KEY POINTS:
A landmark assessment by the United Nations of the state of the world's environment paints the bleakest picture yet of our planet's wellbeing.
The warning is stark: humanity's future is at risk unless urgent action is taken. Over the past 20 years, almost every index of the planet's health has worsened. At the same time, personal wealth in the richest countries has grown by a third.
The report, by the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep), warns that the vital natural resources which support life on Earth have suffered significantly since the first such report, published in 1987.
However, this gradual depletion of the world's natural "capital" has coincided with unprecedented economic gains for developed nations which, for many people, have masked the growing crisis.
Nearly 400 experts from around the world contributed to the report, which warns that humanity itself could be at risk if nothing is done to address the three major environmental problems of a growing human population, climate change and the mass extinction of animals and plants.
The report is the fruit of five years' work by leading scientists and is the fourth in a series since the publication in 1987 of Our Common Future by an international commission into the state of the global environment chaired by the former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland.
Achim Steiner, the executive director of Unep, said the objective of the latest report was not to present a "dark and gloomy scenario" but to make the case for an urgent call to action.
"Without an accelerated effort to reform the way we collectively do business on planet Earth, we will shortly be in trouble if indeed we are not already," Steiner said.
"There have been enough wake-up calls. I sincerely hope this is the final one. The bill we hand on to our children may prove impossible to pay."
Unep's Global Environment Outlook (GEO-4) states that the human demand on the planet now means we are living beyond our means.
* The present footprint is equivalent to 22ha per person, whereas the natural carrying capacity of the Earth is less than 16ha per person.
* The world economy has at the same time boomed, with the global GDP per capita rising from about US$6000 to just over US$8000. But this increased wealth has come at an enormous cost to the environment.
* Available freshwater stocks have declined dramatically since the 1980s. In west Asia, for instance, stocks have fallen from 1700 cu m per person per year, to 907 cu m today.
* In 1987, a hectare of cropland yielded 1.8 tonnes of produce, but due to intensification this had increased to 2.5 tonnes.
* In Canada and the United States, for instance, the demand for energy has grown by 19 per cent since 1987.
* Species of animals and plants are estimated to be going extinct at a rate that is about 100 times faster than the historical record, largely as a result of human activities.
Biologists have now classified 30 per cent of amphibians, 23 per cent of mammals and 12 per cent of birds as threatened.
- Independent
