The World Wildlife Fund has released a "report" that claims the Earth can only last till 2050 at the most. I suspect that this little cultural artifact will bring much amusement in 48 years time. The details of our "plundering" include things like deforestation, disappearing species, and certain fish stocks dwindling. I'll let Bjorn Lomborg carry the brunt of countering those claims, mainly because he did such a fine job of it. What I want to point out is that the real aims of the environuts is readily ascertained,
Matthew Spencer, a spokesman for Greenpeace, said: 'There will have to be concessions from the richer nations to the poorer ones or there will be fireworks.'
There you have the crux and the threat. Their purpose is to extort payments from rich countries to pay off poorer ones. The motives probably aren't bad, I believe they probably really do want to help people. They're just stupid. Money has never been the problem. Neither has resources. My biggest problem comes, though, with their methods. Like making outrageous (and easily disproven) claims. Or choosing a metric that has no meaning,
The WWF report shames the US for placing the greatest pressure on the environment. It found the average US resident consumes almost double the resources as that of a UK citizen and more than 24 times that of some Africans.
Based on factors such as a nation's consumption of grain, fish, wood and fresh water along with its emissions of carbon dioxide from industry and cars, the report provides an ecological 'footprint' for each country by showing how much land is required to support each resident.
America's consumption 'footprint' is 12.2 hectares per head of population compared to the UK's 6.29ha while Western Europe as a whole stands at 6.28ha. In Ethiopia the figure is 2ha, falling to just half a hectare for Burundi, the country that consumes least resources.
The report, which will be unveiled in Geneva, warns that the wasteful lifestyles of the rich nations are mainly responsible for the exploitation and depletion of natural wealth. Human consumption has doubled over the last 30 years and continues to accelerate by 1.5 per cent a year.
Now WWF wants world leaders to use its findings to agree on specific actions to curb the population's impact on the planet.
A spokesman for WWF UK, said: 'If all the people consumed natural resources at the same rate as the average US and UK citizen we would require at least two extra planets like Earth.'
You should automatically be suspicious of any metric that privileges Burundi over the U.S. as a model to follow. The suggestion is ridiculous on its face and worse when explored in depth. For one, never, ever forget that consumption has a flip-side—production. The U.S. produces more than it consumes and is a net benefit in all those measurements that show how bad we are. Take CO2 production, for example. The technology of the U.S. has let us give more land to forests than ever before with the result that we are a net CO2 sink (i.e. our forests absorb more CO2 than we produce). If you counted net and not gross, you'd be begging the U.S. to have higher not lower populations for while our consumption might be accelerating by 1.5 per cent a year, our productivity is increasing by over 2 per cent a year.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think we should simply ignore poorer countries. I'd like them to be as well-off as possible. Economics are not a zero sum activity and their progress is not at all a detriment to us. The problem is that too often, they're not much interested in doing the kinds of things that are needed for the prosperity they claim to desire. That's mainly because the foundation is so unglamorous. I mean, farm reform is the basis of gaining lasting prosperity, but that's nowhere near as cool as building a new soccer stadium or airport. And it means a lot of effort (and money) spent with the 'peasants'—people who don't have the power to reward your generosity even in a democratically elected government. And don't ignore the fact that the very eco-nuts who want us to send aid to foreign countries are often the same people who will oppose exactly the reforms that are needed to produce lasting benefits—we don't dare alter centuries old lifestyle and customs. Well, that's what has to happen if you want a country to pull itself out of the third-world pit.
Anyone who wants to convince me that they want to help the third-world has to pass a simple test—how do they want to help? If they talk about drug and food shipments or they go on about the superb native cultures that must be preserved (and they aren't talking about on film or such), then you know immediately that they aren't being very serious about it and are likely trying to assuage a guilty conscience (their own or in presumptive behalf of others). If, on the other hand, they talk about capital investment, you know that they're probably self-interested and that they mean capital they plan to collect money for in one way or another (like by building an airport they plan on capturing the contract for). But if, slim chance, they talk about sending teachers down there who can help people learn new farm and medical techniques then you have yourself a winner and someone you can back with confidence. Real improvement, real aid, takes actual ground-level knowledge and low-level work in improving the technological skills of the people (as opposed to simply improving the technology of the people).