February 24, 2005
2/24 - THE OFFICIAL BAD NEWS FROM WWF: The Living Planet Report for 2004
Yes, I know, everyone's tired of hearing the bad news and feels that environmentalists are alarmists. But facts are facts, and that's what this simple summary from WWF presents (which you can download the pdf version of). The most compelling part of the report are the two graphs below. Take a look at 'em. The first one shows the sad, cumulative decline in animals for the entire planet. The second one says we began exceeding our "ecological footprint" in 1985 (we now need 1.2 planet earth's to sustain our current lifestyle).
The bottom line of all this: The environmental movement is losing. The solution to this problem: Don't lose.
And seriously. Look at that first figure which dropped from 100% to 60% in just 25 years, then extrapolate that for another 50 years. Not a pretty picture.
Fig. 1 - We've only got 60% of the wildlife we had in 1970
Fig. 2 - We now need 1.2 planet earths to sustain our current lifestyle.
THE BOTTOM LINE: We're losing the environmental struggle.