14
Nov 2008 - New edition of WWF report regarding
the state of the planet - Santa Cruz de
la Sierra, Bolivia.- According to WWF, the
world is heading for an ecological credit
crunch as human demands on the world's natural
capital reach nearly a third more than earth
can sustain.
That is the stark warning
contained in the latest edition of WWF’s
Living Planet Report, the leading statement
of the planet’s health. In addition global
natural wealth and diversity continues to
decline, and more and more countries are
slipping into a state of permanent or seasonal
water stress. Water stress occurs when the
demand for water is greater that the available
quantity during a determined time period
or when its use is restricted due to its
poor quality.
James Leape, WWF International
Director-General stated, “The world is currently
struggling with the consequences of over-valuing
its financial assets however a more fundamental
crisis looms ahead - an ecological credit
crunch caused by under-valuing the environmental
assets that are the basis of all life and
prosperity.”
The report, produced
with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL)
and the Global Footprint Network (GFN),
shows more than three quarters of the world’s
people now live in nations that are ecological
debtors, where their national consumption
has outstripped their country’s biocapacity
(the capacity of a given biologically productive
area to generate an on-going supply of renewable
resources and to absorb its spillover wastes).
“Most of us are propping up our current
lifestyles, and our economic growth, by
drawing - and increasingly overdrawing -
on the ecological capital of other parts
of the world,” Mr. Leape said. “If our demands
on the planet continue to increase at the
same rate, by the mid-2030s we would need
the equivalent of two planets to maintain
our lifestyles.”
The report, published
every two years, has since 1998 become widely
accepted as a statement of earth's ability
to remain a “living planet”. In 2008, it
adds for the first time new measures of
global, national and individual water footprint
to existing measures of the Ecological Footprint
of human demand on natural resources and
the Living Planet Index, a measure of the
state of nature.
The Living Planet Index,
compiled by ZSL, shows a nearly 30 per cent
decline since 1970 in nearly 5000 measured
populations of 1,686 species. These dramatic
losses in our natural wealth are being driven
by deforestation and land conversion in
the tropics (51% decline in Tropical LPI),
as also happens in Bolivia. The Bolivian
ecological footprint is generated mainly
by land use change for cattle ranching and.
Other factors which affect biodiversity
are the impact of dams, diversions and climate
change on freshwater species (35% decline).
“We are acting ecologically
in the same way as financial institutions
have been behaving economically - seeking
immediate gratification without due regard
for the consequences,” said ZSL co-editor
Jonathan Loh. “The consequences of a global
ecological crisis are even graver than the
current economic meltdown.”
Carbon emissions from fossil fuel use and
land disturbance are the greatest component
of Bolivia’s and humanity’s footprint, underlining
the key threat of climate change. The ecological
footprint analysis, produced by GFN, shows
that while global biocapacity – the area
available to produce our resources and capture
our emissions – is 2.1 average or “global”
hectares per person, the per person footprint
is 2.7 global ha. This means that we are
using more natural resources than the planet
can produce.
“Continued ecological deficit spending will
have severe economic consequences,” said
GFN Executive Director Dr Mathis Wackernagel.
“Resource limitations and ecosystem collapses
would trigger massive stagflation with the
value of investments plummeting, while food
and energy costs skyrocket.”
The USA and China have
the largest national footprints, each in
total about 21 per cent of global biocapacity,
but US citizens each require an average
of 9.4 global ha (or nearly 4.5 Planet Earths
if the global population had US consumption
patterns) while Chinese citizens use on
average 2.1 global ha per person (one Planet
Earth).
Biocapacity is unevenly
distributed, with eight nations – the United
States, Brazil, Russia, China, India, Canada,
Argentina and Australia - containing more
than half the world total. Population and
consumption patterns make three of these
countries ecological debtors, with footprints
greater than their national biocapacity
- the United States (footprint 1.8 times
national biocapacity), China (2.3 times)
and India ( 2.2 times).
This is in contrast
with countries such as Bolivia which has
the third highest biocapacity per person
worldwide (16 ha) and average footprint
of only 2.2 ha per person. In other words,
our country has a footprint that is 7.3
times smaller than its biocapacity. However,
we are still faced with a future of degrading
this biocapacity from changes in land use
for cattle ranching and agriculture, deforestation
and increased demands from a rising population
and export pressures. WWF emphasizes that
these statistics might give the impression
that the situation in Bolivia does not require
committed actions on our behalf since we
live in a country in which natural resources
are still relatively abundant. However,
we should reflect on the statistics from
countries such as the United States, China
and India as alarming lessons learned and
so that we do not fall into a rhythm of
consumption and degradation that becomes
unsustainable in time and risks the wellbeing
of future generations.
On the other hand, the
new water footprint measures make evident
the significance of water utilized as raw
material in production. For example, 2,900
liters of water are needed to produce a
cotton T-shirt. On average, each person
consumes 1.24 million liters (about half
an Olympic swimming pool) of water a year,
but this varies, for example, from 2.48
million liters per person a year (United
States) and 1.2 million liters per person
a year in Bolivia).
The water footprint
of a country is the total volume of water
used globally to produce the goods and services
consumed by its inhabitants. It includes
water withdrawn from rivers, lakes and aquifers
(surface and ground water) that is used
in agriculture, cattle ranching, industry,
and energy production and for domestic purposes,
as well as the water from rainfall that
is used to grow crops. The water footprint
is analogous to the Ecological Footprint:
while the latter calculates the total area
of productive space required to produce
the goods and services consumed by a given
population, the water footprint calculates
the volume of water required to produce
the same goods and services.
The Living Planet Report
concludes that “around 50 countries are
currently facing moderate or severe water
stress and the number of people suffering
from year-round or seasonal water shortages
is expected to increase as a result of climate
change.”
“These Living Planet
measures serve as clear and robust signposts
to what needs to be done,” said Mr. Leape.
“It is our hope that in years to come we
will be reporting increases in the Living
Planet Index, an ecological footprint coming
down in shoe sizes and water becoming more
rather than less available in more places.”
The report suggests
some key “sustainability wedges” which if
combined could stabilize and reverse the
worsening slide into ecological debt and
enduring damage to global support systems.
For the single most
important challenge – climate change – the
report shows that a range of efficiency,
renewable and low emissions “wedges” could
meet projected energy demands to 2050 with
reductions in carbon emissions of 60 to
80 per cent. Incorporating an ecosystemic
perspective to consumption, development
and trade would mean the long term conservation
of necessary resources for survival.
“If humanity has the
will, it has the ways to live within the
means of the planet, but we must recognize
that the ecological credit crunch will require
even bolder action than that now being mustered
for the financial crisis” Mr. Leape said.
WWF: Phil Dickie, WWF International News
Editor
