Over-consumption threatens human survival - WWF
© 2000 Reuters Limited
October 23, 2000
Story by Patricia Reaney
LONDON - Current rates of consumption are depleting the Earth of its natural resources and threatening the survival of humans, environmental group WWF warned on Friday.
Natural ecosystems have declined 33 percent because of over consumption in the last 30 years and if current trends continue humans will need two more planets to continue to exist, the group said in its Living Planet Report 2000."Our current rate of consumption is eroding the very fabric of our planet and will ultimately threaten our long-term survival as a species," said Francis Sullivan, the director of conservation at WWF-UK.
"The world is beyond its caring capacity. We can no longer sustain the number of people consuming the way we are," he added in a telephone interview.
The Swiss-based group produced a so-called ecological footprint, which measures a population's consumption of food, materials and energy in terms of the area of biologically productive land or sea required to produce the resources.
Not surprisingly, the ecological footprint of rich countries is four times bigger than those of poor nations.
"It is the consumers of the rich nations of the temperate northern regions of the world who are primarily responsible for the ongoing loss of natural wealth in the tropics," Jonathan Loh, the editor of the report, said in a statement.
The United Arab Emirates, Singapore and the United States have the biggest ecological footprints, followed by Kuwait, Denmark, New Zealand and Ireland.
Namibia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Eritrea have the smallest.
CO2 EMISSIONS IS THE MAIN PROBLEM
The WWF also produced an ecological footprint for carbon dioxide (CO2), the greenhouse gas blamed for global warming. Many of the same countries are at the same ends of the chart with their carbon monoxide footprints.
The average North American footprint is almost twice the area required by the average Western European, and five times greater than that of Asian, African and Latin American countries
"CO2 emissions is the number one issue," Sullivan said, adding that he hopes the report will put pressure on nations at the top end of the scale to rethink their policies and increase their use of energy-saving technologies.
He also emphasised the importance of the Climate Change Summit in the Hague from November 13-24 when governments will finalise the details of a global plan to curb emissions of greenhouse gases.
Sullivan described the Hague meeting and the Rio+10 summit that will take place in 2002 as the last chance for politicians to save our planet.
"The question is how can we maintain our economy and standard of living but reduce our output. That's the challenge for the next 30 years," he added.