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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Third of World's Natural Resources Consumed Since 1970
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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/
10/9/98
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE
World Wide Fund for Nature reports on the world's resource binge over
the past three decades, during which they estimate a third of the
world's natural resources have been consumed. Most recently, this has
meant 3% of the world's resources are used each year. Rationale
economists will respond that technology and substitution will respond
to scarcity. Good luck engineering, or finding a substitute for, the
world's biosphere-much less any of the constituent, and much
diminished, local and regional ecosystems. A wide-ranging reform of
the dominant economic paradigm, coming from all quarters of society,
is required. No effort is in vain, and diversity of action is
essential, to respond to rapidly deteriorating global health.
g.b.
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Title: A third of world's natural resources consumed since 1970:
report
Source: Agence France-Presse
Status: Copyright 1998, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 1, 1998
LONDON, Oct 1 (AFP) - A third of the world's natural resources have
been consumed in the period 1970-1995, according to a report published
by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Thursday.
The WWF also said in its study of the planet's "natural wealth" that
in the first five years of this decade, three percent of the world's
natural resources were used up each year.
In particular, freshwater ecosystems were disappearing at a rate of
six percent per year, and halved in number between 1970 and 1995.
Marine ecosystems were also declining in number by four percent per
year, according to the WWF, and in total dropped by 30 percent during
the same 25-year period.
The world's natural forest cover was falling by 0.5 percent per year,
making a total loss of 10 percent between 1970 and 1995. The area lost
each year was equivalent to a forest the size of England and Wales or
half the size of Norway.
"These figures are a stark indication of the deteriorating health of
natural ecosystems," said the report's author Jonathan Loh.
"Most concerning of all is the decline of freshwater lakes, rivers and
wetlands -- these are among the most productive and diverse
environments in the world, but until now they have received far less
attention than either forests or oceans."
The WWF took data on threatened species, consumption of grain, fish,
wood, cement, fresh water, forest cover, marine species and carbon
dioxide emissions from 152 countries to compile a Living Planet Index.
It found that Mauritius topped the world league for the percentage of
its native bird and mammal species threatened, with a proportion of
nearly 40 percent facing extinction.
New Zealand, Madagascar, Philippines, Haiti, Cuba, and Australia all
faced losing 10 percent of their native species.
In general the threat of extinction was relatively high in South East
Asia, the United States, Russia and north Africa, and lower in central
and southern Africa, Canada and Europe.
In a measurement of pressure for consumption, Norway was found to top
the table with four times the average world pressure per person per
year.
By country, China registered the highest consumption pressure,
followed by the United States, India, Japan and Russia.
By region, North America had the highest pressure, 2.7 times the world
average, followed by Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, the
Middle East and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia
and the Pacific and finally Africa.
The WWF said half the world's forest had gone since the last Ice Age,
6,000 to 8,000 years ago, with the worst-affected region being Asia,
where about 70 percent of the original forest had gone.
In population measurements of 227 freshwater fish, reptile, bird and
mammal species, the WWF found between 50 and 60 percent were in
decline, 35 to 40 percent were stable and five to 10 percent were
increasing.
In Latin America, the worst-affected in this repect, 78 percent of
freshwater lakes had deteriorated since 1960.
For the 116 species of marine wildlife measured, since 1970 around 40
percent showed a population decline, a quarter remained stable and 35
percent showed an increase.
In world consumption since 1960, grain and fish consumption more than
doubled, and wood consumption and freshwater extraction had increased
one and a half times.
Cement consumption, a measure of urban expansion, had more than
quadrupled since 1960, with the Middle East the leading region from
this point of view.
Cardon dioxide emissions have also increased by almost three times in
the same period. Singapore emits most per person per year at 35 tonnes
per capita, followed by Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, the United
States and Norway.
By region, the worst for CO2 emissions was North America, then Central
and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia,
Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa.
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