'Human activity stretching Earth’s resources to the limit'[fr] 

The IPCC concluded on 2 February 2007 that human activities were a "very likely" cause of global warming, and urged immediate action to curb greenhouse-gas emissions (see EurActiv 02/02/07).

In response, researchers at the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), some of which contributed to the IPCC report, have warned that climate change is "just one of the many symptoms" of a planet under threat from human activities, a fact underlined by the following statistics: 

• Half of the Earth’s surface is domesticated for direct human use;
• 75% of the world's fisheries are fully or over-exploited;
• the composition of today's atmosphere is well outside the range of natural variability that the Earth has maintained during the past 650,000 years, and;
• the Earth is now in the middle of its sixth great extinction event.

"Global environmental change, which includes climate change, threatens to irreversibly alter our planet," said Kevin Noone, executive director of the IGBP.

The IGBP uses an innovative 'Earth System Science' approach that focuses not only on the climate, but on the Earth as an integrated system. Thus, it examines changes in the oceans and land, how those changes affect each other, and the role that humans play as part of that system. According to Noone, such an integrated approach is crucial to managing a sustainable planet.

Meanwhile, US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said that his country supports the findings of the IPCC report: "We agree with it, and the science behind it is something that our country has played a very important role in," he said. "We estimate that the US has invested more in climate-change science than the rest of the world combined," he added, claiming that the US had spent $29 billion since 2001 in climate-related science and technology programs.

The EU's most far-reaching proposal to tackling climate change urges states to aim towards a low-carbon economy in 2050. In order to achieve this goal, the Commission's 10 January energy and climate change package  proposes aiming for a 20% cut in GHG by 2020, with the intention of raising that to 30% if other industrialised nations follow suit.