WWF? What do you think?

Question

Greed will trigger 'ecosystem collapse'

Tuesday 24 October 2006, 16:15 Makka Time, 13:15 GMT


A large-scale ecosystem collapse within 50 years is likely if current global consumption levels are not cut by half, an environmental group has warned.

The WWF's Living Planet Report, published every other year, said the natural world was being degraded "at a rate unprecedented in human history".

The report, released on Tuesday, showed relentless growth in demand on the earth's capacity to produce clean air, and to provide raw materials, food and energy.

James Leape, WWF's director-general, said: "We are in serious ecological overshoot, consuming resources faster than the earth can replace them. The consequences of this are predictable and dire.

"The cities, power plants and homes we build today will either lock society into damaging over-consumption beyond our lifetimes, or begin to propel this and future generations towards sustainable living."

Energy consumption

Two years ago, the same report based on 2001 data said the world's population was already outstripping the earth's capacity to regenerate resources by just over 20 per cent.

The 2006 edition of the WWF report said that figure had risen to 25 per cent in 2003.

The WWF said carbon dioxide emissions from energy consumption were the fastest growing component of the index in that period, increasing more than ninefold.

A survey of animal life from 1970 to 2003 found that terrestrial species had declined by 31 per cent, freshwater species by 28 per cent and marine species by 27 per cent.

The WWF estimated that even a rapid reversal in consumption habits now would only bring the world back to 1980s levels, when it was already over-consuming, by 2040.

Answer 1

This is what I think about environmental predictions. And now I have another to add to my collection.
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"The battle to feed humanity is over. In the 1970s, the world will undergo famines. Hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. Population control is the only answer"
-Dr. Paul Ehrlich (Biologist) - The Population Bomb (1968)

"I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000 "
-Paul Ehrlich in (1969)

"In ten years all important animal life in the sea will be extinct. Large areas of coastline will have to be evacuated because of the stench of dead fish."
-Paul Ehrlich, Earth Day (1970)

"Before 1985, mankind will enter a genuine age of scarcity . . . in which the accessible supplies of many key minerals will be facing depletion"
-Paul Ehrlich in The End of Affluence (1976)

"This [cooling] trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century"
-Peter Gwynne, Newsweek 1976

"This cooling has already killed hundreds of thousands of people. If it continues and no strong action is taken, it will cause world famine, world chaos and world war, and this could all come about before the year 2000.”
-Lowell Ponte "The Cooling" (1976)

The Limits to Growth (1972)(sold 10 million copies) report includes a table listing all the resources that were supposedly going to run out. The report's authors projected that, at the exponential growth rates they expected to occur, known world supplies of zinc, gold, tin, copper, oil, and natural gas would be completely exhausted in 1992.

"Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind."
-Harvard biologist George Wald (Earth Day 1970)

"Some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s."
-Paul Ehrlich Ramparts (1970)

"At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it's only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable."
-Ecologist Kenneth Watt Time

"If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder by the year 2000...This is about twice what it would take to put us in an ice age."
-Ecologists Kenneth E.F. Watt (Earth Day 1970)

"We've got to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing -- in terms of economic socialism and environmental policy."
-Timothy Wirth, former U.S. Senator (D-Colorado)

“Scientists Ponder Why World’s Climate is Changes; A Major Cooling Widely to Be Considered Inevitable.”
-The New York Time (May 21, 1975)

“Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age.”
-Time Magazine (June 24, 1974)

“How long the current cooling trend continues is one of the most important problems of our civilization.”
- Meteorologist Dr. J. Murray Mitchell Jr., Science News (Nov. 15, 1969)

“The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind.”
- Nigel Calder, a former editor of New Scientist (1975)
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Answer 2

I think their estimates are in the ballpark. There is no way to accurately predict what is happening down the road. The truth is more species of life have become extinct in the past 100 years than in all the rest of recorded history. Global temperatures are rising at the fastest rate known . The polar icecap is rapidly disappearing, and most glaciers in the northern hemisphere are rapidly retreating. The ice pack around Antarctica is shrinking. And sea levels have been steadily rising for hundreds of years. Sources of oil, minerals, and other raw materials are still being found, but it takes more advanced and expensive technologies to extract them. And I don't have to mention pollution and the costs from it, except one. Our "Cheapest & cleanest" source of electric power leaves radioactive by products which are the most toxic ever created for the longest period of time., with no safe place to dispose of them.

Folks, It doesn't sound like cause to rejoice to me. Of course, maybe I am a pessimist. Or just maybe I have been around this planet for 62 years and have seen the degeneration with my own eyes, happening at an increased pace the longer I live.

Is the time line accurate? Maybe and maybe not. The message is very accurate. We are using up the earth's ability to regenerate itself, and sooner of later, we will go past the point of no return.

I noticed 1 other fellow quoting a very few sources many times to make his point. Guess what? Most of us thought Paul Ehrlich was around the bend over 30 years ago.. And the newest reference he uses to debunk the report is over 30 years old. And I have also noticed the mainstream scientific community is supporting the bad news scenario, not just the fringes of back then. I think I will choose the opinions of the overwhelming majority of earth scientists today. And according to them, it is happening.

Answer 3

It's fairly obvious, the world is finite, we cannot continue upon the path of 'eternal growth' that most economists want to pursue. It's a shame that there were so many doomsayers in past years that hinder intelligent debate even today.

Zak, might I remind you that about half of the planet IS in famine at the moment.
As for the whole global warming/cooling debate, it was fairly obvious to intelligent people that pumping so much stuff into the atmosphere wasn't a good thing, there was just some debate about the actual effect.

Answer 4

well said, now that we all agree on this will anything get done about it and how will it affect our generation...