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Three Planet Lifestyle Can't Continue

Posted: 02/11/2006

A three-planet lifestyle is damaging the UK's natural ecosystems, according to a report from WWF. The global environmental organisation says ecosystems are degrading at a rate unprecedented in human history and the planet's resources are being used faster than they can be replaced.

Between 1970 and 2003, terrestrial species declined by 31 per cent, freshwater species by 28 per cent and marine species by 27 per cent. Its twice-yearly statement on nature, the Living Planet report, found that the world's ecological footprint, i.e., the demand people place on the natural world, has more than tripled since 1961. Rising carbon dioxide omissions are said to be the biggest contributor to this growth.

Three planets would be needed to meet the UK's lifestyle needs, the WWF argues, causing the UK to rise from 15th to 14th in the world's ecological footprint table.

Since 2004, the footprint of each person in the UK has increased by four per cent, so that they now use the equivalent of six football pitches worth of natural resources to support their lifestyles. In 2003, demand outstripped supply by 25 per cent, resulting in the Earth taking a year and three months for it to produce the ecological resources used in that year.

Paul King, WWF director of campaigns, said: "We urgently have to face the fact that we are all running up a serious ecological debt and that we cannot continue to exhaust the Earth's natural reserves without putting something back. It is time to make some vital choices, to enable people to enjoy a one-planet lifestyle."

WWF's climate change work in the UK involves ensuring the Government continues to play a leading role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions through an effective climate change policy, and promotes the Kyoto Protocol; and keeping tabs on the UK National Allocation Plan for the European Emissions Trading Scheme - based on a target of 20 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2010.

Thirdly, WWF is promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy in new housing developments, through their One Million Sustainable Homes campaign.

Responding to the report, Mark Russell MSP, the Green party's environment spokesman, said that although "individuals do of course have a role to play", "ministers should be climate-proofing all policies, halting the expansion of motorways and airports, and prioritising support for the renewables industry".

Government ministers from around the world will be meeting in Nairobi next month for the United Nations talks on how countries can reduce climate change.

Green Building Press  
 

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