Humanity’s Demand on Nature Approaching Critical Threshold
Humanity’s Growing Demand on Nature Approaching Critical Threshold - Oakland, CA, October 29, 2008
At the current rate humanity is using natural resources and producing waste, by the early 2030s we will require the resources of two planets to meet our needs,
according to new figures released today by Global Footprint Network, WWF and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). This timeframe is much shorter than what figures reflected just two years ago, when Global Footprint Network data showed humanity on track to reach the two-planet mark by 2050. Now it appears we are set to reach this threshold at around the time children born today will be entering the workforce.
The Living Planet report 2008 reports that in 2005, humanity’s Ecological Footprint was 31 percent larger than the planet’s capacity to produce these resources. This ecological “overshoot” means that it now takes about one year and three months for the Earth to regenerate what we use in a single year. Overshoot has increased by 5 percent since the last Living Planet Report, which was based on 2001 data. The carbon dioxide Footprint, which accounts for the use of fossil fuels, is almost half the total global Footprint, and is its fastest growing component, increasing more than eleven-fold from 1961 to 2005.
“Humanity is living off its ecological credit card,” said Dr. Mathis Wackernagel, executive director of Global Footprint Network. “While this can be done for a short while, overshoot ultimately leads to liquidation of the planet’s ecological assets and the depletion of resources, such as the forests, oceans
Among these measurement tools used in the report is the Ecological Footprint, which determines the amount of productive land and sea required to produce the resources a population consumes and absorb its wastes.
Other key findings in the report include: The average person’s Ecological Footprint in the United States is 9.4 global hectares (23.3 acres)—the equivalent of about 17 football fields. The country with the largest Footprint per capita, slightly surpassing the U.S., is the United Arab Emirates, with a per-capita Footprint of 9.5 global hectares (23.4 acres). Conversely, Haiti, Afghanistan and Malawi are the countries with the smallest Ecological Footprints, under 0.5 global hectares (1½ acres) and, in most cases, too small to meet basic requirements for food, shelter, infrastructure and sanitation.
Despite these challenges, there are key opportunities to reverse these trends by creating resource-efficient cities and infrastructure, fostering best-practice green technology and innovation, and making resource limits central to decision making – of which ecological accounting plays a crucial role. In 2005, Global Footprint Network launched its Ten-in-Ten campaign with the goal of institutionalizing the Ecological Footprint in at least 10 key national governments by 2015. In the first two years, it had initiated projects in 23 nations, including Switzerland, Japan, Belgium, the United Arab Emirates and France, to employ Footprint accounting to evaluate the ecological bottom line. Such efforts can begin the pivotal process of reducing our global Footprint and securing human well-being and the natural resources on which this depends.
About Global Footprint Network
Global Footprint network, based in Oakland, California, is a charitable research organization working to make ecological limits central to decision-making by advancing the use of the Ecological Footprint, a resource accounting tool that measures how much nature we have, how much we use and who uses what. By developing transparent, scientifically robust measures to help leaders monitor and protect ecological assets, Global Footprint Network is committed to fostering a world where all people can live well within the means of one planet. For more information, please visit www.footprintnetwork.org.
To download the Living Planet Report 2008 http://www.footprintnetwork.org/download.php?id=505
For more information, contact Nicole Freeling at (510) 839-8879, ext. 302, nicole@footprintnetwork.org
- Global Footprint Network