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by Nomadic Chris, 13 February 2009
So just how long can the world sustain man’s ever growing need for growth and development?
Populations are growing. Resources are shrinking. Something has to give eventually. Will Al Gore’s claims be taken more seriously?
According to experts at the World Wildlife Fund, the world is heading for an ‘ecological credit crunch’ as human demands on the world's natural capital reach nearly a third more than earth can sustain. That is the stark warning contained in the latest edition of WWF’s Living Planet Report, the leading statement of the planet’s well-being.
“The world is currently struggling with the consequences of over-valuing its financial assets,” said WWF International Director-General James Leape, “but a more fundamental crisis looms ahead -- an ecological credit crunch caused by under-valuing the environmental assets that are the basis of all life and prosperity.”
The WWF report, produced with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Global Footprint Network (GFN), shows:
* More than three quarters of the world’s people now living in nations that are ecological debtors.
* This is where national consumption has outstripped their country’s biological capacity.
“Most of us are propping up our current lifestyles, and our economic growth, by drawing - and increasingly overdrawing - on the ecological capital of other parts of the world,” Mr Leape said.
“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.”
Carbon Footprint
The WWF Living Planet report is:
* Published every two years
* Widely accepted as the statement of earth's ability to remain a “living planet”.
* In 2008, adding for the first time new measures of global, national and individual water footprint to existing measures of the Ecological Footprint of human demand on natural resources and the Living Planet Index, a measure of the state of nature.
* Stressing the Living Planet Index, compiled by ZSL, which shows a nearly 30 per cent decline since 1970 in nearly 5000 measured populations of 1,686 species.
These dramatic losses in the world’s natural wealth are being caused by:
* Deforestation and land conversion in the tropics (50% decline in Tropical LPI) and the impact of dams, diversions and climate change on freshwater species (35% decline).
* Pollution, over-fishing and destructive fishing in marine and coastal environments is also taking a considerable toll.
* Carbon emissions from fossil fuel use and land disturbance are the greatest component of humanity’s footprint, underlining the key threat of climate change. Global bio -capacity – the area available to produce our resources and capture our emissions – is 2.1 average or “global” hectares per person, the per person footprint is 2.7 global hectares.
The USA and China have the largest national footprints, each in total about 21 per cent of global bio-capacity, but US citizens each require an average of 9.4 global ha.
Bio capacity is unevenly distributed, with eight nations – the United States, Brazil, Russia, China, India, Canada, Argentina and Australia - containing more than half the world total. Population and consumption patterns make three of these countries ecological debtors, with footprints greater than their national bio capacity - the United States (footprint 1.8 times national bio-capacity), China (2.3 times) and India (2.2 times).
Hong Kong is not explicitly included in the calculation of China’s footprint in the Living Planet Report. However, WWF is releasing the Living Planet Report particularly for Hong Kong in November this year.
As a leading Chinese city and world financial hub, Hong Kong relies hugely on imports of natural resources, with over 90% of the seafood consumed here being imported, and freshwater and fuel supplies mostly coming from mainland China.
Hong Kong’s timber consumption per capita is not much lower than developed Western economies and is contributing to the global problem of deforestation and illegal logging, in particular in Indonesia, both as a consumer and as an investor in unsustainable practices. The Hong Kong Living Planet report will give an overview on this city’s impact on the Pearl River Delta region (PRD) as it directly owns 43% of the 200,000 factories in the PRD.
Enough legitimate facts and information to worry humanity into more action? Probably not…
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