WWF report: Finns' ecological footprint third-heaviest in world

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People are straining and polluting the environment at a more prolific rate than ever before. And the Finns are among those with the heaviest boots, leaving one of the largest ecological footprints of all.
      This is the stark message contained in the WWF's latest Living Planet Report. Finland's high position is attributable to a number of factors: the energy-intensive nature of the pulp and paper industry, heavy use of timber, and the simple fact of our being one of the developed countries, where almost without exception the consumption of natural resources outstrips the planet's ability to cope.
      According to the report, Finland places third in the world in terms of its ecological footprint - the demand people place upon the natural world. The only two nations with a higher per capita figure out of 146 countries in the report were the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
     
The Finns scored a figure of 7.6 hectares per person of ecologically productive land, while the planet can sustain no more than a figure of 1.8 hectares.
      In effect this means that Finns are consuming four times the sustainable level, and that sooner rather than later at this rate of progress - for the Finns are by no means the only people "living beyond the planet's means" - we shall be needing a new planet or two. The entire world's ecological footprint exceeeds the corresponding biocapacity by around 25 per cent, and the footprint gets larger each year.
      At the present rate of progress, this would mean we would need a second Earth by the year 2050.
     
The reasons for the high and unflattering Finnish score are several: the country has a highly energy-intensive industrial base in its pulp and paper industry, and energy consumption continues to grow. Finland ranks 5th in the world in terms of energy consumed per capita.
      It is not all industry, of course. The country's location and climate mean long cold and dark winters and a need to keep homes lit and heated. Nevertheless, according to the Secretary-General of WWF Finland Timo Tanninen, there is much that could be done to conserve energy in domestic and industrial use.
      The large sparsely populated land-area and distances between communities also increase the loading from transport.
      A further factor elevating the Finnish figure is our massive use of forestry resources, in order to satsify our needs - and those of other countries to which we export - for paper and pulp products. A Finn consumes around 210 kilos of paper each year. It is unclear to what extent our consumption of forests for the paper requirements of other countries is reflected in their environmental loading totals.
     
The ecological footprint in the WWF report is made up of several parameters, including cropland and grazing land, consumption of timber for paper, pulp, and fuelwood, fishing, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, nuclear power, and the amount of built-up land (nothing grows on a motorway, thus reducing the biocapacity).
      In terms of Finland's biocapacity, the same principal factor that hurts the country in the ecological footprint department - forestry - also makes the country one of the few in the world where we are not actually exceeding ourselves.
      The Finnish biocapacity figure is among the world's highest at 12.0. A good many countries with a smaller ecological footprint are in fact nevertheless using up what little biocapacity they have at a prodigious rate.
      In the case of the United States, for example, the ecological footprint is 9.6, while biocapacity is less than 5, indicating a negative figure, an ecological deficit of around 4.8 hectares per person per year.
      Even more alarming is the situation in a country with scarce biocapacity such as the Emirates. Here the deficit is colossal - 11.1 hectares per person. All eyes will also be on China, which is currently only mid-way in the world rankings, but its rapid development and growing economy will mean that it has a pivotal role in long-term sustainability.
      The WWF's Living Planet Report is published each year. The figures in this case are from 2003. The report also considers the world's use of water, another increasingly scarce natural resource. Full details are available from the links below.


Links:
  Living Planet Report 2006
  WWF: Human footprint too big for nature
  Test Yourself (In Finnish only)

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