The World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) produce a report every two years on the state of our planet. The last report was published in 2008; the next instalment is due in October 2010. With the WWF’s headline ‘ Humanity’s demands exceed our planet’s capacity to sustain us’ things don’t bode well.
“Humanity’s demand on the planet has more than doubled over the past 45 years as a result of population growth and increasing individual consumption. In 1961, almost all countries in the world had more than enough capacity to meet their own demand; by 2005, the situation had changed radically, with many countries able to meet their needs only by importing resources from other nations and by using the global atmosphere as a dumping ground for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. In an overexploited world, ecological debtor nations are particularly at risk from local and global overshoot, and from the associated decline in ecosystem services, the life support system on which humanity depends” states the Living Planet Report 2008.
No matter where you live- in the heart of a large city metropolis, a small rural village or the edge of a rain forest all our livelihoods and to a greater extent our lives depend on the services by our Earth’s natural systems.
Time is running out – unless we all do something
In the last 35 years alone the Earth’s wildlife populations have declined by one third. To quote again the Living Planet Report 2008, “Our global footprint now exceeds the world’s capacity to regenerate by about 30%. If our demands on the planet continue at the same rate, by the mid-2030’s we will need the equivalent of two planets to maintain our lifestyles.”
- More than three-quarters of the world’s people live in nations that are ecological debtors - their national consumption has outstripped their nation’s biocapacity.
- In the last forty years the world has moved from ecological credit to ecological deficit.
- In 35 years (1970 – 2005), marine species have declined by 14% in 1,175 populations of 341 marine species.
- The Terrestrial vertebrate population has declined by 33%.
However, the human race as an incredible track record of ingenuity and problem solving. When faced with disasters (natural or man-made) we put our thinking-caps on and come to the rescue. In most cases the rescue operation is with great success.
It’s not all doom and gloom (yet)! We do have the means and capacity to reverse this situation or as some are calling it, ‘ the ecological credit crunch’. We CAN prevent an irreversible ecological recession setting in. We need to manage our ecosystems better – both wildlife and marine. As humans, it is easy to force our will on nature and think we are doing ‘good’. Unfortunately this simply won’t work. We have to manage resources on nature’s terms AND at nature’s scale.
What is the answer?
There are so many different and varied answers as to what we all can do to reverse the ecological credit crunch – unfortunately we don’t have the space to answer them all here. However, in the context of what Volunteer Compass is endeavouring to do, what you can do to help, is by volunteering for a project. As individuals we can’t make a huge impact on the situation however, with all of us helping – we can make a difference. It all starts by selecting a project, reading on and around the subject and then helping.
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