The speed at which mankind has used the Earth’s resources over the past 20 years has put “humanity’s very survival” at risk, a study involving 1,400 scientists has concluded.
The environmental audit, for the United Nations, found that each person in the world now requires a third more land to supply his or her needs than the Earth can supply.
Thirty per cent of amphibians, 23 per cent of mammals and 12 per cent of birds are under threat of extinction, while one in ten of the world’s major rivers runs dry every year before it reaches the sea.
Fear mongering? Exaggerating to make a point? Here’s the audit:
The Earth audit
– The world’s population has grown by 34% to 6.7 billion in 20 years
– Annual income per head has grown by 40% to US$8,162
– 73,000km2 of forest is lost across the world each year – 3.5 times the size of Wales
– 75,000 people a year are killed by natural disasters
– Three million die of water-related diseases
– Ten million children under 10 die
– Farmers produce 39% more from their land than in the 1980s
– 60 per cent of the world’s major rivers have been dammed or diverted
– Populations of freshwater fish have declined by 50 per cent in 20 years
– More than half of all cities exceed WHO pollution guidelines
Its bleak. Especially if you project twenty years into the future. Nine billion people.
