Global ecosystems 'face collapse'

[YankeyMCC]

(snip)
Current global consumption levels could result in a large-scale ecosystem collapse by the middle of the century, environmental group WWF has warned.
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(snip)
The loss was a result of resources being consumed faster than the planet could replace them, the authors said.
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"The cities, power plants and homes we build today will either lock society into damaging over-consumption beyond our lifetimes, or begin to propel this and future generations towards sustainable one planet living."
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Under the "business as usual" scenario, the authors projected that to meet the demand for resources in 2050 would be twice as much as what the Earth could provide.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6077798.stm

[SammyWinstonJack]

1. ..

[Poppyseedman]

2. No need to worry.....

By 2050 Europe and will be in the hands of the Islam Caliphate and Sharia Law will fix it quickly.

[sweetheart]

3. "31% of species are wiped out since 1970"

Terrestrial species had declined by 31% between 1970-2003, the findings showed. (WOW!)

Fish will become a luxury within 100 years, and a super exotic delicacy in 200 years.

Not living in a prison, where the earth has been completely obliterated will be for a
few rich polar nations with water and the military resources to keep the hungry hoards
from simply taking their preserve. Russia will likely become colonized by china, and
canada by america, all in the hope of escaping the prison-conditions of the global bush
terrorist world.

[The2ndWheel]

4. Our entire existence today is based on growth

We're not stopping voluntarily. The best we'll do is improve efficiency, which will only lead to more people using, wanting, and expecting more.

[YankeyMCC]

6. True

It's hard to imagine humanity collectively giving up the idea of continued growth. It used to be that the prevalent open and accepted view was the world was here for humanity to exploit. Now that's still at the core of the corporate global economy but in the last hundred years all we've accomplished is to make it slightly less popular to openly advocate complete exploitation of the earth. Now it's mostly relegated to boardrooms, and when it's stated in public forums it's more subtle and hedged with claims of 'environmental understanding' or 'balance with conservation'.

But it is still popular to talk of 'continued growth'. It's the same thing really. And given the time we appear to have left and the slowness of the change in attitude I'm afraid (for my son if not for myself) humanity will not adjust in time to stop a catastrophic collapse, at best the survivors will find a way to eek out a life.

[RC]

5. The root cause is our arrogance leading to over population of

the only home we can ever know. Our over population is killing this planet. Human Beings are the weed species and mother nature is getting ready to eradicate the pest that is killing all other creation here.

[lectrobyte]

7. Kill the planet? We are not even a fart in geologic terms. I can't think of anything

we could do that would even be detectable in a few million years, much less fatal. Perhaps Mr. Carlin is right, we are just Mother Nature's way of getting more plastic into her diet. Now, if you are concerned with the fate of humanity, then I admit, some days it ain't lookin' so good...

[RC]

8. How many species have we killed off? How many forests

have we converted to farm land? How much farm land have we paved over?

[lectrobyte]

9. Too much. I agree that we are doing a shitty job as stewards. Just

basically making the point that we will kill ourselves off way before we'd even come close to killing the planet.