Leaders ignoring climate crisis: Gorby

     World leaders are ignoring issues such as climate change and over population despite the threats they pose to the "very foundations" of human existence on earth, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev says.
     Mr Gorbachev, speaking in Brisbane ahead of the global forum Earth Dialogues Brisbane 2006, said the earth faced an environmental crisis.
     But issues including global warming, population growth, pollution and the depletion of natural resources are being ignored by the world's leaders despite "threatening the very foundations of our existence on planet Earth".
     International politics had stalled at a time when it needed to be ramped up to address such problems, he said.
     "Things are rather difficult today in international politics, and that affects the ability of political leaders to address the problems of the environment and other problems," Mr Gorbachev said.
     "I would say that international politics is stalled at a time when it needs to be a lot more active in addressing the world's problems."
    The forum, which begins on Saturday and ends on Monday, is featuring leading international experts on the environment, economics and science.
     Delegates from 11 nations will explore solutions to issues such as sustainable development, resource management, climate change, energy security and peace.
     Speakers include World Vision CEO, the Reverend Tim Costello, Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr Shirin Ebadi, Australian of the Year Professor Ian Frazer, Chinese activist and author Dai Qing, and the Global Common Institute's Aubrey Myer, who was named by New Statesman as "one of the 10 people likely to change the world".
     Mr Gorbachev, who will co-chair the forum with Queensland Premier Peter Beattie, said 60 per cent of the world's ecosystems had been damaged, making them difficult or "even impossible" to restore.
He said that damage was happening at a time when half of the world's population lived in poverty, and only a third lived in conditions "worthy of a human being".
    "There are many local and regional environmental problems and these problems aren't being addressed," he said.
     "But we need greater understanding of the global environmental challenges, the understanding that only by uniting the efforts of all nations can we successfully address the global environmental crisis.
     "Our goal is to unite the efforts of experts and others in order to demonstrate to the people of the world that we are facing a crisis which is now challenging us and which is threatening the very fundamentals, the very foundations of our existence on planet Earth."