Humans Running Up Huge ‘Overdraft’ With the Planet Says New WWF Report

WWF’s Living Planet Report 2002 shows that humans are currently running a huge deficit with the Earth – using over 20 percent more natural resources each year than can be regenerated – and this figure is growing each year. Projections based on likely scenarios of population growth, economic development and technological change, show that by 2050, humans will consume between 180 percent and 220 percent of the Earth’s biological capacity. According to the report, this means that unless governments take urgent action, by 2030, human welfare, as measured by average life expectancy, educational level, and world economic product will go into decline.

“The fact that we live on a bountiful planet, but not a limitless one, presents world leaders at the World Summit on Sustainable Development with a clear challenge,” said Dr. Claude Martin, Director General of WWF International. “Ensuring access to basic resources and improving the health and livelihoods of the world’s poorest people can not be tackled separately from maintaining the integrity of natural ecosystems. Unless we ensure the health of those ecosystems, we will never be able to guarantee an acceptable standard of living for much of the world’s population.”

According to the Living Planet Report, the Earth has about 11.4 billion hectares of productive land and sea space – or 1.9 hectares of productive land to provide for each of the 6 billion people on the planet. The global ecological footprint – or consumption of natural resources – is 2.3 hectares per person. However, while the footprint of the average African or Asian consumer being less than 1.4 hectares per person in 1999, the average Western European’s footprint was about 5.0 hectares, and the average North American’s was about 9.6 hectares.

At the same time, the Living Planet Index, which is based on trends in populations of hundreds of species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish also shows clearly that the current human consumptive pressure is unsustainable. Over the past 30 years, the LPI has declined by about 35 percent. The decline in freshwater species has been particularly dramatic, with 54 percent decline on average in the populations of 195 species living in rivers and wetland ecosystems. Marine species are also under threat – with an average decline of 35 percent in 217 species, while forest species populations show a 15 percent decline in 282 species.

WWF believes that governments could reverse some of these negative trends and put humanity back on a path to sustainable development if they address some key issues. These include improving the resource efficiency with which goods and services are produced – in particular moving energy supplies away from fossil fuels and promoting energy-efficient technologies, buildings and transport systems; encouraging equitable and sustainable consumption; and conserving and restoring natural ecosystems to maintain their biological productivity and diversity.

“We do not know exactly what the result will be of running this massive overdraft with the earth. What is clear though is that it would be better to control our own destiny, rather than leave it up to chance,” said Jonathan Loh, author of the Living Planet Report. “At the WSSD, world leaders will have a magnificent opportunity to address the root causes of our obvious failure to achieve sustainable development and set us on the path to a truly sustainable future.”

World Wildlife Fund Canada is a pre-eminent conservation organization whose mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. Working with government, business and communities across Canada since 1967, WWF-Canada today counts more than 60,000 supporters. Headquartered in Toronto, WWF-Canada also has offices in Montreal, Whitehorse and Yellowknife, as well as on all three coasts: Halifax in the East, Prince Rupert in the West, and Iqaluit in the North. It also leads global conservation efforts in Cuba. WWF-Canada recently concluded its decade-long Endangered Spaces campaign which protected over 1,000 new areas across the country. WWF-Canada is part of WWF International, one of the world’s largest and most experienced independent conservation groups.