[NV Greens] Fwd: USGP-INT Fwd: Guardian: Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up'

[Paul Etxeberri]

>
>
>
>Subject:  LaG-D:  Guardian  Unlimited:  Two-thirds  of  world's
>resources 'used up'
>.
>To  see  this  story  with  its  related  links on the Guardian
>Unlimited site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk
>
>
>Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up'
>
>Tim Radford, science editor
>
>Wednesday March 30 2005
>
>The Guardian
>
>
>The  human  race is living beyond its means. A report backed by
>1,360 scientists from 95 countries - some of them world leaders
>in their fields - today warns that the almost two-thirds of the
>natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded
>by human pressure.
>The  study contains what its authors call "a stark warning" for
>the  entire world. The wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries,
>coastal  fisheries  and  other habitats that recycle air, water
>and  nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably
>damaged. In effect, one species is now a hazard to the other 10
>million or so on the planet, and to itself.
>"Human  activity  is  putting  such  a  strain  on  the natural
>functions  of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems
>to  sustain  future  generations  can  no  longer  be taken for
>granted," it says.
>The  report,  prepared in Washington under the supervision of a
>board   chaired   by  Robert  Watson,  the  British-born  chief
>scientist  at the World Bank and a former scientific adviser to
>the White House, will be launched today at the Royal Society in
>London. It warns that:
>·  Because  of human demand for food, fresh water, timber,
>fibre  and  fuel, more land has been claimed for agriculture in
>the last 60 years than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined.
>·  An  estimated  24%  of  the Earth's land surface is now
>cultivated.
>·  Water  withdrawals from lakes and rivers has doubled in
>the  last  40  years. Humans now use between 40% and 50% of all
>available freshwater running off the land.
>· At least a quarter of all fish stocks are overharvested.
>In  some  areas, the catch is now less than a hundredth of that
>before industrial fishing.
>·  Since  1980, about 35% of mangroves have been lost, 20%
>of  the world's coral reefs have been destroyed and another 20%
>badly degraded.
>· Deforestation and other changes could increase the risks
>of  malaria  and  cholera,  and open the way for new and so far
>unknown disease to emerge.
>In  1997,  a  team  of biologists and economists tried to put a
>value  on  the  "business  services" provided by nature -   the
>free  pollination  of  crops,  the air conditioning provided by
>wild  plants,  the  recycling  of nutrients by the oceans. They
>came  up  with  an  estimate  of $33 trillion, almost twice the
>global  gross  national  product  for that year. But after what
>today's  report,  Millennium  Ecosystem  Assessment,  calls "an
>unprecedented period of spending Earth's natural bounty" it was
>time to check the accounts.
>"That  is  what  this assessment has done, and it is a sobering
>statement  with much more red than black on the balance sheet,"
>the  scientists  warn. "In many cases, it is literally a matter
>of  living  on  borrowed  time.  By  using up supplies of fresh
>groundwater  faster than they can be recharged, for example, we
>are depleting assets at the expense of our children."
>Flow  from  rivers  has been reduced dramatically. For parts of
>the year, the Yellow River in China, the Nile in Africa and the
>Colorado  in  North America dry up before they reach the ocean.
>An  estimated  90%  of  the  total  weight of the ocean's large
>predators  -  tuna,  swordfish  and sharks - has disappeared in
>recent  years. An estimated 12% of bird species, 25% of mammals
>and  more  than  30%  of  all  amphibians  are  threatened with
>extinction within the next century. Some of them are threatened
>by invaders.
>The Baltic Sea is now home to 100 creatures from other parts of
>the  world,  a  third  of  them  native  to  the Great Lakes of
>America.  Conversely,  a  third of the 170 alien species in the
>Great Lakes are originally from the Baltic.
>Invaders can make dramatic changes: the arrival of the American
>comb  jellyfish  in  the Black Sea led to the destruction of 26
>commercially  important  stocks  of  fish.  Global  warming and
>climate  change,  could  make  it  increasingly  difficult  for
>surviving species to adapt.
>A  growing  proportion of the world lives in cities, exploiting
>advanced  technology.  But  nature, the scientists warn, is not
>something to be enjoyed at the weekend. Conservation of natural
>spaces is not just a luxury.
>"These are dangerous illusions that ignore the vast benefits of
>nature  to  the lives of 6 billion people on the planet. We may
>have distanced ourselves from nature, but we rely completely on
>the services it delivers."
>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand