HUMANS USE ONE QUARTER OF ALL NATURAL RESOURCES

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NEW SCIENTIST - Almost a quarter of nature's resources are now being
gobbled up by a single species – humans. People appropriate 24% of the
Earth's production capacity that would otherwise have gone to nature,
according to figures for the year 2000, the most recent available. The
analysis was performed by Helmut Haberl, of Klagenfurt University in
Vienna, Austria, and colleagues using UN Food and Agriculture
Organisation data on agricultural land use in 161 countries, covering
97.4% of the planet's land surface.

The result is a gradual depletion of species and habitats as we take
more of their resources for ourselves. And things could get even worse,
they say, if we grow more plants like palm oil and rapeseed for biofuels
to ease our reliance on fossil fuels.

By comparing carbon consumption through human activity with the amount
of carbon consumed overall, Haberl's team found that humans use 15.6
trillion kilograms of carbon annually.

Half was soaked up by growing crops. Seven per cent went up in smoke as
fires lit by humans, and the rest was used up in a variety of other ways
related to industrialization, such as transport.

Haberl says that the Earth can just about cope if we meet future needs
by producing food more efficiently. This could be done by intensifying
production on the land used now. But we are asking for trouble, he says,
if we expand production of biofuels, as the only fertile land available
is tropical rainforests.

http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12176-humanity-
gobbles-a-quarter-of-natures-resources.html


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