Living Far Beyond Planet's Means

Humans are stripping nature at an unprecedented rate and will need two planets' worth of natural resources every year by 2050 on current trends — if those resources have not run out by then. "We are in serious ecological overshoot, consuming resources faster than the Earth can replace them," WWF International’s Director General James Leape said. “The consequences of this are predictable and dire." (source: 24 Oct, Reuters)

The Living Planet Index (report can be downloaded here), measures biodiversity, based on trends in more than 3,600 populations of 1,300 vertebrate species around the world. In all, data for 695 terrestrial, 344 freshwater and 274 marine species were analyzed. Terrestrial species declined by 31 per cent, freshwater species by 28 per cent, and marine species by 27 per cent.

- Climate change threatens Latin America and the Caribbean (source: WWF International)
- Climate change, fungal disease threaten frogs (source: Reuters)
- There's more to global warming than heat (source: Science Daily)
- Amazon river 'switched direction' (source: BBC News)
- Scientists raise alarm as man-made deserts spread (source: RadioFreeEurope / RadioLiberty)
- Ozone hole is 'biggest on record' (source: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration)

Kenya will host the second meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/MOP 2), in conjunction with the twelfth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP 12), in Nairobi from 6 to 17 November 2006 (source: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change )
Tags: WWF, WWF International, Weather, Climate, Environment, Global Warming, Ozone, Kyoto Protocol, UNFCCC, Planet, Natural Resources, Climate Change