Report: Earth overdrawn on natural assets

The above six areas comprise the Ecological Footprint of any individual

By Environmental News Network staff

Humankind's ecological footprint is getting heavier and heavier over time, according to a new study by the World Wide Fund for Nature.

While the state of Earth's ecosystems has declined by about 33 percent over the past 30 years, the ecological pressure of humanity on the planet has increased by about 50 percent over the same period, exceeding the biosphere's regeneration rate, according to WWF's "Living Planet Report 2000."

"We are overdrawing on the world's natural capital," said Jonathan Loh, lead author of the report, at a press conference Friday in Brussels. "This goes unnoticed unless we get some sort of bank statement to tell us that we are overdrawn. Clearly this overdraft is unsustainable."

According to the WWF, if people in the developing world gobbled up the same amount of natural resources as people in wealthy countries, the human race would require two additional Earths. In particular, the United States, Canada, Australia and Germany are devouring far more than their earthly share, the report notes.

"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," Loh said.

The "Living Planet" report gauges the natural wealth of Earth's forests, freshwater ecosystems and marine ecosystems. Each ecosystem index in the report accounts for the average population trend of certain natural species found in those ecosystems.

The forest index includes 319 species populations, which show an average decline of about 12 percent from 1970 to 1999. The freshwater index includes 194 species populations, which fell on average by about 50 percent between 1970 and 1999. The marine index includes 217 species populations, which declined by about 35 percent over the same period.

The ecological footprint of an average consumer in the industrialized world is about four times that of an average consumer in non-industrial countries

For the first time in three annual "Living Planet" reports, a measurement of human pressure on global ecosystems, also known as the "ecological footprint," is included in the findings.

Humanity is wreaking havoc on nature through agriculture, forestry, fisheries energy use and urbanization, said Athanase Karayenga, director of the WWF Africa program. "Since 1970, the world's natural forest cover has been reduced by 10 percent. This amounts to the annual loss of an area larger than Florida, Bangladesh or even Greece. In 1998, the Food and Agriculture Organization reported that 60 percent of the world's most valuable species are either overfished or fished to their limit."

The ecological footprint in the report estimates a population's consumption of food, materials and energy in terms of the area of biologically productive land or ocean required to produce those natural resources or, in the case of energy, to absorb the corresponding carbon dioxide emissions.

"The ecological footprint allows us to measure the pressure on resources of any population," Loh said. "Currently there is about a four-fold disparity between the world's wealthy and poor nations."

The calculation leaves out some pressures for which data is incomplete, such as water consumption and the release of toxic pollutants. This suggests that the results underestimate humanity's full impact, WWF representatives note.

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