World Facing Disaster
as Population Booms
--U.N.
Nov 6, 01; By Jeremy Lovell
LONDON (Reuters) - People are plundering the planet at an
unprecedented and unsustainable rate that needs to be curbed
quickly to avoid worldwide disaster, the United Nations said.
. . "More people are using more resources with more intensity than at any point in human history", the United Nations said in its annual world population report for 2001.
. . "The costs of delaying action will increase rapidly over
time. ... By 2050, 4.2 billion people (over 45 percent of the
global total) will be living in countries that cannot meet the
daily requirement of 50 liters (11 gallons) of water per person to meet basic needs."
. . The population, which has doubled to 6.1 billion in the
past 40 years, is projected to surge 50 percent to 9.3 billion
within another half century -- with all the growth in
developing countries whose resources are already overstretched.
The report said water was being used and polluted at
catastrophic rates.
WATER CONSUMPTION SURGES
. . Currently, 54 percent of available freshwater supplies are being used annually -- two-thirds for agriculture.
That figure is set to surge to 70 percent by 2025 due to
population growth alone, and 90 percent if consumption in the
developing countries reached the levels in the developed world.
Water is already being used at unsustainable rates in many
countries, with water tables under some Chinese, Latin American
and South Asian cities dropping by more than 3 feet a year and
water from seas and rivers being diverted with occasionally
disastrous results.
. . The report said 1.1 billion people already did not have
access to clean water, and in developing nations up to 95
percent of sewage and 70 percent of industrial waste were
simply being dumped untreated into water courses.
. . Vital rain forests are being destroyed at the highest rate
in history, taking with them crucial sources of biodiversity
and contributing to climate warming, thereby boosting already
rising sea levels.
SEAS OVEREXPLOITED
. . The seas continue to be massively overexploited and erosion
is taking a rising toll of plant species --one-quarter of
which could be lost forever by 2025.
. . The United Nations said food production would have to
double and distribution would have to improve to feed the
exploding population, with most of the increase coming from
higher yielding varieties that needed more environmentally
dangerous chemicals to grow.
. . It said the globalization of commerce had increased global wealth but at the same time added to global inequalities, with the hordes of the world's forgotten poor forced to plunder
their scarce natural resources simply to survive from day to
day.
. . The human race is plundering Earth at an
unprecedented rate, but the growing power of women over their own futures could save the planet from destruction, the United Nations said. But Alex Marshall, editor of the report, said a ray of hope lay in the fact that women were winning the war to control their fertility and had finally gained the ear of government.
. . "Nearly 60 percent of women now have access to some sort of family planning -- even if you take China out of that you still have about 40 percent. ... The whole attitude has changed. You are finding a tremendous upsurge of strength among women joining together to do what they see needs to be done.
. . "There is a sense now that you can't just ignore the little people. You can't just ignore women. You have got to listen and you have got to respond somehow", he said. His report painted an otherwise bleak picture of the planet.
. . "By 2050, 4.2 billion people (over 45 percent of the global total) will be living in countries that cannot meet the daily requirement of 50 liters (11 imperial gallons) of water per person to meet basic needs", the report said.
CATASTROPHIC WATER USE
. . It said water was being used and polluted at catastrophic
rates. At present, 54 percent of available fresh water supplies is being used annually -- two-thirds for agriculture. This figure is set to surge to 70 percent by 2025 due to population growth alone, and 90 percent if consumption in the
developing countries reaches the levels in the developed world.
Water was being used at unsustainable rates in many places,
with water tables under some Chinese, Latin American and South
Asian cities dropping by more than one meter (three feet) a
year and water from seas and rivers being diverted with disastrous results.
. . The report said 1.1 billion people already did not have
access to clean water, and in developing nations up to 95
percent of sewage and 70 percent of industrial waste was simply
being dumped untreated into water courses.
. . Vital rain forests are being destroyed at the highest rate
in history, taking with them crucial sources of biodiversity
and contributing to climate warming, thereby boosting already-rising sea levels.
. . The seas continue to be massively overexploited and erosion is taking a rising toll of plant species --one quarter of which could be lost forever by 2025.
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