THE ANTHROPOCENE - Plastics and Environmental Sustainability - page 3

Figure 1.1 Projected world population and population increments.
Source: Published with permission from UN Population Division. Reproduced
with permission from World at Six Billion. UN Populations Division. ESA/P/
WP.154 1999.
Clearly, human populations have already taken liberties with the ecosystem
leaving deep footprints on the pristine fabric of nature. Biodiversity, a key
metric of the health of the biosphere, is in serious decline; biodiversity
fell by 30% globally within the last two decades alone (WWF, 2012). The
current extinction rate is two to three orders of magnitude higher than the
natural or background rate typical of Earth's history (Mace et al., 2005).
Arable land for agriculture is shrinking (on a per capita basis) as more ofthe
fertile land is urbanized. 4 Millions of hectares of land are lost to erosion and
degradation; each year, a land area as large as Greece is estimated to be lost
to desertification. Increasing global affluence also shifts food preferences
into higher levels of the food pyramid. Though Earth is a watery planet, only
3% of the water on Earth is freshwater, most of that too remains frozen in
icecaps and glaciers. Freshwater is a finite critical resource, and 70% of it