LIVING PLANET REPORT 2010

The world's leading, science-based analysis on the health of our only planet and the impact of human activity

The Living Planet Report (LPR) documents the changing state of biodiversity, ecosystems and humanity’s consumption of natural resources

One of the LPR’s longest-running measures of the trends in the state of global biodiversity the Living Planet Index (LPI) shows an alarming and consistent overall trend since the first LPR was published in 1998: a global decline of almost 30 per cent between 1970 and 2007.

Trends regarding tropical and temperate species’ populations are starkly divergent: the tropical LPI has declined by 60 per cent while the temperate LPI has increased by almost 30 per cent. Tropical freshwater species have declined by almost 70 per cent. Biodiversity loss can cause ecosystems to become stressed or degraded, and even eventually to collapse. This threatens the continued provision of ecosystem services, which in turn further threatens biodiversity and ecosystem health.

Crucially, the dependency of human society on ecosystem services makes the loss of these services a serious threat to the future well-being and development of all people, all around the world.

ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT
The Ecological Footprint tracks the area of biologically productive land and water required to provide the renewable resources people use, and includes the space needed for infrastructure and vegetation to absorb waste carbon dioxide (CO2). It shows an alarming and consistent trend: one of continuous growth.

In 2007, the most recent year for which data is available, the Footprint exceeded the Earth’s biocapacity — the area actually available to produce renewable resources and absorb CO2 — by 50 per cent. Overall, humanity’s Ecological Footprint has doubled since 1966(...)

GREEN ECONOMY. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Through aggressive energy efficiency efforts, backed by investments in renewable energy it is possible to reduce the world’s carbon footprint in the future. It is also possible to reduce the global footprint on agricultural land – though if, by 2050, 9.2 billion people demand a high-calorie, high-meat-and-dairy diet, the world will run-out of suitable land...

Source: LIVING PLANET REPORT 2010
Author: WWF

Link: Humans consuming more resources than Earth can sustain: report
Link: The Living Planet Report is helping raise public awareness of the pressures on the biosphere and spreading the message that 'business as usual' is not an option.