Current global consumption patterns would require a second Earth - 25 Oct 2010  
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The “2010 Living Planet Report” by the World Wildlife Fund, which measures the global consumption of natural resources, has found that natural resources are currently being consumed at 1.5 times the capacity that Earth can provide.

By measuring each country’s carbon, water, and other resources, and then calculating the amounts used by an average person, the WWF found that some countries have such enormous ecological footprints that they would use the resources of six planets if everyone on Earth lived in the same manner.

Such excessive levels of consumption are placing immense pressure on natural habitats and the wildlife they support, which is reflected in a 30% decline of biodiversity across the globe since 1970 with tropical regions devastated losses of 60%.

In calculating what is known as an Ecological Footprint, the report identified human activities that use land or aquatic environments and found that livestock raising, including crops raised for feed, as well as fishing, result in immense environmental depletion.
Thus, WWF UK Chief Executive David Nussbaum urges for reductions in dietary meat consumption as a logical way to preserve both resources and biodiversity.

Many thanks, Chief Executive Nussbaum and World Wildlife Fund for this report, highlighting our urgent need to simplify for the sake of the Earth’s survival. Let us swiftly transition to the resource-sparing plant-based diet to help restore the balance of life on the planet.
Speaking with concern about the damage to our ecosphere during an interview published in the December 16, 2009 edition of The Irish Dog Journal, Supreme Master Ching Hai affirmed the critical need to stop meat consumption for the preservation of the Earth.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The livestock sector is the single largest human use of land, and the top driving force behind rainforest destruction. The livestock industry causes a large part of the world’s soil erosion. It is a leading driver of desertification, biodiversity loss, and water waste, and water pollution – despite water becoming scarcer each day due to global warming.

Moreover, the livestock sector inefficiently drains our fossil fuel and food grain resources. In short, we throw away 12 times more grain, at least 10 times more water, and 8 times more fossil fuel energy to produce a portion of beef compared to a nutritionally similar or even greater amount of vegan food.
A major study predicts that all fished animals will be 90% gone by 2050 due to overfishing and over wasting bycatch.

Moreover, it is such an alarming picture when we think about the billions of animals killed each year for so-called food. Fifty-five billion, which is not even counting fish and other species! That is 8 times more innocent beings murdered each year than there are people on the Earth.

I pray that our world’s leaders will take swift actions to ban the destructive meat production and, instead, use subsidies for organic vegan farming which helps absorb emissions.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/World_Wildlife_Fund/2010_Living_Planet_Report/prweb4645084.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8061709/Britons-use-three-times-the-planets-resources.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8061676/Tropical-species-decline-by-60-per-cent.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101013/sc_afp/environmentspeciesbiodiversitywarming_20101013123412