TORONTO – The key finding of the Living Planet Report released Tuesday is that the demands of the human population exceed Earth’s capacity to sustain us.
Released by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) International in partnership with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), Global Footprint Network (GFN) and European Space Agency (ESA), the biannual report urges people to reduce their ecological footprints through more efficient consumption.
Garnering many headlines was WWF International Director General Jim Leape’s statement that we are using “50 per cent more resources than the earth can provide” and that by 2030-just 18 years from now-“even two planets will not be enough.”
That humans need to change their consumption habits has become an often-repeated slogan. Recycling and adopting energy-efficient habits are part of Canada’s education system, public policy and media coverage. The term “ecological footprint” (the measure of extent and type of human demand placed on the Earth’s ecosystems) has made many people conscious of their effect on the environment.
Despite the fact we’ve heard warnings before, many people still don’t participate in pro-environmental behaviours.
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“If you set the measures too high and it has too serious implications for people, people may simply say ‘no, it’s not applicable, or it’s not a reality for me,’” says Luc Pelletier, director of the school of psychology at the University of Ottawa.
Pelletier has 22 years of research under his belt, and specializes in motivation for pro-environmental behaviour. He says the younger generation today is more aware and active when it comes to the environment than the younger generation of 20 years ago, but suggests people need to know how to change and not just why to change.
“The analogy I could give you is if you’re a smoker, and the ads on TV say smoking is bad for you…and you don’t know how to change your behaviour, what you’ll do is simply shut down the TV,” said Pelletier. “You’re not going to listen to the ads, you aren’t going to pay attention to this. Why? Because you know it is bad for your health, but you don’t know how to fix this.”
The Living Planet Report lists tips people can use to reduce their ecological footprint. Many seem like straightforward, minor adjustments to everyday life, such as eating less meat and dairy, buying food that’s in season, unplugging appliances and turning off lights when not in use.
“It can be a bit more difficult than people think. Especially if this behaviour is easy to do now, compared to the new one that you want to do that is more difficult,” explains Pelletier. “So the tradeoff for most people appears to be easy to solve-maintain the one that is easy unless you make the new one as easy as the one you’re asked to remove.”
Pelletier also cautions against the report’s use of the relatively scary idea that we’ll need more planets to survive in the next two decades.
“When you explain to people they need two and a half more planets to sustain what we have, are you communicating something to people about what they need to do…are you making them aware that there’s a problem?” he asks. “As soon as you scare people or you make them aware, you need to be ready to provide solutions right away.”
Could it be that we still don’t consider the depletion of Earth’s resources to be an immediate threat?
“Twenty years ago when people started to talk about the environment, nobody was really listening because they thought it was too far and was not a big problem. Now we’re getting closer and closer to serious implications, and because of this, people seem to be more motivated to do something,” he says.
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