Living Planet Report 2012
Yona Maro
Ever-growing
human demand for resources, is putting tremendous pressures on
biodiversity. This threatens the continued provision of ecosystem
services, which not only further threatens biodiversity but also our own
species’ future security, health and well-being.
The Living
Planet Index continues to show around a 30 per cent global decline in
biodiversity health since 1970. This trend is seen across terrestrial,
freshwater and marine ecosystems, but is greatest for freshwater
species, whose populations show an average 37 per cent decline. The
tropical freshwater index declined even more precipitously, by 70 per
cent. Overall, the global tropical index declined by 60 per cent since
1970. In contrast, the index for temperate regions increased by 31 per
cent over the same period. However, this does not necessarily mean that
temperate biodiversity is in a better state than tropical biodiversity,
as the temperate index disguises huge historical losses prior to the
start of the analysis.
The Water Footprint of Production provides
a second indication of human demand on renewable resources. For the
first time, this report includes an analysis of water availability
throughout the year in the world’s major river basins. This shows that
2.7 billion people around the world already live in catchments that
experience severe water shortages for at least one month a year.
Continuing
with “business as usual” will have serious, and potentially
catastrophic, consequences. In particular, continued increases in
greenhouse gas emissions will irreversibly commit the world to a global
average temperature rise of well over 2oC, which will severely disrupt
the functioning of almost all global ecosystems and dramatically affect
human development and well-being.