The Stone Age did not end because the world ran out of stones
Federal Environment Minister David Anderson, told the Globe 2000 conference in Vancouver, that despite many environmental achievements, inefficient human activity and economic growth are continuing to outstrip our successes.
"The global economy continues to expand rapidly, by an estimated $1 trillion per year, and the world's human population is expected to grow to almost nine billion in the next fifty years. So it is no surprise that the carrying capacity of the Earth's ecosystems to support human activity has finite limits. Let us look at the patterns of human production and consumption and the effects they have had on the planet.
"Over the past twenty years, the economies of the OECD countries have grown by 40%. That's to the good. But at the same time, we have increased our production of waste by an identical 40%. Obviously, we have not yet turned enough of our attention to efficiencies. The US National Academy of Engineering estimates that 93 percent of the materials which go into the production of consumer goods end up as waste before the goods are even sold.
"Every one of us has an "ecological footprint" - the amount of land and water necessary to support our lifestyle. For instance, it takes 7.7 hectares of land to support the lifestyle of the average Canadian. That 7.7 hectare per person footprint is much larger than that of many European countries. Look at France using 4.2 hectares per person, or 5.3 hectares each in Germany and the Netherlands. And it is far greater than the 2.1 hectares that would be available per capita if all of the world's resources were divided equally.
"Stanford biologist Peter Vitousek, estimated in 1980 that human beings were consuming, directly or indirectly, almost 40% of the world's entire biological productivity. With the population of the earth doubling every 80 years, we are on a course to exceed the globe's productivity in several generations unless we drastically change our patterns of consumption.
"Between 1990 and 1995, some 65 million hectares of tropical forest land were lost, leading to both environmental and economic problems that we know only too well from British Columbia's own battles over how to achieve sustainable forestry.
"Perhaps nowhere is the impact on human activity on the ecosphere more evident than in the growing threat of global climate change. The trends in global temperature are unmistakable. The 1990s saw the warmest surface temperatures since accurate measurement began around 1860, and climatologists estimate that they are warmer than at any time in the past 1,200 years. The effects of this human induced temperature increase threaten the entire global ecosystem. Polar ice caps and glaciers are already rapidly melting, increasing global sea levels.
"Companies like British Petroleum or Canadian-owned Suncor are repositioning themselves as sustainable energy companies, setting ambitious goals for greenhouse gas reductions, and investing in alternative energy like solar energy cells, and photovoltaics. Automobile companies are racing to market hybrid-electric vehicles, with Vancouver's Ballard Power positioned to become a leader in the hydrogen fuel cells that will run them.
"As Don Huberts, of Royal Dutch Shells' Hydrogen Division, has said, "The Stone Age did not end because the world ran out of stones, and the oil age will not end because we run out of oil." Those countries that make the first breakthroughs towards greater sustainability and more efficient technologies will gain major competitive advantages in the twenty-first century.
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