Organização aponta novo recorde na super-exploração da natureza e alerta para colapso dos recursos (em inglês)
2006-10-11
Today is a bleak day for the environment, the day of the year when mankind
over-exploits the worlds resources - the day when we start living beyond
our ecological means. Evidence is mounting that rapid population growth and rising living
standards among the Earths six billion inhabitants are putting an
intolerable strain on nature. For the first time an organisation a British
think-tank has sought to pinpoint how quickly man is using the global
resources of farming land, forests, fish, air and energy.
The new economics foundation has calculated from research by a US academic
group, Global Footprint Network, that the day when we use more than our fair
share of the Earth when "humanity starts eating the planet" is October
9. In other words, assuming that the world has a certain quantity of natural
resources that can sustainably be used up each year, today is the date at
which this annual capacity is reached. And environmentalists warn that just
as a company bound for bankruptcy plunging into the red or a borrower "
maxing out" on credit cards must face the consequences, so must man.
The biggest problem relating to the over-consumption of resources is climate
change, but its other effects include deforestation, falling agricultural
yields and overfishing. Overfishing is one of the most easily understood examples of the abuse of
nature. Catching too many fish has left species that were once common, such
as cod in the North Sea and bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean, struggling to
survive.
Although it is possible to make ever-increasing catches for a while,
eventually only small, juvenile fish are left, and stocks become unviable.
Similarly, emissions of greenhouse gases are rising, exacerbated by the
growth of China and India, but the climate is poised to wreak its revenge.
Already polar ice caps are melting at a rate that is startling scientists,
and examples of extreme weather, such as Hurricane Katrina, which devastated
New Orleans in August last year, are being attributed to global climate
change. In February, when he was Defence Secretary, John Reid revealed that
British military planners were already preparing for conflicts arising from
the scramble for resources in 20 to 30 years time.
Outlining the impact of global warming, he said: "Impacts such as flooding,
melting permafrost and desertification could lead to loss of agricultural
land, poisoning of water supplies and destruction of economic
infrastructure."
Global Footprint estimates that the human race is over-using the Earths
resources by 23 per cent. While each individual should use up no more than
the equivalent of 1.8 hectares of the Earths surface, the actual area we
use is 2.2 hectares per person.
Mathis Wackernagel, executive director of Global Footprint Network, which
analyses 6,000 pieces of data from such sources as the United Nations,
warned that the limit of the Earths endurance had already been reached.
He said: "Humanity is living off its ecological credit card and can only do
this by liquidating the planets natural resources."
According to nefs analysis, the unsustainability of human behaviour has
speeded up markedly. Humanity started living beyond its means on a global
level in 1987, when the limit of sustainability was reached on 19 December.
By 1995, the day was arriving by 21 November and began arriving in October
shortly after the millennium.
Consumption is particularly profligate in the West, where individuals
consume air-freighted food, buy hardwood furniture, enjoy foreign holidays
and own cars. Global Footprint estimates the world would need five planet
Earths to sustain a global materialistic society such as that in the US
while almost three would be needed for the UK.
By contrast, developing countries such as Kenya use a fraction of the
resources. Nef highlighted the energy wasted in trade. In 2004, for example,
Britain exported 1,500 tons of potatoes to Germany and imported the same
amount. We sent 10,200 tons of milk and cream to France and imported 9,900
tons.
Andrew Simms, policy director of nef, warned the world was living far beyond
our environmental means.
Professor Tim Jackson, head of sustainable development at Surrey University,
one of Britains leading experts in sustainability, said the research was
broadly right and that we are using resources faster than they can be
replaced by the planet.
He said: "We are clearly drawing natural capital and the point about
collapse is that we dont know when some of the systems in the global
atmosphere and fish will collapse but we do know that collapse is a very
real possibility."
Our dwindling natural assets:
Fisheries
Degradation of the marine ecosystem is one of the worlds biggest problems
after climate change. Many fish population have shrunk by 90 per cent in 50
years. Species in particular danger are bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean
and Atlantic and cod in the North Sea.
Energy
Oil reserves are fast running out: "peak oil" - the point from which oil
reserves start to decline - is imminent, with world consumption of oil at 84
million barrels a day. In turn, the burning of fossil fuels is the largest
source of emissions of CO2.
Some 13 million hectares of forest are lost every year, says the UN Food and
Agriculture Organisation. Almost 20 per cent of The Amazon - the worlds "
lung" - has been felled. In 2004 the rate of forest clearance in the Amazon
was the second highest on record, caused by the boom in growing soya beans.
Deforestation of tropical rainforests may account for the loss of as many as
100 species a day.
Water
Population growth, pollution and climate change are making water a scarce
resource. Only 2 per cent of water on Earth is fresh, the rest is salt or
trapped in glaciers and snow. By 2050, 7 billion people in 60 countries
could be short of drinking water.
Farming land
Overfarming drains the soil of nutrients, while the chemicals used in the
process pollute waterways. Farming uses 70 per cent of the worlds water
supply: to provide 2,700 calories a day requires 4,300 litres (more than
seven bathtubs) of water.
Today is a bleak day for the environment, the day of the year when mankind
over-exploits the worlds resources - the day when we start living beyond
our ecological means.
Evidence is mounting that rapid population growth and rising living
standards among the Earths six billion inhabitants are putting an
intolerable strain on nature. For the first time an organisation a British
think-tank has sought to pinpoint how quickly man is using the global
resources of farming land, forests, fish, air and energy.
The new economics foundation has calculated from research by a US academic
group, Global Footprint Network, that the day when we use more than our fair
share of the Earth when "humanity starts eating the planet" is October
9.
In other words, assuming that the world has a certain quantity of natural
resources that can sustainably be used up each year, today is the date at
which this annual capacity is reached. And environmentalists warn that just
as a company bound for bankruptcy plunging into the red or a borrower "
maxing out" on credit cards must face the consequences, so must man.
The biggest problem relating to the over-consumption of resources is climate
change, but its other effects include deforestation, falling agricultural
yields and overfishing.
Overfishing is one of the most easily understood examples of the abuse of
nature. Catching too many fish has left species that were once common, such
as cod in the North Sea and bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean, struggling to
survive.
Although it is possible to make ever-increasing catches for a while,
eventually only small, juvenile fish are left, and stocks become unviable.
Similarly, emissions of greenhouse gases are rising, exacerbated by the
growth of China and India, but the climate is poised to wreak its revenge.
Already polar ice caps are melting at a rate that is startling scientists,
and examples of extreme weather, such as Hurricane Katrina, which devastated
New Orleans in August last year, are being attributed to global climate
change. In February, when he was Defence Secretary, John Reid revealed that
British military planners were already preparing for conflicts arising from
the scramble for resources in 20 to 30 years time.
Outlining the impact of global warming, he said: "Impacts such as flooding,
melting permafrost and desertification could lead to loss of agricultural
land, poisoning of water supplies and destruction of economic
infrastructure."
Global Footprint estimates that the human race is over-using the Earths
resources by 23 per cent. While each individual should use up no more than
the equivalent of 1.8 hectares of the Earths surface, the actual area we
use is 2.2 hectares per person.
Mathis Wackernagel, executive director of Global Footprint Network, which
analyses 6,000 pieces of data from such sources as the United Nations,
warned that the limit of the Earths endurance had already been reached.
He said: "Humanity is living off its ecological credit card and can only do
this by liquidating the planets natural resources."
According to nefs analysis, the unsustainability of human behaviour has
speeded up markedly. Humanity started living beyond its means on a global
level in 1987, when the limit of sustainability was reached on 19 December.
By 1995, the day was arriving by 21 November and began arriving in October
shortly after the millennium.
Consumption is particularly profligate in the West, where individuals
consume air-freighted food, buy hardwood furniture, enjoy foreign holidays
and own cars. Global Footprint estimates the world would need five planet
Earths to sustain a global materialistic society such as that in the US
while almost three would be needed for the UK.
By contrast, developing countries such as Kenya use a fraction of the
resources. Nef highlighted the energy wasted in trade. In 2004, for example,
Britain exported 1,500 tons of potatoes to Germany and imported the same
amount. We sent 10,200 tons of milk and cream to France and imported 9,900
tons.
Andrew Simms, policy director of nef, warned the world was living far beyond
our environmental means.
Professor Tim Jackson, head of sustainable development at Surrey University,
one of Britains leading experts in sustainability, said the research was
broadly right and that we are using resources faster than they can be
replaced by the planet.
He said: "We are clearly drawing natural capital and the point about
collapse is that we dont know when some of the systems in the global
atmosphere and fish will collapse but we do know that collapse is a very
real possibility."
(By Martin Hickman, The Independet, 09/10/2006)
Link: http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1822171.ece