Wanted: New Planet

Posted on Oct 29, 2008

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Countries’ ecological footprints, shown in this 2003 map, are used to demonstrate the high per-capita levels of natural resource consumption and waste by industrial nations.

If first you don’t succeed, get a new planet. A new World Wildlife Fund survey has found that, given the current rate of global consumption, and taking into account the capacity of the Earth to regenerate its own resources, the human species will need an entirely new planet by mid-2030 to keep up with our demand for resources and waste disposal.

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Bloomberg:

That’s what humans will need by the mid-2030s to keep up with our demand for metals, fossil fuels, timber and waste disposal, the environmental group WWF said in a global survey that found the United Arab Emirates to be the most wasteful country.

Humanity’s consumption exceeds the Earth’s capacity to regenerate its resources by 30 percent, the organization known in the U.S. as the World Wildlife Fund said today in a joint report with the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network, an Oakland, California-based research group.

“We are already living in a way that the planet cannot sustain, and the problem is getting worse by the year,” WWF Director-General James Leape said by telephone in London.

Losing plants and animals erodes wealth of human beings, the European Commission said in May. Trees and animals protect coasts, provide food and medicines and conserve soil. Their disappearance may clip the equivalent of 7 percent of economic output by 2050, the commission said in a study on the economics of biodiversity.

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