Posted on 03/30/2005 10:29:22 AM PST by jmaroneps37
Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up'
Tim Radford, science editor Wednesday March 30, 2005 The Guardian
The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries - some of them world leaders in their fields - today warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure. The study contains what its authors call "a stark warning" for the entire world. The wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries, coastal fisheries and other habitats that recycle air, water and nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably damaged. In effect, one species is now a hazard to the other 10 million or so on the planet, and to itself.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted," it says. The report, prepared in Washington under the supervision of a board chaired by Robert Watson, the British-born chief scientist at the World Bank and a former scientific adviser to the White House, will be launched today at the Royal Society in London. It warns that:
· Because of human demand for food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel, more land has been claimed for agriculture in the last 60 years than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined.
· An estimated 24% of the Earth's land surface is now cultivated.
· Water withdrawals from lakes and rivers has doubled in the last 40 years. Humans now use between 40% and 50% of all available freshwater running off the land.
· At least a quarter of all fish stocks are overharvested. In some areas, the catch is now less than a hundredth of that before industrial fishing.
· Since 1980, about 35% of mangroves have been lost, 20% of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed and another 20% badly degraded.
· Deforestation and other changes could increase the risks of malaria and cholera, and open the way for new and so far unknown disease to emerge.
In 1997, a team of biologists and economists tried to put a value on the "business services" provided by nature - the free pollination of crops, the air conditioning provided by wild plants, the recycling of nutrients by the oceans. They came up with an estimate of $33 trillion, almost twice the global gross national product for that year. But after what today's report, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, calls "an unprecedented period of spending Earth's natural bounty" it was time to check the accounts.
"That is what this assessment has done, and it is a sobering statement with much more red than black on the balance sheet," the scientists warn. "In many cases, it is literally a matter of living on borrowed time. By using up supplies of fresh groundwater faster than they can be recharged, for example, we are depleting assets at the expense of our children."
Flow from rivers has been reduced dramatically. For parts of the year, the Yellow River in China, the Nile in Africa and the Colorado in North America dry up before they reach the ocean. An estimated 90% of the total weight of the ocean's large predators - tuna, swordfish and sharks - has disappeared in recent years. An estimated 12% of bird species, 25% of mammals and more than 30% of all amphibians are threatened with extinction within the next century. Some of them are threatened by invaders.
The Baltic Sea is now home to 100 creatures from other parts of the world, a third of them native to the Great Lakes of America. Conversely, a third of the 170 alien species in the Great Lakes are originally from the Baltic.
Invaders can make dramatic changes: the arrival of the American comb jellyfish in the Black Sea led to the destruction of 26 commercially important stocks of fish. Global warming and climate change, could make it increasingly difficult for surviving species to adapt.
A growing proportion of the world lives in cities, exploiting advanced technology. But nature, the scientists warn, is not something to be enjoyed at the weekend. Conservation of natural spaces is not just a luxury.
"These are dangerous illusions that ignore the vast benefits of nature to the lives of 6 billion people on the planet. We may have distanced ourselves from nature, but we rely completely on the services it delivers."
Such a conclusion does not count the water I have in my storage room. I'm holding out on the system. My stored water can't evaporate or enter into any biological processing/recycling system until I open it and use it.
Imagine if everyone in the world kept 50 or so gallons of water in storage--the world would dry up!!
The only solution to this is to eliminate all you other water hoarders. I get to keep mine however, because I'm a superior person. ;^)
Man plans and God laughs!!!
?
I have noticed that is slighty more breezy where I am. I am concerned that we are entering a pattern of the most breezy the world has ever experienced.
"They are retarded
"They are wicked retarded"
- meaning the Guardian. Stay with us, kiddo; you'll soon find is it wise not to trust the British press.
Thanks for the translation! I don't trust most of the media, British or otherwise.
That reminds me of the protestor who didn't want a hydro-electric dam built who was literally crying while speaking to the powers that be, about how all those precious little molecules of water would be sliced and diced by those horribly sharp blades on those godawful TURBINES!!! Boooohoooo... (snort!)
So we are to stop eating, drinking, building shelter, wearing clothes (will suck for those in the Northern Climes), and using any type of device which requires fuel. Ok, got it. Idiotarians.
· An estimated 24% of the Earth's land surface is now cultivated.
All I can say to this is, so what? Seriously, who cares?
· Water withdrawals from lakes and rivers has doubled in the last 40 years. Humans now use between 40% and 50% of all available freshwater running off the land.
Whoopdee-friggin-doo. Eventually that water makes it's way back to the source in the form of... *gasp* freshwater again!
· At least a quarter of all fish stocks are overharvested. In some areas, the catch is now less than a hundredth of that before industrial fishing.
So start more fisheries. Hell, that would create more jobs. You'd have all the fish you could want and the jobs would be plentiful. As I do not eat fish, I care even less about this than I do the other crap in this article.
· Since 1980, about 35% of mangroves have been lost, 20% of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed and another 20% badly degraded.
So plant a few trees here and there. Sink an few old ships, they make for excellent reefs as time passes. It works really well, you get to dispose of the ships safely and "(spit)Mother Earth(spit)" gets a new reef out of it.
· Deforestation and other changes could increase the risks of malaria and cholera, and open the way for new and so far unknown disease to emerge.
Oh gimme a break, is there ANYTHING these days that cannot "open the way" for something horrible?
Pffft. We are not hurting the earth in any way that will cause some kind of devastation. It's a pretty resilient ball of rock after all. Now I have no problem with doing things environmentally sound, I love God's creation quite a lot, but these stark raving Moonbats are going a bit overboard.
Remember, you Idiotarian Wingnuts: Earth first! We can strip mine the other planets later.
You don't have to be smart to call yourself an environmentalist.
Hey Carry_Okie! There's another basis for that litigation we been cogitatin!!!
That's the specific example the Supremes gave for what's NOT free speech under the US Constitution!!!
Paiging all litigators...
No problemo...the sun will burn itself out in a mere million.
"Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted," this should make them happy since they think man is the problem to begin with and the world would be better off with out humans
Nonsense!
Yeah, SOME of them world leaders, and the rest? A pack of unwashed, tree-hugging, granola-crunching, leftover hippies, along with anti-American, anti-capitalist neo-Marxists.
I say we listen to them.
When it does that, it will eventually engulf the earth, which pretty much will ruin all the tourist spots on the planet.
If the population density is really high, then it makes more sense to build mass transit. Why buy a car if you're going to be stuck in the traffic at 5mph? And if the price of gas goes up, it'd generate more incentive to develop and use alternative fuel. For an example if we increase cost of electricity by 3x, you'd see solar panels going up on everyone's roofs.
Soilent Green is PEOPLE
Scientists? They are promoting public policy. Such is politics, not science.
"didn't we already run out of oil on 1976?
I think I saw that on In Search Of... in 1972"
Yeah, this was the same group of scientists that told us in 1979 that by 2025 the world would be so overpopulated it would be uninhabitable.
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