[Delphis]

I know this is a common thread, but the WWF's Living Planet Index is out and the news is bleak. The newest data shows we are using 30% more resources than the planet can sustain. Peak Oil, peak everything...

Humanity's demand exceeds the planets ability to sustain us...

Here is the full (PDF) report...

2008 Living Planet Report

Your thougts?

[americandream]

I know this is a common thread, but the WWF's Living Planet Index is out and the news is bleak. The newest data shows we are using 30% more resources than the planet can sustain. Peak Oil, peak everything...

Humanity's demand exceeds the planets ability to sustain us...

Here is the full (PDF) report...

2008 Living Planet Report

Your thougts?

This will not halt for the foreseeable future. It will have to get worse before we act to stop it and that will probably be out of panic. A sort of eco-bailout scenario except that it will probably be violent.

[ohanian]

I'm an Easter Islander
I chop down trees
and I fish all day
I have a lot of children
Just like all my friends
My future is so bright
Because the Gods are on my side


Everybody now!
We're Easter Islanders
Masters of our world.
We create wealth of out nothing.
And the Gods are on our side.

. . .

[VMarcHart]

Good find, Delphis. Thank you.

News like these is one reason I'm concerned but not overly panicky about peak oil, the financial crisis, etc. Overshoot trumps all that, and I'm quite certain die-off it will happen within my life, or if you, it will end my life.

I don't think 6B people will die overnight, but I'll lose many of my friends in relatively short time. Then it will be my turn.

[Ludi]

I thought you didn't accept information from the internets, VMarcHart. Or have you changed?

[VMarcHart]

I thought you didn't accept information from the internets, VMarcHart. Or have you changed?

That's a fair question. 'Take everything at face value' and 'trust the internets at your own risk' are still my mottos.

Then there's the source. Is it an accredited source or an out-of-context sound-bite from a random internet person's blog, ie, "they want to confiscate our 401k's and IRA's!"?

The WWF --despite having a biased agenda bigger than my beer gut-- falls more within the former rather than the latter, and they have been publishing the Living Planet Index since before Al Gore invented the internet.

No change. Still the same ol' skeptic VMH.

[Ludi]

No, you've definitely changed. You thank people for info now.

[VMarcHart]

No, you've definitely changed. You thank people for info now.

I always thanked people for good info.

[Delphis]

I thought the report was concise and to the point. I have a number of friends who fish the Bering Sea and a cousin that works for NOAA. The scarcity of some species is almost as alarming as the parabolic rate of drop off. We talk a lot on PO about massive human die-off and how it must occur, I think we could learn a lot about the rate, and depth by taking a closer look at our fellow organisms in the bioshpere, not to get all hippy dippy on everyone or anything. My thought is similar to VMarcHart, overshoot makes everything else look like a case of athletes' foot compared to the complete limbiotic failure of the eco-sphere...IMHO.