- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
consumption of forests, energy and land by humans is exceeding the rate
at which Earth can replenish itself, according to research published on
Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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- The study, conducted by California-based Redefining Progress,
a nonprofit group concerned with environmental conservation and its economics,
warned that a failure to rein in humanity's overuse of natural resources
could send the planet into "ecological bankruptcy."
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- Earth's resources "are like a pile of money anyone
can grab while they all close their eyes, but then it's gone," said
Mathis Wackernagel, lead author of the study and a program director at
Redefining Progress.
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- Scientists said humanity's demand for resources had soared
during the past 40 years to a level where it would take the planet 1.2
years to regenerate what people remove each year.
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- The impact by humans on the environment had inched higher
since 1961 when public demand was 70 percent of the planet's regenerative
capacity, the study showed.
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- "If we don't live within the budget of nature, sustainability
becomes futile," Wackernagel said.
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- The study, which details the population's impact on the
Earth with a quantitative number, measured the "ecological footprint"
of human activities such as marine fishing, harvesting timber, building
infrastructure and burning fossil fuel that emits carbon dioxide (CO2)
into the atmosphere.
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- Researchers then used government data and various estimates
to determine how much land would be required to meet human demand for those
actions.
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- For example, Wackernagel and his team found that in 1999,
each person consumed an average of 5.7 acres (2.3 hectares). The global
average was significantly lower than industrialized countries such as the
United States and United Kingdom where 24 acres (9.6 hectares) and 13.3
acres (5.3 hectares), respectively, were consumed per person.
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- "ECOLOGICAL BANKRUPTCY"
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- In order to develop a formula that measured humanity's
consumption with the Earth's regenerative capacity, the researchers were
forced to reach several assumptions and omit the use of some resources
because of insufficient data.
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- The results, for example, excluded the impact of local
freshwater use and the release of solid, liquid or gaseous pollutants other
than CO2 into the environment.
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- Even though the findings revealed that human use of resources
was far outstripping Earth's supply, it stopped short of determining how
long the process could continue without detrimental consequences.
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- "Like any responsible business that keeps track
of spending and income to protect financial assets, we need ecological
accounts to protect our natural assets," Wackernagel said. "And
if we don't ... we will prepare for ecological bankruptcy."
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- Wackernagel said the study's results could be used to
gauge the impact of new technologies and how they affect the environment.
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- The use of an alternative technology, such as one that
produces renewable energy or replaces natural biological processes, could
allow society to live better without increasing consumption, he said.
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- Governments could also determine the impact consumers
and businesses were having on depleting area resources and evaluate potential
ways to reduce consumption, Wackernagel said.
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