The world's biodiversity is down 30 percent since
the 1970s, according to a new report, with tropical species taking
the biggest hit. And if humanity continues as it has been, the picture could
get bleaker. Humanity is outstripping the Earth's resources by 50 percent —
essentially using the resources of one and a half Earths every year, according
to the 2012 Living Planet Report, produced by conservation agency
the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Colby Loucks, the director of conservation sciences at WWF,
compared humanity to bad houseguests. "We're emptying the fridge, we're
not really taking care of the lawn, we're not weeding the flower beds and we're
certainly not taking out the garbage," Loucks said.
Burning through resources
The biannual Living Planet report is
designed to call attention to the Earth's "invisible economy," said
Emily McKenzie, the director of the WWF's Natural Capital Program. Natural resources — and the rate at which humans burn through them — rarely
appear on policymakers' balance sheets, McKenzie said. But humanity is
essentially in debt to Mother Earth, conservationists find. As of 2008, the
most recent year for which data is available, humans were outstripping Earth's
bio capacity by 50 percent. Bio capacity is the amount of renewable resources,
land, and waste absorption (such as sinks for carbon dioxide) the Earth can
provide. In other words, it takes the planet 1.5 years to restore what humanity
burns through in a year. (The organization Global Footprint Network marks
"Earth Overshoot Day" every
year to draw attention to how fast humans use natural resources. In 2011, Earth
Overshoot Day fell on Sept. 27, the day humans used up Earth's annual
resources.) The report scientists calculated the world's hogs when it comes to
resources (called the ecological footprint) by determining each nation's productive
land capacity and comparing it to the actual population and consumption per
person. The United States has the fifth-largest ecological footprint of any
nation on Earth, according to the report.
In order from most to least, the top 10 greediest resource users
per capita are:
1.
Qatar
2.
Kuwait
3.
United Arab Emirates
4.
Denmark
5.
United States
6.
Belgium
7.
Australia
8.
Canada
9.
The Netherlands
10.
Ireland
Struggling species
All of this resource use is taking a toll. The Living Planet
report also tracks biodiversity and species populations across the globe. This
year's report details a startling loss of biodiversity around
the globe: A loss of 30 percent of biodiversity on average, meaning a major
decline in the number of different species of plants, animals and other
organisms. Temperate species are doing relatively well, Loucks said, but
tropical species have declined by 60 percent since the 1970s. Freshwater
tropical species are the hardest-hit, having declined by 70 percent in that
time period. Globally, terrestrial species declined by 25 percent between 1970
and 2008, WWF reports. Marine (non-freshwater) species declined by 20 percent. Many
of the group's proposed solutions to humanity's out-of-control resource use center around Rio+20, the upcoming United Nations Conference on
Sustainable Development set for June 20, 2012. The meeting is designed to help
create pathways for sustainable development in the future, said Kate Newman,
WWF's managing director of public sector initiatives. She cited the example of
Mozambique, a poor country that may be home to one of the largest natural gas
fields in the world. As international companies arrive to exploit this
resource, local planners are concerned about how to make sure the entire nation
benefits, she said. In the same way, global decision-makers need to think
long-term, Loucks said. "As we're approaching a planet with 9 billion
people on it, we need to find a global solution," he said. "The
challenge for us is this is a long-term problem. This is the Earth for
millennia. We need to move beyond the election cycle, beyond the quarterly
report cycle."
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