Step #7 - Understand the basics – learn the latest news

Yesterday the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released its latest report which is considered the most important diagnose of the planet’s health. My take on the report is not optimistic. Different from previous reports I had seen, this one tells we’ll need 2 planets by end of 2030 and 3 planets by 2050.

Picture taken from http://oneearthsolutions.net/

In simple terms the “we need 2 planets” means that everything we consume in 1 year, needs 2 years to regenerate. The other way we’ve heard about this is that we are “stealing from the future”. To understand this term imagine you are going to a desert island for a period of time and you think you need 1 glass of water a day to survive. However because you waste, misuse or had more water, you start using 2 glasses a day. So when you are midway into your journey you have almost consumed all the water you took with you, and there is nothing for the future. That’s stealing from the future.

As I have read in many places now, enviromental crisis is not a prediction, it's actually happening. According to the WWF report, biodiversity dropped by about 30% worldwide over the past 40 years, from which the big hit is on tropical species that declined by 60%. The report also says: "We are using 50 percent more resources than the earth can support. Today we are living as if we had 1 1/2 planets, if we continue like this, by 2050 we will need three planets. Our pattern of consumption is unsustainable."On average, the WWF said, high-income countries have an ecological footprint that is five times that of low-income ones.

Get it? The way we consume is unsustainable, period.

What are you doing to save the planet today?
Sources:

http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_report/  

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/story/2012/05/15/world-wildlife-fund-report-canada.html
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2012/05/15/WWF-report-By-2050-we-will-need-3-planets/UPI-85601337117734/?spt=hs&or=sn