Environmental Protection

Three aspects need to be considered when discussing environmental protection:
- Environmental problems
- Social problems
- Economic development

It is important that our quality of life is maintained or improved, and it is important that the Earth's biodiversity is maintained (hopefully, becomes even more stable).  For these to occur our attitudes and behaviours must change.

For example:
- the use of renewable resources should be less or equivalent to the regeneration of those resources
- the production of waste should be less than the environment's ability to deal with it
- the use of non-renewable resources should be prudently considered, if possible replacing them with renewable resources

Since the 1970's, experts and politicians have been working towards possible solutions.  The following are some of the important steps that have been taken.

1970 - International Biosphere Program - Man and the Biosphere (UNESCO) (Hungary has been involved since its inception)
1971 - Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (Hungary joined in 1979)
1972 - Creation of "World Heritage Sites" (UNESCO) (Hungary joined in 1985)
1972 - UN Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment
1973 - CITES treaty to protect endangered plants and animals (also known as the Washington Convention) (Hungary joined in 1985)
1979 - Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (also known as the Bonn Convention) (Hungary joined in 1983)
1979 - Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern) (Hungary joined in 1989)
1987 - World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) released the publication "Our Common Future" (also known as the Brundtland Report), which coined the term sustainable development. 
1992 - Rio Conference, also known as the Earth Summit, was a UN conference on sustainable development.  It produced documents on objectives for the 21st century (Agenda 21), programs for sustainable development and forestry principles, as well as legally binding agreements on biodiversity, climate change and desertification.  (Hungary joined in 1995)
1992 - Formation of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development to ensure effective follow-up of the Rio Conference
1997 - Kyoto Protocol is a treaty that commits signing parties to reduce greenhouse gases.  To this day the United States has not signed the treaty and Canada withdrew in 2012.  The European Union has binding targets for CO2 reduction.
2000 - UN Millenium Declaration stated goals regarding human development to be met by 2015.
2001 - European Strategy for Sustainable Development (Göteborg)
2002 - Johannesburg Summit or Earth Summit 2002 was a UN summit on sustainable development, 10 years after Rio, to assess the changes and challenges that had occurred during the decade.

A more complete list of environmental conventions and protocols can be found here.

Sustainable Development: development that can guarantee our present needs without endangering those of future generations.

The UN Millenium Declaration set forth a number of goals regarding sustainable development to be met by 2015.  These included:
Environmental goals:
- to meet the goals of the Kyoto protocol for the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
- to prevent further reduction in the area of natural forests
- to further develop and reach the WHO's standards for air quality
- to decrease soil erosion by half
- to reduce water use
Societal goals:
- to decrease by half the population living in extreme poverty
- to decrease by three-quarters the maternal death rate
- to decrease by two-thirds the death rate of children under age 5
- to have all children complete primary school
- to increase gender equality
- to decrease the spread of AIDS, malaria and other preventable illnesses
Economic goals:
- to include environmental costs in countries' accounting practices
- to end subsidies for the exploitation and use of raw materials and fossil fuels
- to encourage an ethic of self-restraint

The basic tenets of sustainable development do not require us to go with our needs unmet, they simply encourage us to use less matter and energy in meeting those needs.  The theory of sustainable development has had significant effects on the world's economy.  There has been a huge growth in environmentally-friendly consumer behaviour and technologies.  The use of renewable energy sources has increased.  Nonetheless change is slow, since changing the structure of the economic system has negative effects on those whose interests are tied to the present system.  Nonetheless we know that without changes in how we do things, development will become impossible, yet development is absolutely necessary if we are to meet our needs in the future.  So changes must occur.

Environmental Protection is the activity and behaviour of humans that protects a natural or human-created environment for human-induced damage.  Its primary goal is to guarantee the necessary environment to maintain or improve human life and/or health.  Its goal is to reduce or exclude damage/pollution to the environment, as well as the judicious use of natural resources.
Tools of environmental protection include: laws, environmental studies, scientific research and development, organizations, information dissemination, etc

In Hungary, the most important environmental goals are laid out in the National Environmental Protection Program (Nemzeti Környezetvédelmi Program).  It includes sections on the protection of air, water and soil, as well as the reduction in noise and radiation pollution.  The increase in the use of renewable resources is important, as is the reduction in the production of waste, reusing or recycling waste and appropriate waste treatment.