These
statistics come from the Living Planet Report 2004
of the World Wildlife Fund, as printed in the December
2004 issue of HortIdeas:
- Humans currently consume 20% more natural resources
than the Earth can produce.
- Freshwater and marine species fell 40% on average
between 1970 and 2000.
- Humans' ecological footprint has increased two
and a half times since 1970. Energy use, "the
fastest growing component of the ecological footprint,
increased by nearly 700% between 1961 and 2000."
An untitled page of the December/January
2004 issue of The Ecologist reflects on the importance
of genetic diversity. 30 varieties of potatoes are
depicted with the following facts:
- 5,000 varieties of potato have been developed
by the people of the Andes.
- 100 varieties are grown in the UK.
- 4 varieties account for 50 percent of potatoes
grown in the UK.
- 1 variety was planted across much of Ireland
in the 1840s. When a fungus from Europe took hold,
it spread rapidly across the monoculture, causing
the Irish Potato Famine.
- 1,000,000 people died.
From "World Population, Agriculture
and Malnutrition" by David Pimentel and Anne
Wilson in the September/October 2004 issue of World
Watch:
- Per capita, cropland has fallen by more than half
since 1960 and is now only about 0.23 hectare (just
over half an acre).
- Global population has doubled during the last
45 years.
- The populations of China and India constitute
more than one-third of total world population.
- US population has doubled during the past 60
years.
- More than 99.7 percent of human food calories
come from the terrestrial sources.
- Each year an estimated 10 million hectares of
cropland worldwide are abandoned due to soil erosion.
Another 10 million are critically damaged by salinization.
- More than 60% of deforestation worldwide comes
from the need to increase crop production.
- In Beijing China, the groundwater level is falling
about 1 meter per year. In Tianjin, China, it
is dropping 4.4 meters per year. In the US groundwater
overdraft averages 25% greater than replacement
rates.
- About 70% of water removed from all sources
worldwide is used for irrigation.
- Natural gas supplies are already in short supply
in the United States, and U.S. reserves may be
depleted in as little as 20 years.
- U.S. net imports of oil rose to about 53 percent
of total consumption in 2002 and are still going
up.
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