Humans living beyond our means

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millenniumassessment.org

A new report prepared by 1360 scientists from 95 countries says humans have changed the world more over the last 50 years than at any other time. This is placing huge strain on the world's natural resources.

Damaged planet = devastating poverty

The UN's Millennium Ecosystem Assessment says the destruction of the natural world is an increasingly significant barrier to raising global living standards.

Human activity is putting such a strain on the Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted.

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

According to the report, goals to halve poverty and hunger by 2015 will not be met, and hunger and malnutrition will remain problems even in 2050.

Need for action ignored?

Friends of the Earth would have liked the report to provide more detail on the solutions needed to combat the problem.

The Millennium Assessment cuts to the heart of one of the greatest challenges facing humanity - that we cannot maintain high standards of living, let alone relieve poverty, if we don't look after the Earth's life support systems.

Yet it hasn't gone far enough in specifying the radical solutions needed. If we are to respect the limits imposed by nature, and ensure the well-being of all humanity, we must manage the global economy to produce a fairer distribution of the Earth's resources.

Roger Higman,
Environmental Coordinator
Friends of the Earth

Key findings from the report

Inequality is growing - over one billion people survive on less than $1 a day.
1.8 million people die annually due to inadequate hygiene, sanitation or water.
One quarter of the world's coral reefs and 35 per cent of mangroves in surveyed countries were destroyed or badly degraded in the last decades of the 20th century.
At least a quarter of commercially important fish stocks are over-harvested.
Artificial fertiliser use has boomed since 1985, causing global water pollution problems.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased by a third since 1750.

What can be done?

The report says significant changes in policy could reduce many of the bad effects from rising pressures on ecosystems and benefit dependent communities.

Friends of the Earth believes that the challenge of managing natural resources requires big changes to the global economic system, including:

Greater government intervention
to protect the environment and limit pollution.
New trade rules
to allow governments to protect the environment and their peoples.
Greater regulation of corporations
to make company directors liable for the environmental damage they do.