To mark World Environment Day, Monday 5 June, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for more research to clarify and solve the world's environmental crises.
Unsustainable practices remain deeply embedded in the fabric of our daily lives.
We are failing to protect resources and ecosystems. We are failing to invest enough in alternative technologies, especially for energy. There are few tools to assess how developments in one region affect other regions, and whether the dreams and aspirations of one region are compatible with the sustainability of the global commons. Another serious omission is the lack of effort to find out whether new environmental policies and expenditures have the desired results. These knowledge gaps act as a collective blindfold that hides both the road to environmental sustainability and the direction in which we are travelling.