Archived press release

Uk must make massive reductions in consumption - new book sets targets

19 November 1997

NEW BOOK RELEASE: Tomorrow's World - Britain's Share in a Sustainable Future,Friends of the Earth, Earthscan, 1997 [1]

“I wholeheartedly support this book and urge decision-makers in all areas to take note of it” - Lord Rogers of Riverside, internationally acclaimed architect

“This book goes straight on to our 'must read' list for business organisations” - John Elkington, SustainAbility

“This is the first book of the 21st century” - Ed Mayo, New Economics Foundation

Britain will have to make huge cuts in consumption in order to avoid a fast approaching environmental crisis and help the developing world according to a new book published next week (27/11/97). The book - Tomorrow's World - quantifies the massive reductions in resource consumption and pollution which will be vital to preserving our civilisation but shows that these reductions will lead to more jobs, better health and increased quality of life. Urgent action includes:

* Cutting emissions of carbon dioxide by 30 per cent by 2010 and 90 per cent by 2050

* Increasing car efficiency by 50 per cent by 2010

* Cutting traffic levels by 10 per cent by 2010

* Ecological tax reform to tax pollution and waste rather than jobs

* 25 per cent of food to be organically grown by 2010, 100 per cent by 2050

* Cutting consumption of virgin timber and paper by 65 per cent by 2010

* Water abstraction to fall by 15 per cent by 2010 >>MORE>>
* A cut of 20 per cent in primary metals use by 2010 and an 80 per cent cut by 2050

The book argues that the UK must scrap unqualified economic growth as the central policy goal and refocus the economy towards delivering what people really want - meaningful jobs, good health, comfortable homes, low crime and a high quality natural environment.This will mean an overall cut in resource consumption by a factor approaching 10. Actions to meet these targets would create thousands of jobs in renewable energy generation,insulation, recycling, organic agriculture and a wide range of community service industries.

The book's radical findings are based on calculations using the principles of environmental space and fair shares. The first principle identifies the sustainable rate at which a resource can be consumed (eg: carbon dioxide absorbing capacity of the atmosphere, timber resources, etc). This then allows each nation to calculate its fair share of the world's resources based on population size and act accordingly (which means rich countries consuming less but many poorer countries eventually consuming more).

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT TOMORROW'S WORLD:

Susan George, world-famous author and campaigner: “...the only environment-development book you need to read, and act on, this year”

Jonathon Porritt and Sara Parkin, Forum for the Future: “...puts real flesh on the theoretical bones of sustainability...”

Ed Mayo, Director, New Economics Foundation: “This is the first book of the 21st century - a convincing account of the central challenges we now face if we are to secure survival and a meaningful quality of life.”

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] Tomorrow's World is published by Earthscan on 27 November at £12.95. Advance review copies are available from Clare Bruce at Earthscan on 020-7278-0433.

[2] Tomorrow's World Fact Sheet attached

TOMORROW'S WORLD FACT SHEET

Environment

- Every year as much oil is consumed as it takes nature a million years to create
- The ozone hole was 8.3 million square miles in area in 1996. This is bigger than North America
- 13 out of 15 of the world's leading oceanic fisheries are in decline
- World aluminium production generates 1 billion tonnes of waste a year.
- An area the size of China and India combined has suffered moderate to extreme soil degradation in the last 45 years.
- Over 15 million hectares of tropical rainforest (bigger than England) is still destroyed every year. In Brazil, between 1991 and 1994, deforestation increased by 33%.
- The last 5% of old growth forest in Scandinavia is being cut down to supply our enormous demand for timber and paper
- There are less than 8,000 tigers, 13,000 rhinos and 5,000 blue whales left.
- The 10 hottest years in recorded human history have occurred in the eighties and nineties.
- 1995 was the hottest year on record.
- Without action it is estimated that climate change will cause 138,000 extra heat-related deaths a year by 2050 worldwide
- 300 of Britain's finest nature sites (SSSIs) are damaged each year
- In the last 10 years, Britain has lost a quarter - 150,000 kilometres - of its hedgerows
- The UK has 1% of world population but consumes 4% of the world's cadmium, 3% of copper and zinc, 5% of lead and tin, 6% of mercury, 2% of steel, and 2.5% of aluminium.
- Britain consumes 6.8 billion aluminium cans a year - only 1.9 billion get recycled (this is 117 each. 33 get recycled)

Equality

- Global inequity has doubled since 1960, leaving 1.3 billion people in poverty
- Debt servicing payments from South to North exceed aid flows.
- 32,000 children die every day from poverty related-illness
- 800 million people are chronically undernourished
- 67% of Bangladeshi under-fives are malnourished.
- 37% of the world's grain (644 million tonnes) is fed to animals

And in the UK

- Recorded crime has increased 10-fold since the 1950s
- Eight people in ten think society is too materialistic
- Between 1979 and 1991 the proportion of families with no full-time earner rose from 29% to 37%
- In the UK, up to 10,000 people die early due to particulate air pollution
- In the United Nations, the idea of a right “to live in a healthy environment” was opposed by three countries, including the UK.

If you're a journalist looking for press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust