Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Environmentalists Get Their Story Right

I've been writing a lot about the financial crisis because its a current issue and it's really exposing some of the underwork of the world financial system but with everyone talking about that and the upcoming US election there is less focus on long term issues. One of these is global warming/environmental destruction, and I just read a BBC article about the newly released Living Planet Report by the WWF (which uses Apture on its site) and about how they are comparing it to the current financial crisis by calling it an ecological credit crunch:
The Living Planet Report is the work of WWF, the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network.
It says that more than three quarters of the world's population lives in countries where consumption levels are outstripping environmental renewal. This makes them "ecological debtors", meaning that they are drawing - and often overdrawing - on the agricultural land, forests, seas and resources of other countries to sustain them.

He said the more than $2 trillion (£1.2 trillion) lost on stocks and shares was dwarfed by the up to $4.5 trillion worth of resources destroyed forever each year. The report's Living Planet Index, which is an attempt to measure the health of worldwide biodiversity, showed an average decline of about 30% from 1970 to 2005 in 3,309 populations of 1,235 species.
Really great and timely marketing. And also an important thing to keep in mind and to put things into perspective.

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