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."
My suggestion is that China, India, Mexico, and South America ought to engage in a little population control. Maybe Africa as well, even Indonesia.
didn't we already run out of oil on 1976?
I think I saw that on In Search Of... in 1972
What a perfect solution euthanasia will be. Look at all the problems it will solve. [note sarcasm]
malthusian delusion alert.
This will of course be spun as 'The only way for the world to survive is for the United States to cease to exist."
I used up 2/3rds of my underwear.
No problem there some volcano is going to blow up and destroy the seaboard all around the atlantic,that should reduce demand for a while. /sarcasm
Scientific American has a similar article in the current issue. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=19&articleID=0002C381-3BC6-1237-B62883414B7F0000
YEa, I remember back in the 70's when they were carping and whining about the coming ice age, and the world running out of oil by 1990, then we would all freeze and starve to death.
These wierdo's are everywhere but reality with their silly theories and pronouncements.
Shouldn't the Mississippi be a lot smaller?
BTW, I didn't see the world class university or research orgization named that sponsored this "report" ...perhaps it is from "Joes research company and gym"??
"My suggestion is that China, India, Mexico, and South America ought to engage in a little population control. Maybe Africa as well, even Indonesia."
Countries that burn wood tend to deforest land even though wood in tropical countries is burned for cooking and not for heat. The air polution is very bad from wood fires in many parts of the world.
With so many resources being used up I guess I will not be investing in North American Whale Bone Ltd.
I think that is why they didn't define the word "available." Weasel-work alert!
At this rate we only have 2.25 billion years left to go.
Here we go again. Why don't the go give vasectomies to all these third world over-breeders, and themselves then? Stop the lavish waste at the UN and all that left over food from their feasts at luncheons from being tossed in the trash.
2/3rds used up my butt. We've barely touched them.
Wow....that's a sobering thought. (g)
There are more forests and deer in America than when the pilgrims landed.
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