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."
Perhaps primitive countries have always polluted their water systems from the beginning of time. This allowed for more disease which basically kept the population in check. Maybe it is NATURAL for this pollution to be there. Can anyone point to a time when things were cleaner in these countries? It seems things are on their natural course. What could be the anomaly is the degree to which we go to keep our environment clean. - but then we keep our population in check through birth control, abortion and now euthanasia of 'useless eaters'. Progress.
Let's have a nuclear war and reduce the excess population. That should make the wackos happy.
Rush must've been freeping us because he'll be talking about this article in the upcoming hour.
Hi, Rush! *Wavies*
I watched it when they reran the show when I was in highschool in the 1990's
Quote: Excellent point, DannyTN! When you look at it that way, The Great Lakes should all have been drained by now. Just think of how much water Chicago uses from Lake Michigan on any given day. Millions of gallons.
I've just come to the realization how dumb some people can be. Do you think the water you use after taking a shower or pee in the toilet it gets transferred into the 5th dimension or parallel universe???
Haven't you ever seen clouds and rain??? Do you think water comes from outer space???
I was gonna wait, but it looks like its time to start hoarding everything!
"My suggestion is that China, India, Mexico, and South America ought to engage in a little population control. Maybe Africa as well, even Indonesia."
The Christians won't have any part of this!!!
"My suggestion is that China, India, Mexico, and South America ought to engage in a little population control. Maybe Africa as well, even Indonesia."
You can compare the birth rates here:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
Replacement birth rate: 2.1/women
China: 1.69/women
Brazil: 1.97/women
United States: 2.07/women
Indonesia: 2.47/women
Mexico: 2.49/women
India: 2.85/women
Egypt: 2.95/women
Congo: 3.54/women
Don't panic at the higher numbers. Overall the world's birth rate has been on the decline. For example Saudi Arabia's birth rate went from 6.3 in 2000 down to 4.11 in 2004.
Lower birth rate isn't always good for your country.
Puhhh-lease!!!!!
As I recall my history, one of Robert E. Lee's first assignments as an Army officer was for the Corp of Engineers: dredge the Mississippi at St. Louis.
You should of warned us with a puke alert. :>)
Actually, we are losing water (or rather, the earth's water is gradually becoming inaccessible). Millions of gallons is subducted into seafloor trenches every year, and much of it never resurfaces through volcanoes.
Except for Latin America, they aren't Christian. Hmmmm.... Maybe I should add Europe onto the list since they aren't Christian either.
A million years from now, none of this will matter.
And, for the Earth, a million years will pass in a (figurative) blink of the eye.
Turkey season starts next Wednesday...Gobble, gobble..!!
Deforestation causes malaria and cholera ??? and unknown diseases that have not discovered yet are caused by deforestation also ???
That's amazing, they have discovered the cause of a disease before the disease itself has been discovered.
In a Van Nostand's science magazine from the 1860s, the author was worried that we were running out of coal.
In the 1960s and 1970s, there were those (including Scientific American!) that warned that we would run out of oil by the year 2000.
Chicken Littles continual underestimate man's ingenuity and resourcefulness. If and when we actually come close to running out of an important resources, we will find a legitimate substitute. (for example, the oil wells in Ontario and Penssylvania were first drilled to supply oil for lamps, replacing sperm whale oil.)
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