Europe is relying on the rest of the world to supply it with the wood, metals or fish that it needs to thrive, ultimately putting a strain on the environment in a way which is not sustainable, the WWF has warned.
In a report published on 14 June, "Europe 2005 - The Ecological Footprint", the WWF says that the 25 EU countries are currently consuming more resources than their own environmental capacity would normally allow.
"With 7 per cent of the world population, the EU uses 17 per cent of the world resources supply. Its 'ecological footprint' is 2.2 times as large as its own biological capacity," says the report, a figure which has risen by almost 70% since 1961.
However, the ecological footprint theory is disputed by some specialists, who argue that applying the earth's carrying capacity to human populations is flawed. Humans, the critics argue, "can and do increase the carrying capacity of their environment to meet their needs", for example in the case of renewable energies. Moreover, they say, carrying capacity has limited relevance when resources can be traded to make up for their scarcity. Additional uncertainties include calculation methods to evaluate land space needs or the lack of distinction between land uses that are sustainable and those that are not.
