A failure to act on global warming could devastate the future world economy on a scale not seen since the world wars and the great depression, says a report released by the British government on Monday. Another report, released by the WWF last week, highlights the loss of non-renewable resources, ecological degradation, and increasing rates of species extinction, and pegs Canadians as some of the worst abusers of the environment.
The detailed 700-page written by senior British government economist Sir Nicholas Stern has a simple message: The cost to the future world economy of not cutting carbon emissions could be between 5 to 20 percent of the global GDP, while acting now would only cost 1 percent.
Concurrently, WWF biennial report focuses on the overall state of the natural world, reporting that humans are degrading the ecosystems at an unprecedented rate and using the planet's natural recourses faster than they can be renewed.
"We have been exceeding the Earth's ability to support our life-styles for the past 20 years, and we need to stop," reads a foreword by WWF Director General James Leape.
A Stern Warning
The Stern report warns that if proper action is not taken, 200 million people could become refugees because of rising sea levels and drought, and up to 40 percent of wildlife species could become extinct.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who called the report "a landmark in the struggle against climate change," called for "bold" and "decisive" action to cut carbon emissions.
The British government has also asked Al Gore, who has become a powerful environmental activist since his defeat in the 2000 U.S. presidential election, to advise them on climate change.
The report is expected to increase the pressure on a number of countries such as the United States to take more aggressive measures to combat climate change. The United States has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which requires the member-nations to cut emissions below their 1990 levels over a five-year commitment period from 2008 to 2012.
In Canada, the Conservative government has abandoned the 6 percent emission reduction targets set under the Kyoto treaty, arguing the target was not realistic, and is instead setting a long-term target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45 to 65 percent by 2050 under the proposed Clean Air Act.
The Conservative's environmental plan, which was tabled in the parliament in October, has come under tremendous criticism by the opposition parties who say the government should do more to fight climate change.
Earlier this week, New Democrat Party leader Jack Layton threatened to introduce a non-confidence motion unless the Tories allow the opposition parties to rewrite the Clean Air Act.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper agreed to consider NDP's proposal to change the Act after a brief meeting with Layton on Monday.
WWF Calls to Reduce Planetary 'Footprint'
The underlying message of the WWF report is similar to what has been championed by conservationists for the past several years.
It is alarming that we are using 25 percent more natural recourses than our planet could regenerate, and our impact on the planet has more than tripled compared to 1961. If current trends continue, projects the report, we will be using two planet's worth of natural recourses by middle of the century.
The impacts of this strain can already been seen affecting wildlife population around the globe. Data gathered between 1970 and 2003 shows a downward trend in the population of 1300 vertebrate species, with a decline of 31 percent in terrestrial, 28 percent in freshwater, and 27 percent in marine species.
"This global trend suggests that we are degrading natural ecosystems at a rate unprecedented in human history," says the report.
Each person occupies an average ecological footprint of 2.2 global hectares—a hectare with world-average ability to produce recourses and absorb waste—while the planet can only offer 1.8 hectares per person.
And North Americans have a substantial role in contributing to this ecological degradation. With 17 percent of the global biocapacity and only 5 percent of the world population, North America accounts for 22 percent of the world's ecological footprint.
In 2003, the average American required 9.6 global hectares, ranking second behind United Arab Emirates with an average of 11.9 hectares, while Canada, ranking fourth behind Finland, held a 7.6 hectares average.
"If everyone in the world lived like a Canadian, it would take four planets worth of recourses to support us," says Steven Price, WWF-Canada Conservation Director.
"We're 4 times over the sustainability maximum for our ecological footprint."
Of course, Canada's small 30-million population leads to a relatively small overall footprint, while the 300-million population in the U.S. multiplied by the per-capita footprint contributes to a substantial stress on the planet.
"Our pressure [on the environment] has gone up in the last 20 years, but our human development hasn't improved [as much]," says Price.
According to the report, climate-changing fossil fuel emissions now account for almost half of the global footprint, having increased more than nine-fold from 1961 to 2003.
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