the River Endeavors (URE) have come together to explore and implement unique solutions for the problems facing the Earth and its inhabitants through partnership, cooperation, and skill and resource sharing.