As humanity hits 8 billion people, Robin Maynard and John Seager write about the loss of biodiversity and renewable resources
Leading scientists state that the huge scale of “human-driven” loss of species demands urgent action. They are right. But your article (Animal populations experience average decline of almost 70% since 1970, report reveals, 13 October) fails to reference a key driver of biodiversity loss – the continuing unsustainable growth of our own human population – and the need to address it, among other factors, to reverse the trend.
We are using up the renewable resources of 1.7 Earths. If things don’t change, we’ll need three by 2050. As more of us demand more from nature, we worsen already catastrophic biodiversity loss, accelerating water scarcity, pollution and deforestation.
