23/04/03

The state of the planet

By: Virginia Gewin

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>The state of the planet</h1>
<h4>By: Virginia Gewin</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><TABLE align=right></p>
<p><TR><br />
<TD class=tabletext><IMG height=90 src="http://c96265.r65.cf3.rackcdn.com/2002may_earth2.jpg" width=110></TD></TR></TABLE>The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) is a US$21 million, four-year effort to give the Earth a comprehensive health check.<BR><BR>Instead of evaluating how ecosystems respond to just one environmental concern, such as climate change, the MEA aims to work out the interaction between such factors as changes in land use, loss of biodiversity, and the application of agricultural fertilisers.<BR><BR>Whether such a colossal endeavour will work will not be known for several years. Its success will be judged on whether it can gain credibility and become the <em>de facto</em> scientific advisory body for the conventions that have endorsed its work.<BR><BR>Reference: <em>Nature</em> 417, 112 (2002)<BR><BR><a href="/ http://www.nature.com/login/scidev_login.taf?ref=/nature/journal/v417/n6885/full/417112a_fs.html" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full text</A><BR><BR><STRONG>Photo credit</STRONG>: NASA</p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/features/the-state-of-the-planet/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/features/the-state-of-the-planet/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) is a US$21 million, four-year effort to give the Earth a comprehensive health check.

Instead of evaluating how ecosystems respond to just one environmental concern, such as climate change, the MEA aims to work out the interaction between such factors as changes in land use, loss of biodiversity, and the application of agricultural fertilisers.

Whether such a colossal endeavour will work will not be known for several years. Its success will be judged on whether it can gain credibility and become the de facto scientific advisory body for the conventions that have endorsed its work.

Reference: Nature 417, 112 (2002)

Link to full text

Photo credit: NASA