Earth's environment getting worse, not better, says WWF ahead of Rio+20

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/15/earth-environment-wwf-rio20?intcmp=122


Rubbish and pollution blight a canal on the outskirts of Beijing. The average Beijinger has a footprint three times the Chinese average, says WWF. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images


Twenty years on from the Rio Earth summit, the environment of the planet is getting worse not better, according to a report from WWF.

Swelling population, mass migration to cities, increasing energy use and soaring carbon dioxide emissions mean humanity is putting a greater squeeze on the planet's resources then ever before. Particularly hard hit is the diversity of animals and plants, upon which many natural resources such as clean water are based.

"The Rio+20 conference next month is an opportunity for the world to get serious about the need for development to become sustainable. Our report indicates that we haven't yet done that since the last Rio summit," said David Nussbaum, WWF-UK chief executive.

The latest Living Planet report, published on Tuesday, estimates that global demand for natural resources has doubled since 1996 and that it now takes 1.5 years to regenerate the renewable resources used in one year by humans. By 2030, the report predicts it will take the equivalent of two planets to meet the current demand for resources.

[GliderGuider]

1. This is not news, but this too is reality.

[Nederland]

7. Interesting

This graph comes from a 2012 article in Smithsonian Magazine. One has to wonder why they choose to end the observed trends at the year 2000 when an additional 10 years of data is easily available. Why leave off 25% of the data?

[GliderGuider]

8. Why do you ask?

Do you think there's hanky-panky going on and the trend has magically reversed in the last decade?
How do you know the data is easily available? Do you have it?
Why do you say they "chose" to publish truncated data? Were you part of their editorial board?

[Nederland]

9. I prefer as much data as possible

Is that odd?

It took me less than a minute to find Food per capita through 2009, so yes, the data is easily available. When the data is easily available and not included, I think the verb 'choose' is appropriate.

[GliderGuider]

11. Have you seen Graham Turner's paper?

Published in 2008. It doesn't contain any more recent data than in the graph I posted, but he gives a pretty thorough look at the derivation of the plots.

http://www.csiro.au/files/files/plje.pdf

Overall, we seem to be pretty much on target for a Standard Run future. Whether that includes the collapse projected for around mid-century remains to be seen.

[stuntcat]

2. k

...

[hatrack]

3. "An opportunity for the world to get serious about . . . sustainable"

I may be crazy, but haven't we had a few such opportunities in the last, oh, 50 or 60 years?

[GliderGuider]

5. The problem is that true sustainability

is simply not achievable from where we are today, let alone the cognitively dissonant oxymoron "sustainable development".

Depending on how you look at it, humanity has been in overshoot since 1975 (a la the "global footprint" bullshit) - or more realistically since 1900 (fossil fuels) or 8,000 BC (agriculture). Achieving true sustainability would require that we drop back to an aggregate level of consumption prior to whichever date you choose.

We obviously won't do that, and TPTB know this. So they keep putting on these environmental dog and pony shows to keep the sheeple asleeple while the circus careens onward. Until...

"With a very unpleasing sneezing and wheezing the calliope crashed to the ground."

[hatrack]

10. Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes (can't attribute, since I've forgotten but . .. )

"We'll keep on doing what we do until we can't, and then we won't."

[The2ndWheel]

4. You know how the economy gets worse if the 1% hoards all the money?

It works the same way when the 1% of the planet(humanity) attempts to hoard all the resources, which is really what civilization is all about.

Civilization has been an incredible mechanism for crowding out everything else. It's our attempt to write the rules which govern life in our favor. Just like what the 1% does in relation to the government.

So unless all of the history, momentum, and complexity of human society for the last few thousand years just stops, the Rio+20 conference, or anything like it, isn't going to do much of anything. We're not going to give up our dominion easily.

[GliderGuider]

6. +1000