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Humanity's "massive overdraft" with Earth
Humanity is currently overusing the Earth's resources by 20 per cent and,
if current trends continue, then by 2050 we will need two planet Earths in order to live sustainably.
These warnings come in a report by WWF, the World Wildlife Fund,
and are based on a new assessment of our "ecological footprint" - the amount
of productive land and sea we need to sustain our current economies and lifestyles.
The world's average citizen has a footprint of 2.3 hectares, according to the study.
The problem is that the available productive surface of the planet for each of us works out at just 1.9 hectares.
The analysis assumes that only a quarter of the planet is productive and ignores deserts, ice
caps and the deep ocean. Jonathan Loh, editor of the WWF Living Planet Report explains that we can "use"
more of the planet than is available to us because we are overexploiting its resources. We are destroying fish
stocks, overcultivating soils and felling forests faster than they can regrow, he says.
"We do not know exactly what the result will be of running this massive overdraft with the
Earth," says Loh. "What is clear is that it would be better to control our own destiny, rather than leave it up to chance."
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