The United Nations is currently considering
extending its powers so that it can authorise the use of force in a
wider variety of situations. World peace depends on all countries
of the world acting together and decisively whenever a member state
begins to fall out of line, so these plans should help to make the world
a safer and happier place everyone.
What the United Nations is currently unable to do,
however, is to safeguard the lives of future citizens by ensuring
protection of the global environment. It's clear that if the task
is left to individual democratic countries, nothing serious will be
done: governments have to respond to the often selfish wishes and
desires of their people, so the wishes of future generations are rarely
taken into account.
Right now the UN seems to have its work cut out just
to sort conflict, poverty and disease around the globe. If the new
powers help it to make faster progress on these key issues, perhaps one
day we may find the UN taking action against states that pollute or
otherwise permanently damage the environment, with the primary objective
of ensuring the long-term survival of the human race with an acceptable
quality of life.
