Planet Earth has already lost one and a half million hectares of forests this year, with air, water and soil polluted by almost three million tons of toxic chemicals. The population has produced more than ten billion tons of carbon dioxide. The number of people is increasing fast with currently more than seven billion inhabitants.
European environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik said that the population is expected to increase by 2 billion until 2050. He said that this was more than the total population count at the beginning of the last century, when the number stood at 1.5 billion. He was speaking to MMC to commemorate Earth Day.
He furthermore added that some predictions indicate that many who live in poverty today will have a better life in the future. It is expected that until 2030 around three billion people will climb to the middle class. That means that by 2050, if current patterns of production and consumption continue, we would need about three times more resources (energy, water, soil... ) to sustain such a lifestyle, Potočnik said.
About 60 per cent of the ecosystems that depend on these resources are already overloaded or exploited in an unsustainable way. Potočnik believes that the pattern of economic growth needs to change. He is convinced that economic growth in the future must be 'green' or it will cease to exist.