Home > WWF Says Earth in Trouble
GENEVA - Humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels, the spread of cities, the destruction
of natural habitats for farmland and over- exploitation of the oceans are destroying
Earth’s ability to sustain life, the environmental group WWF warned in a new
report Thursday.
The biggest consumers of nonrenewable natural resources are the United Arab Emirates,
the United States, Kuwait, Australia and Sweden, who leave the biggest "ecological
footprint," the World Wildlife Fund said in its regular Living Planet Report.
Humans currently consume 20 percent more natural resources than the Earth can produce, the report said.
"We are spending nature’s capital faster than it can regenerate," said WWF chief Claude Martin, releasing the 40-page study.
Fred Smith, president of the Washington-based Competitive Enterprise Institute and a former official of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during the Nixon and Ford administrations, was skeptical. Smith said the WWF view is "static" and fails to take into account the benefits many people get from resource use.
Use of fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil increased by almost 700 percent between 1961 and 2001, the study said.
The planet is unable to keep pace and absorb the emissions, WWF said.