Earth's Biodiversity Vanishing Under Human Ecological Footprint

(2 October 2020) After WWII the world entered an era of unprecedented economic growth. Three simple facts capture the magnitude of this change. Between 1960 and 2019 (1) the global economy increased more that seven times; (2) average per capita income and personal consumption increased almost 3 times; and (3) the world population climbed by more than 2.5 percent from 3 billion to 7.7 billion. But while we continue to measure the success of humanity in economic terms, some important components of human development remain hidden in the shadows. One of them is the environment. 

To understand not just the final results of human activities (i.e. global economic growth), but the full price that humanity pays for growing consumption, environmental measures are required.  The environment provides not only the biological resources we heavily consume, but it also absorbs the waste and greenhouse gasses generated by the world's citizens and economic activities and that comes at a steep (and growing) cost.

• Data from the Global Footprint Network shows that the global economy consumes much more biological resources (the so called 'ecological footprint') than our environment can produce (in other words 'biocapacity').
• The gap between society's ecological footprint and earth's biocapacity emerged in the early 1970s and has continued to widen since, with nearly 90% of todays' ecological deficit generated in Asia. 
• The pace of decline of biodiversity raises red flags about the sustainability of global growth. Wildlife populations have already plummeted 68 percent during the last 50 years, according to the latest Living Planet Report. Living Planet data points to land-use changes, particularly the conversion of forests, grasslands, and mangroves into agricultural systems, as the most important driver behind the loss of biodiversity.