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State of the Planet
All living things need resources to survive, whether for food or to provide shelter. Humans are just extremely efficient at getting hold of them. One third of the world's resources have been used up in the last 30 years. One calculation estimates that in 50 years' time, we will need another planet Earth to sustain the world's population if it keeps using resources the way it does today. But people in countries such as America, Japan, and in Europe can use up to 30 times the amount of resources as people from poor countries. We simply catch too many fish, use too much wood and waste too much fresh water.
At least 70% of the world's important fish stocks are over-exploited already. Paper use has grown six times since 1961. Consumption of freshwater has tripled since 1950, and it is becoming a very scarce resource: one billion people world-wide don't have access to clean drinking water. All together, up to half of all new plant growth each year on the planet is taken for human use.
Tropical hardwood and fish for human consumption. The commercial bushmeat trade takes many rare wild species for luxury food. Tropical orchids, coral reef fish and many reptiles and birds, such as macaws, are taken for pets and our entertainment.
Sustainable natural resource use. Put simply, if we take from the wild, we must do it in ways that allows natural populations to recover and last long into the future. Blue whales and other large marine creatures were brought back from the brink of extinction because we stopped harvesting them to excess. If you catch fish faster than they can reproduce and replace what is taken, there will be no fish for anybody to use in the future. The same goes for forests. Energy sources such as wind and solar power can last forever, and mean that we don't have to use up the world's supply of oil and gas. They are also cleaner and healthier.
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