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."
Paul Ehrlich must have crawled out from under a rock to assist in this sham.
Consider yourself fortunate. I've used up 3/3rds of mine.... ;-)
Quote: "Humans now use between 40% and 50% of all available freshwater running off the land. "
Shouldn't the Mississippi be a lot smaller?
After you drink a glass of water it comes back out as pee right???
Water cannot be destroyed. It can be turned into vapor etc but will come back sometime as water.
In the US after we use the water it gets run through sewage treatment plants and dumped back into the river. The rivers in the US are cleaner now than 20 years back.
The problem with 3rd world countries is their turds are pumped right back into their rivers without being processed...or they take a dump right into the river. Hence they have dirtier rivers and the fish are dying.
This report is garbage. They forgot to account for all the new coral colonies engendered by over 100,000 hulks of ships sunk during the wars of the 20th century.
Bull stuff
Wuh?
We're doomed, DOOMED!
Maybe we should recyle? Or spin cycle? Naaaa...aaah! I will conserve.
"A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries"
I bet these scientist went to the same school that advertises right next to the statement "Close Cover Before Striking"
"After you drink a glass of water it comes back out as pee right??? "
yep natural recycling at its best
"We're doomed, DOOMED!"
Thanks for the heads up. [Message to self: don't bother washing the car.]
Quote: There are more forests and deer in America than when the pilgrims landed.
Yes we do...in America and other first world nations. I have a picture of my land at the turn of the century and it's hills were nude..so to speak. Now there is solid trees.
3rd world countrie however are not replanting and are using the trees for firewood or clearing the land for fields. Also they are breeding way too much for the little land they have.
We'll stripmine the moon later.
Its funny you say that. I am not a enviro-wacko, but I have heard stories about the silt build up and the pollution of the Mississippi lately. There are a few problems there.
I needed a good laugh. This article provided it.
You mean Spock was wrong?...LOL
Ditto. Malthusian theory immediately came to mind.
Robert Watson is one of the biggest frauds to ever walk the earth.
In 2002, Third World nations lined up with the US to kick Watson off the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
In the dark of night, after scientists on the IPCC had reached a consensus that there was little or no global warming, the liar Watson rewrote the report to show the earth warming rapidly.
Watson is a piece of communist grabage. He belongs in a clown show.
I don't know about forests and deer, but in Maryland where I live, the Chesapeake Bay used to be full of oysters and crabs. Now, there are hardly any oysters or crabs left.
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