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Mother Earth’s grievous ills since’72

By Staff Correspondent
The world goes to Rio de Janeiro, capital of Brazil, next Wednesday for Its largest summit meeting ever held
Tens of thousands of diplomats. scientists, ecologists, theorists. femtnlsU. journalists and others will join leaders from 170 countries to discuss the perils of Mother Planet In ’bis Save the Earth summit.
Here are some pressing Ills afflicting the planet since the first Earth Summit held In Stockholm 20 years ago:
— The world has lost 500 million acres of trees since
1972. an area roughly one-third the size of the contlnen tai US.
— The world's farmers since 1972 have lost nearly 500 million tons of topsoil, an amount equal to the tillable soil coverage of India and France combined.
— Man made factors will wipe out 10% to 20% of the earth s estimated 10 million species by the year 2020. Al least 50 per cent of thoae species live tn tropical rain
_ |n the past decade tropi
cal-forest area has shrunk from 4.7 to 4.2 billion acres.
— In the past 20 years as many as one million species have vanished from the world » tropical forests.
— In the past decade, levels of stratospheric ozone, which protects living things from harmful ultraviolet radiation, have declined 4% to 8% tn the northern and southern he ml
— 70% to 80% of all maritime pollution is caused by sediment and contaminants that flow Into the sea* from land-based sources —topsoil, fertilizers, pesticides and all milliners of industrial wastes.
— The coral reefs that fringe Asia, Australia and the Caribbean and provide a home lo many of the world's fish species arc already starting to die.
— The world needs to spend at least 125 billion dol iars annually to protect natural resources and clean up pollution. The affluent North gencr ales 10 times as much carbon dioxide from energy use as Its counterparts in the impover ished South.
Meanwhile, a five week preparatory meeting In New York City that ended last month produced 24 million pages of documents for con sideration at the June 3-14 summit.
This report is compiled from an article published by Time magazine this week as a curtain-raiser on the Rio Summit.
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