The Earth’s population is using the equivalent of 1.5 planets’ worth of natural resources, but the long-term decline of animal life appears to have been halted, a WWF report shows.
The latest Living Planet report, published on Wednesday by the conservation group, also reveals the extent to which modern Western lifestyles are plundering natural resources from the tropics at record levels.
The report shows that the overall health of animal species — considered an important indicator of the health of ecosystems — has remained roughly constant since the beginning of this decade, after at least three decades of steady decline.
However the global figure masks a growing gap between the temperate zones to the north and south of the equator. Since 1970, richer countries in the temperate zones have enjoyed a 30 percent rise in populations of the more than 2,500 different mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian and fish species monitored — largely because of improvements to water and air quality and conservation work.
Tropical zones, in contrast — where most of the planet’s volume and variety of species live — have seen a dramatic decline of about 60 percent.
The report compares these results to the latest measurements of the size of the ecological footprint — the area of the planet’s surface required to provide the resources consumed in a year — of citizens in different countries.
This shows that overall, the Earth’s population is consuming the resources of 1.5 planets — or it takes one-and-a-half years to replenish the resources used in one year. This again masks vast differences between the lifestyles of people from mostly poorer countries with footprints of less than one-fifth of a hectare each, and those in the richest nations who each need a nominal 5 hectares or more. The global average is about 3 hectares.
“There’s going to be global trade and that’s not always a bad thing,” said Colin Butfield, head of campaigns for WWF. “[But people] in many subsistence countries depend on their local water source and if upstream you have got a big industrial cotton or soy-growing plant, we’re starting to affect in many many cases around the world the ability for poor people to develop, feed themselves, industrialize, to supply basic products we use every day: soy beans for cattle, cotton for clothing and so on.”
“We’re also taking away the natural capital of those countries, and only a small number of people in those countries benefit,” he said.
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