Marlowe Hood Yahoo News 29 Oct 08;
PARIS (AFP) – Reckless borrowing against Earth's exhausted bounty is driving the planet toward an ecological "credit crunch", the World Wildlife Fund warned on Wednesday.
Growing demands on natural capital -- such as forests, water, soil, air and biodiversity -- already outstrip the world's capacity to renew these resources by a third, according to the WWF's Living Planet Report.
"If our demands on the planet continue to increase at the same rate, by the mid-2030s we would need the equivalent of two planets to maintain our lifestyles," said James Leape, the green group's Director General, in releasing the study.
The cost of bailing out financial institutions during the economic meltdown, while huge, pales in comparison to the lost value caused every year by ecological damage to the environment, experts say.
A European Union study calculates that the world is losing between two and five trillion dollars in natural capital every year due to the degradation of the ecosystems.
"The world is currently struggling with the consequences of over-valuing financial assets," said Leape. "But a more fundamental crisis looms, an ecological credit crunch caused by under-valuing the environmental assets that are the basis of all life and prosperity."
The report shows that more than three quarters of the planet's population live in nations that are ecological debtors -- countries where consumption outstrips biological capacity.
Produced with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Global Footprint Network (GFN), the bi-annual study measures the ecological footprint of human demand on natural resources, and assesses Earth's ability to remain a "living planet."
The 2008 edition shows a drop off of nearly 30 percent since 1970 in some 5,000 monitored populations of 1,686 different species.
Declines are closer to 50 percent in tropics, which contain the highest concentration of biodiversity in the world and serve as a brake on global warming by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Deforestation, land conversion, pollution, over-fishing and climate change are the main drivers of environmental degradation.
"We are acting ecologically in the same way as financial institutions have been behaving economically -- seeking immediate gratification without due regard to consequences," said the Zoological Society's Jonathan Loh.
"The consequences of global economic crisis are even graver than the current economic meltdown."
Carbon emissions from fossil fuels and deforestation are the biggest drain on the natural economy, underlining the threat of climate change, the report concluded.
The Earth needs on average 2.1 "global" hectares per person to produce our resources and capture emissions, but humanity's per-person footprint is already 2.7 hectares, it calculates.
"Continued ecological deficit spending will have severe economic consequences," argued GFN head Mathis Wackernagel.
"Resource limitations and ecosystem collapses would trigger stagflation with the value of investments plummeting, while food and energy costs skyrocket," he cautioned.
The United States and China each use up about a fifth of total global biocapacity, but US per capita consumption is much higher.
If everyone in the world lived the way Americans do, it would take almost four-and-a-half planet Earths to sustain global consumption habits.
A new index in the report reveals the hidden economic cost of water consumption. A cotton T-shirt, for example, requires 2,900 litres of H20 to be produced, including agricultural input and manufacturing.
On average, each person on Earth consumes 1.24 million litres of water a year -- the equivalent of half an Olympic pool. Nationally, the annual rate varies from 2.48 million litres per person in the United States, to 619,000 litres per capita in Yemen.
Climate change is almost certain to exacerbate moderate to severe water shortages that have already hit more than 50 nations, the report said.
Humans' big eco footprint endangers Earth
Resources of 2 planets needed to sustain lifestyle if use is not curbed
Straits Times 30 Oct 08;
GENEVA: The Earth's natural resources are being depleted so quickly that 'two planets' would be required to sustain current lifestyles within a generation, the conservation group WWF said yesterday.
The Swiss-based WWF, also known as the World Wildlife Fund, said in its latest Living Planet Report that more than three-quarters of the world's population live in countries whose consumption levels are outstripping environmental renewal.
The report concluded that reckless consumption of 'natural capital' was endangering the world's future prosperity, with clear economic impact, including high costs for food, water and energy.
'If our demands on the planet continue to increase at the same rate, by the mid-2030s we would need the equivalent of two planets to maintain our lifestyles,' said WWF International director-general James Leape.
Emissions from fossil fuels - which would be targeted under a successor to the Kyoto climate change accord - were among the top culprits cited by WWF for the big demands on the planet.
Produced with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Global Footprint Network (GFN), the bi-annual study measures the ecological footprint of human demand on natural resources, and assesses Earth's ability to remain a 'living planet'.
Earth needs on average 2.1 'global' ha per person to produce our resources and capture emissions, but humanity's per-person footprint is already 2.7ha, it calculates.
'Continued ecological deficit spending will have severe economic consequences,' argued GFN head Mathis Wackernagel.
The cost of bailing out financial institutions during the economic meltdown, while huge, pales in comparison to the lost value caused every year by ecological damage to the environment, experts say.
'The consequences of a global ecological crisis are even graver than the current economic meltdown,' said ZSL's co-editor Jonathan Loh.
Back in the 1960s, most countries lived within their ecological resources.
But the report pointed out that the world's global environmental 'footprint' or depletion rate now exceeds the planet's capacity to regenerate by 30 per cent.
On a per-country basis, the United States and China have the largest footprints, the WWF said. If everyone in the world lived the way Americans do, it would take almost 41/2 Earths to sustain global consumption habits.
The WWF's Mr Leape said world leaders needed to put ecological concerns at the top of their agenda and ensure the environment is factored into all decisions about consumption, development, trade, agriculture and fisheries management.
'If humanity has the will, it has the ways to live within the means of the planet, but we must recognise that the ecological credit crunch will require even bolder action than that now being mustered for the financial crisis,' he said.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
'Water footprint' also a big concern
Straits Times 30 Oct 08;
A NEW index in the Living Planet Report reveals the hidden economic cost of water consumption.
It also maintains that climate change is almost certain to exacerbate moderate to severe water shortages that have already hit more than 50 nations.
The report notes that Australia's ecological footprint is among the worst in the world, with each person in the nation using around 1.39 million litres of water each year compared to the global average of 1.24 million litres.
The World Wildlife Fund's report rates Australia as the fifth-worst nation behind the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Kuwait and Denmark.
It also points out that for countries such as the United Kingdom, the average 'water footprint' was far greater than people realised, with thousands of litres used to produce goods such as beef, sugar and cotton shirts.
Data on Singapore was not available.
On average, each person on Earth consumes 1.24 million litres of water a year - the equivalent of half an Olympic pool.
Nationally, the annual rate varies from 2.48 million litres per person in the United States, to 619,000 litres per capita in Yemen, says the report.
Earth on course for eco 'crunch'
BBC News 30 Oct 08;
The planet is headed for an ecological "credit crunch", according to a report issued by conservation groups.
The document contends that our demands on natural resources overreach what the Earth can sustain by almost a third.
The Living Planet Report is the work of WWF, the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network.
It says that more than three quarters of the world's population lives in countries where consumption levels are outstripping environmental renewal.
This makes them "ecological debtors", meaning that they are drawing - and often overdrawing - on the agricultural land, forests, seas and resources of other countries to sustain them.
The report concludes that the reckless consumption of "natural capital" is endangering the world's future prosperity, with clear economic impacts including high costs for food, water and energy.
Dr Dan Barlow, head of policy at the conservation group's Scotland arm, added: "While the media headlines continue to be dominated by the economic turmoil, the world is hurtling further into an ecological credit crunch."
The countries with the biggest impact on the planet are the US and China, together accounting for some 40% of the global footprint.
The report shows the US and United Arab Emirates have the largest ecological footprint per person, while Malawi and Afghanistan have the smallest.
"If our demands on the planet continue to increase at the same rate, by the mid-2030s we would need the equivalent of two planets to maintain our lifestyles," said WWF International director-general James Leape.
In the UK, the "ecological footprint" - the amount of the Earth's land and sea needed to provide the resources we use and absorb our waste - is 5.3 hectares per person.
This is more than twice the 2.1 hectares per person actually available for the global population.
The UK's national ecological footprint is the 15th biggest in the world, and is the same size as that of 33 African countries put together, WWF said.
"The events in the last few months have served to show us how it's foolish in the extreme to live beyond our means," said WWF's international president, Chief Emeka Anyaoku.
"Devastating though the financial credit crunch has been, it's nothing as compared to the ecological recession that we are facing."
He said the more than $2 trillion (£1.2 trillion) lost on stocks and shares was dwarfed by the up to $4.5 trillion worth of resources destroyed forever each year.
The report's Living Planet Index, which is an attempt to measure the health of worldwide biodiversity, showed an average decline of about 30% from 1970 to 2005 in 3,309 populations of 1,235 species.
An index for the tropics shows an average 51% decline over the same period in 1,333 populations of 585 species.
A new index for water consumption showed that for countries such as the UK, the average "water footprint" was far greater than people realised, with thousands of litres used to produce goods such as beef, sugar and cotton shirts.
"In Britain, almost two thirds [62%] of the average water footprint comes from use abroad to produce goods we consume," said Mr Leape.
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