Released in October 2010, the World Wildlife Fund's Living Planet Report (Pollard, Duncan, Ed. in Chief, worldwildlife.org, Accessed Nov. 2, 2010) provides a grim picture of our current profligate use of planetary resources. The Living Planet Index, or LPI - one of the longest running measures of world biodiversity - is made up of a wide range of indicator measurements in use since 1970. The LPI shows a global decline of almost 30 percent from 1970 to 2007, with the lion's share of the decline occurring in tropical regions.
Biodiversity
As the report states, biodiversity "allows people to live, and to live well." Perhaps too well. Predictably, the ecological footprint per capita is highest in some of the world's wealthiest economies. The top five footprints per capita currently belong to citizens of the United Arab Emirates, Quatar, Denmark, Belgium and the United States. The world's resource footprint has doubled since 1966, and if it continues to grow at the current rate, will require the equivalent of two earths to support our demand in the year 2030.
Currently, the single major component contributing to this increased eco footprint is the world's demand for energy and the corresponding level of CO2 that our activities release into the atmosphere. This also means that we have time, albeit less and less, to take measures to stabilize levels of atmospheric carbon - and thus reduce our eco footprint to a sustainable level - by conserving energy, converting to renewable fuels, and removing carbon from the atmosphere.
Biocapacity
"Biocapacity" is a term that indicates the planet's annual capacity to regenerate resources that are harvested, used or destroyed. It's calculated using the average productivity of grazing land, cropland and forest land multiplied by the total number such hectares (or acres) that exist on the planet. Fishing capacity is estimated similarly for productive ocean regions. Carbon capacity represents the maximum amount of carbon that can be absorbed by the atmosphere and all ecosystems annually.
What does it mean to say that we are using the equivalent of "more than one earth?" Obviously, we only have one planet. To use a fiscal analogy, when we live sustainably, we are living off the interest - or biological production and ecosystem services - generated each year by planet earth's biodiversity "accounts." When we began using the equivalent of more than one earth, that's when we began dipping into our principal. When principal becomes smaller, so does the amount of interest generated. Thus living beyond earth's biocapacity means reducing the planet's overall level of biological wealth while simultaneously reducing its powers of regeneration. A situation that is patently unsustainable.
A "One Planet" Lifestyle Solution
There are no silver bullets, and solving the problem of our eco footprint is going to be even more complex than addressing our carbon footprint. Demand side solutions include all of the conservation provisions associated with energy conservation, increased use of renewables, and greater efficiency.
Supply side solutions include increasing earth's biocapacity by restoring land, making use of marginal croplands, and increasing the productivity of our existing land. Increased demand for land to produce food, biofuels, and housing mean that "land competition is likely to be a greater challenge in the future than conventional wisdom suggests." WWF concludes, "if we are to provide enough food for the population of the world in the future, we need both to consider our diets and to devote significant long-term investment to raising biocapacity."
The rapid population growth in developing countries also contributes to our growing global eco footprint, but WWF's report does not address this issue. They do, however, focus on the unique role that cities and urban citizens will play. More than half the world population is now urban, and cities have an "increasing effect on the surrounding area" as they expand. The hope is that innovative and renewed urban infrastructure can create a new "One Planet" lifestyle that is more sustainable.
Above all, the take-away message of this report is that if we want to keep ourselves and the planet alive, we must plan and manage for the support of biodiversity - animals and plants of all types. "There is an inescapable link between biodiversity and human health, wealth and well-being." Even if a given acre does not explicitly support a value of direct service to mankind, it may yet be linked inextricably to our survival.
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