Report: Humans Living Far Beyond Planet's Means

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Published on Tuesday, October 24, 2006 by Reuters

Humans Living Far Beyond Planet's Means: WWF

by Ben Blanchard

 

Source >

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1024-04.htm

 

 

BEIJING - Humans are stripping nature at an

unprecedented rate and will need two planets' worth of

natural resources every year by 2050 on current

trends, the WWF conservation group said on Tuesday.

 

 

Fishermen work near drainage pipes flushing sewage

from an oil and gas exploration field into the Porong

river in Sidoarjo, east Java October 4, 2006. Humans

are stripping nature at an unprecedented rate and will

need two planets' worth of natural resources every

year by 2050 on current trends, the WWF conservation

group said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas

Populations of many species, from fish to mammals, had

fallen by about a third from 1970 to 2003 largely

because of human threats such as pollution, clearing

of forests and overfishing, the group also said in a

two-yearly report.

 

" For more than 20 years we have exceeded the earth's

ability to support a consumptive lifestyle that is

unsustainable and we cannot afford to continue down

this path, " WWF Director-General James Leape said,

launching the WWF's 2006 Living Planet Report.

 

" If everyone around the world lived as those in

America, we would need five planets to support us, "

Leape, an American, said in Beijing.

 

People in the United Arab Emirates were placing most

stress per capita on the planet ahead of those in the

United States, Finland and Canada, the report said.

 

Australia was also living well beyond its means.

 

The average Australian used 6.6 " global " hectares to

support their developed lifestyle, ranking behind the

United States and Canada, but ahead of the United

Kingdom, Russia, China and Japan.

 

" If the rest of the world led the kind of lifestyles

we do here in Australia, we would require

three-and-a-half planets to provide the resources we

use and to absorb the waste, " said Greg Bourne,

WWF-Australia chief executive officer.

 

Everyone would have to change lifestyles -- cutting

use of fossil fuels and improving management of

everything from farming to fisheries.

 

" As countries work to improve the well-being of their

people, they risk bypassing the goal of

sustainability, " said Leape, speaking in an

energy-efficient building at Beijing's prestigous

Tsinghua University.

 

" It is inevitable that this disconnect will eventually

limit the abilities of poor countries to develop and

rich countries to maintain their prosperity, " he

added.

 

The report said humans' " ecological footprint " -- the

demand people place on the natural world -- was 25

percent greater than the planet's annual ability to

provide everything from food to energy and recycle all

human waste in 2003.

 

In the previous report, the 2001 overshoot was 21

percent.

 

" On current projections humanity, will be using two

planets' worth of natural resources by 2050 -- if

those resources have not run out by then, " the latest

report said.

 

" People are turning resources into waste faster than

nature can turn waste back into resources. "

 

RISING POPULATION

 

" Humanity's footprint has more than tripled between

1961 and 2003, " it said. Consumption has outpaced a

surge in the world's population, to 6.5 billion from 3

billion in 1960. U.N. projections show a surge to 9

billion people around 2050.

 

It said that the footprint from use of fossil fuels,

whose heat-trapping emissions are widely blamed for

pushing up world temperatures, was the fastest-growing

cause of strain.

 

Leape said China, home to a fifth of the world's

population and whose economy is booming, was making

the right move in pledging to reduce its energy

consumption by 20 percent over the next five years.

 

" Much will depend on the decisions made by China,

India and other rapidly developing countries, " he

added.

 

The WWF report also said that an index tracking 1,300

vetebrate species -- birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles

and mammals -- showed that populations had fallen for

most by about 30 percent because of factors including

a loss of habitats to farms.

 

Among species most under pressure included the

swordfish and the South African Cape vulture. Those

bucking the trend included rising populations of the

Javan rhinoceros and the northern hairy-nosed wombat

in Australia.

 

Additional reporting by Alister Doyle in Helsinki