Enemies of humanity

I was not planning to write a blog post today but this is incredible. Reading the recent Friends of the Earth Policy on Population (PDF) briefing, published in March, I discover that the organisation is calling for a 10-fold reduction in resource consumption. That is 10-fold – not 10% – in other words a 90% cut in consumption worldwide. To quote the briefing direct:

“Clearly we need to reduce resource consumption substantially and probably by a factor of 10 if we are to live within environmental limits and share resources fairly between the World’s growing populations.”

As a point of comparison Britain’s recent economic downturn lead to a temporary decline in consumption of only about 6%. Or for those who remember BBC Newsnight’s Ethical Man, he spent a whole year organising his life around minimising his carbon footprint (roughly correlated to consumption) but only managed a 20% cut.

In country terms a 10-fold decrease would have the world living on an average income about the same as Yemen. That is slightly below Sudan or Zambia and slightly above Pakistan and Nigeria.

In time terms it would certainly take the world well back into the nineteenth century.