DLESE description of Earth Day 2005: State of the Earth's Ecosystems / Paper or Plastic?

These two radio broadcasts discuss ecosystem assessment and our over-packaged world. The ecosystem assessment broadcast discusses two reports on Earth ecosystems: the United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Millennium Project Task Force on Sustainability report. Researchers found that of the 24 ecosystem services they looked at (items such as capture fisheries, water supply, waste treatment and detoxification, regulation of erosion, and aesthetic enjoyment), 15 of the services were being degraded or used unsustainably. The broadcast discusses the combination of environmental sustainability and economic development needed; the great number of people with a need for freshwater resources such as clean drinking water; World Bank goals involving poverty and the environment; tropical forest land conversion and carbon emission; water-level control of the Yellow River in China; and recommendations from the reports for action towards environmental sustainability. The ecosystems assessment broadcast is 30 minutes in length. The over-packaging broadcast discusses how we can learn to live with less packaging. There is discussion about bringing your own cloth bags and cups to be filled at stores; that only small percentages of plastic actually get recycled; living more as a villager and drinking your own water; and becoming zero waste communities. The overpackaging broadcast is 17 minutes in length.