We asked our youth contributors to list their top 10 positive emerging trends and top 10 negative ones. We also asked some experts their
opinion. Here are the results. What would you add?
Top 10 positive emerging trends
Increased recycling
More reforestation
Greater animal protection
More use of solar energy
Water conservation
Higher environmental awareness
More measures against pollution
More power to NGOs
More natural food products
More protection of rainforests
Top 10 negative emerging trends
Increased pollution
More deforestation
Intensified hunting of animals
More air pollution
Widening ozone hole
Worse water pollution
Water scarcity
More toxic waste
Over-population
Increased amounts of rubbish
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Sidiono Ra, Indonesia
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 Inside every big issue lurk hundreds of little issues that may, in the end, emerge and do more damage to the environment than the big one. In climate change, it is small issues like El Niño that do the damage. Marie Curie thought she had made a great discovery with radium but she could not foresee that radiation sickness would kill her. No one knows what will emerge.
Jukka Uosukainen,
Deputy Director, International Affairs,
Ministry of the Environment, Finland
"We have to make a decision about the use of nuclear power. Can we run the risk of more accidents, like Chernobyl, devastating the
environment." Would you like to see a world without nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants at the end of your life?
Julia Ivanchenka, Ukraine
"Dumping rubbish anywhere,
anyhow, has become a habit in African cities today." We are running out of places to dump our garbage. How can we force our generation to
re-use, recycle and repair their
possessions to achieve the most important goal which is to reduce the amount of garbage they generate?
Jennifer Chanda, Zambia
The most critical issue we shall be dealing with in the next century is precisely the same one that we failed to deal with in this one: human greed. As long as we sanctify greed as a noble human motive, we cannot overcome hunger, poverty and oppression or redress the consequences of our own remorseless drive to exploit for our own good the environment and
life-style of other people's cultures.
John le Carré, Author, England, UK
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