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Agriculture: WWF: Area of productive soil needed for Romania’s population exceeds what natural environment can offer
The area of productive soil needed to produce goods and resources consumed by Romania’s population is now 2.7 ha of land and water/capita, exceeding what the natural environment of the planet can offer, according to the “Live Planet” report made by World Wide Fund of Nature (WWF) in partnership with Global Footprint Network.
In Romania, the ecological footprint, an index which measures the necessary productive soil and water for goods and resources consumed by people and to neutralize emissions and wastes, exceeds the value offered by the planet – 1.8 ha of land and water/capita.
“The cause is the chaotic development in the field of constructions in the last decades and the exploitation of resources: mineral extraction, transport, green area conversion, construction expansion. Climate changes are a major effect of excessive consumption by the use of fossil fuels which release huge quantities of carbon dioxide which the plant cannot absorb anymore,” WWF Romania explains.
The ecologist organization declared August 20 Earth Overshoot Day, the day when people on Earth wasted all natural resources the planet can generate in a year.
“For the rest of 2013 we function in deficit – we will consume over what nature can give us, leaving a planet poorer in resources for the next generations. The waste of stocks and accumulation of wastes and emissions, especially carbon dioxide can continue for a limited period of time until ecosystems start degrading and finally collapse. The impact of excessive consumption can already be seen in various phenomena: water shortage, desertification, soil erosion, low soil productivity, land clearing and negative phenomena caused by the disappearance of forests, collapse of fish stocks and climate changes,” the document mentions.
The Living Planet Report is made by WWF in partnership with Global Footprint Network every two years. For the 2012 edition research was made on over 9,000 animal populations, belonging to 2,688 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. The study identified an alarming loss of biodiversity in small income countries, while developed countries live in a false paradise, fed by excessive consumption which generates significant carbon dioxide emissions.
The next Report edition is scheduled for September 2014.