World will end in 2050
jlew24asu
Posts: 10,118
well maybe not but this report is kinda scary. 2050 doesnt seem that far away.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061024/ts_nm/environment_wwf_planet_dc
BEIJING (Reuters) - Humans are stripping nature at an unprecedented rate and will need two planets' worth of natural resources every year by 2050 on current trends, the WWF conservation group said on Tuesday.
Populations of many species, from fish to mammals, had fallen by about a third from 1970 to 2003 largely because of human threats such as pollution, clearing of forests and overfishing, the group also said in a two-yearly report.
"For more than 20 years we have exceeded the earth's ability to support a consumptive lifestyle that is unsustainable and we cannot afford to continue down this path," WWF Director-General James Leape said, launching the WWF's 2006 Living Planet Report.
"If everyone around the world lived as those in America, we would need five planets to support us," Leape, an American, said in Beijing.
People in the United Arab Emirates were placing most stress per capita on the planet ahead of those in the United States, Finland and Canada, the report said.
Australia was also living well beyond its means.
The average Australian used 6.6 "global" hectares to support their developed lifestyle, ranking behind the United States and Canada, but ahead of the United Kingdom, Russia, China and Japan.
"If the rest of the world led the kind of lifestyles we do here in Australia, we would require three-and-a-half planets to provide the resources we use and to absorb the waste," said Greg Bourne, WWF-Australia chief executive officer.
Everyone would have to change lifestyles -- cutting use of fossil fuels and improving management of everything from farming to fisheries.
"As countries work to improve the well-being of their people, they risk bypassing the goal of sustainability," said Leape, speaking in an energy-efficient building at Beijing's prestigous Tsinghua University.
"It is inevitable that this disconnect will eventually limit the abilities of poor countries to develop and rich countries to maintain their prosperity," he added.
The report said humans' "ecological footprint" -- the demand people place on the natural world -- was 25 percent greater than the planet's annual ability to provide everything from food to energy and recycle all human waste in 2003.
In the previous report, the 2001 overshoot was 21 percent.
"On current projections humanity, will be using two planets' worth of natural resources by 2050 -- if those resources have not run out by then," the latest report said.
"People are turning resources into waste faster than nature can turn waste back into resources."
RISING POPULATION
"Humanity's footprint has more than tripled between 1961 and 2003," it said. Consumption has outpaced a surge in the world's population, to 6.5 billion from 3 billion in 1960. U.N. projections show a surge to 9 billion people around 2050.
It said that the footprint from use of fossil fuels, whose heat-trapping emissions are widely blamed for pushing up world temperatures, was the fastest-growing cause of strain.
Leape said China, home to a fifth of the world's population and whose economy is booming, was making the right move in pledging to reduce its energy consumption by 20 percent over the next five years.
"Much will depend on the decisions made by China, India and other rapidly developing countries," he added.
The WWF report also said that an index tracking 1,300 vetebrate species -- birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals -- showed that populations had fallen for most by about 30 percent because of factors including a loss of habitats to farms.
Among species most under pressure included the swordfish and the South African Cape vulture. Those bucking the trend included rising populations of the Javan rhinoceros and the northern hairy-nosed wombat in Australia.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061024/ts_nm/environment_wwf_planet_dc
BEIJING (Reuters) - Humans are stripping nature at an unprecedented rate and will need two planets' worth of natural resources every year by 2050 on current trends, the WWF conservation group said on Tuesday.
Populations of many species, from fish to mammals, had fallen by about a third from 1970 to 2003 largely because of human threats such as pollution, clearing of forests and overfishing, the group also said in a two-yearly report.
"For more than 20 years we have exceeded the earth's ability to support a consumptive lifestyle that is unsustainable and we cannot afford to continue down this path," WWF Director-General James Leape said, launching the WWF's 2006 Living Planet Report.
"If everyone around the world lived as those in America, we would need five planets to support us," Leape, an American, said in Beijing.
People in the United Arab Emirates were placing most stress per capita on the planet ahead of those in the United States, Finland and Canada, the report said.
Australia was also living well beyond its means.
The average Australian used 6.6 "global" hectares to support their developed lifestyle, ranking behind the United States and Canada, but ahead of the United Kingdom, Russia, China and Japan.
"If the rest of the world led the kind of lifestyles we do here in Australia, we would require three-and-a-half planets to provide the resources we use and to absorb the waste," said Greg Bourne, WWF-Australia chief executive officer.
Everyone would have to change lifestyles -- cutting use of fossil fuels and improving management of everything from farming to fisheries.
"As countries work to improve the well-being of their people, they risk bypassing the goal of sustainability," said Leape, speaking in an energy-efficient building at Beijing's prestigous Tsinghua University.
"It is inevitable that this disconnect will eventually limit the abilities of poor countries to develop and rich countries to maintain their prosperity," he added.
The report said humans' "ecological footprint" -- the demand people place on the natural world -- was 25 percent greater than the planet's annual ability to provide everything from food to energy and recycle all human waste in 2003.
In the previous report, the 2001 overshoot was 21 percent.
"On current projections humanity, will be using two planets' worth of natural resources by 2050 -- if those resources have not run out by then," the latest report said.
"People are turning resources into waste faster than nature can turn waste back into resources."
RISING POPULATION
"Humanity's footprint has more than tripled between 1961 and 2003," it said. Consumption has outpaced a surge in the world's population, to 6.5 billion from 3 billion in 1960. U.N. projections show a surge to 9 billion people around 2050.
It said that the footprint from use of fossil fuels, whose heat-trapping emissions are widely blamed for pushing up world temperatures, was the fastest-growing cause of strain.
Leape said China, home to a fifth of the world's population and whose economy is booming, was making the right move in pledging to reduce its energy consumption by 20 percent over the next five years.
"Much will depend on the decisions made by China, India and other rapidly developing countries," he added.
The WWF report also said that an index tracking 1,300 vetebrate species -- birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals -- showed that populations had fallen for most by about 30 percent because of factors including a loss of habitats to farms.
Among species most under pressure included the swordfish and the South African Cape vulture. Those bucking the trend included rising populations of the Javan rhinoceros and the northern hairy-nosed wombat in Australia.
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Comments
I keep saying the same thing to people, but they just don't get it. They think anyone who calls for breeding control must be some kind of nazi.
http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=272825
its ok to advocate having 1 or even no children. but you make it sound like you want to sacrifice everyones first born. you cant force anyone to do anything. as you say in "breeding control"
I'm not saying we should sacrifice everyone's first born. I'm saying we should do like in China, where it's illegal to have more than 1 child.
http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=272825
AUSSIE! AUSSIE! AUSSIE! OI! OI! OI!
thank goodness after years of years of dealing with feelings of inadequacy, australians can hold their heads up high, knowing that at long last we are finally contributing to something meaningful. unfortunately it's to the destruction of our planet. but hey at least we're in there with the big guys.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=272825
well that's just plain horseshit my friend.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=272825
what is a shrimp?
good to see someone's paying attention to the advertising campaigns.
no man, we (well those who eat cow) chuck a big slab of beef on the bbq, not some tiny crustacean.
i'll give you the breweries, cause aussies do love a beer. plus we need to chill the lager. so there's more sucking the planet dry.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
http://www.panda.org/index.cfm?uNewsID=83520
http://assets.panda.org/downloads/living_planet_report.pdf
Yes, and then it happens that people kill the exceeding newborn babies.....
Repression is never an answer. I think that people should start to become aware of the situation, that answers can only come from awareness.
Sometimes I think like you, I think "eh, what the hell! they control cats birth when we should control human birth!!!".... and I have firmly decided to not have kids and whenever I hear some friends having kids I just shiver... because I think this report is even optimistic. I don't need to read such report to know how bad things are going on this planet. It is enough to me to think the poisons we have in our food and our air. It is enough to me to think how crazy are all those world leaders who have chosen violence to rule this world. It is enough to me to think that people are basing their life on consumption and money, while the rest of the world is starving. We really don't need such report to know that we have wasted this wonderful planet and that we're wasting our life. I really wonder how anyone can seriously think to put one more life on this world, really, and I don't have an answer 'cept than the fact that they don't realize what's going on. But China.... no way, that's not the answer man!
how about you stop pretending like you know what your talking about and let someone from australia talk
They would be right.
jlew24asu is:
uptight []
gullible []
(check one)
http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=272825
I agree. I also think that we should say "Then we'll build something better", but it is not enough to say it, we must DO it. To those who say "we're doomed", I say yes, but do we have anything to loseif we try a different way instead of giving up? I think we don't have anything to lose, so I think we must try our best, starting from our daily life, from what we eat and buy, questioning where the things we use come from (responsible consumption), questioning our role and job, questioning our own values and political choices. And maybe changing our life with any means, because as you say, probably to say "we're doomed" is just too easy and it just means to accept and join the crime of this planet devastation. Awareness to me doesn't mean to give it up, it means to make choices.
Completely agree.
That's exactly what I was going to say. Surely our technology will advance in those years to make that date not applicable.
All the mini chicken littles around here are humorous in a sad way...
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
"I feel like we are in a giant car heading for a brick wall at 100 miles an hour and everyone in the car is arguing where they want to sit. For God's sake, someone has to say put the brakes on and turn the wheel."
And here, friends, is the problem.
YOU'RE THE FUCKING DRIVER!!!!!!!! WE'RE ALL THE FUCKING DRIVERS.
It's not complicated.
C. good looking outstanding individual.
haha. live fast and die young. nothing wrong with that.
I agree. but we need to get a move on. its almost 2010.