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NATURAL RESOURCES
Genetic Resources
It is estimated that humans share the planet with approximately 5 to 10 million species, some estimates claim that there are around 30 million species of insects in tropical forests alone. The genetic resources that different species provide, in particular those living in tropical forests, provide materials for agriculture, medicine, industry, energy and other components of our economy. Species in the tropics, about 2/3 of all species, provide us with a greater genetic diversity than elsewhere in the planet, which results in the majority of genetic diversity being concentrated in 7% of the earth's surface. Species rich zones such as coral reefs and wetlands suffer the most severe depletion of genetic resources.
There are many species that are not directly endangered, but their races or populations are. An example of this is corn where their gene pool has been reduced resulting in the current strains of corn being only a fraction of the original genetic diversity. The extinction of dinosaurs took millions of years, yet many species will completely disappear in a few centuries. Unlike environmental damage, such as pollution and social degradation, both of which can be reversed, the disappearance of species cannot. The loss of species is an irreversible process.
"The North, with somewhere between 20 and 25% of the world's population consumes between 75 and 80% of the world's resources... it is the industrialized countries' use of fossil fuels which has contributed most significantly to global warming; northern nation's reliance on chloroflourocarbons which is primarily to blame for ozone depletion; and discharges from northern industries which have polluted oceans waters. As importantly, the industrialized countries are largely responsible for the poverty of the Third World."
From Who's to Blame editorial
Multinational Monitor
July/August 1992
Cite as: Youth Sourcebook on Sustainable Development. Winnipeg: IISD, 1995. Online. Internet. http://iisd.ca/youth/ysbk028.htm.