In its biennial report released in Beijing on October 24, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) claims that if the world’s consumption of the Earth’s resources is not dramatically altered, human beings will need two planets’ worth of natural resources by the middle of this century.

An “ecological footprint” is the environmental impact or demand that people place on the natural world; according to WWF, the human footprint is far too big. Human beings are stripping the Earth of its resources faster than it can possibly replace. This grave ecological overshoot is now 25% greater than it was in 2003, and is said to be mainly the combined result of rising populations, pollution and harvesting of forests and fisheries. Furthermore, the footprint left behind by carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels use is reported to be the fastest growing component of the environmental strain.

The WWF report on the state of the natural world goes on to rank the top 10 countries who are the worst offenders. It concludes that people living in the United Arab Emirates are placing more stress per capita on the planet, ahead of those in the United States, Finland, Canada and Kuwait. Besides the disastrous effects these current trends will have on future generations, it is also especially disturbing to learn that if everyone continues to live as those in North America do, we would then need six planets to sustain us.

Although the findings of this recent report paint a rather grim picture of the future of the world’s environment, it is also equally optimistic about future endeavours. For instance, since China is home to one-fifth of the world’s population, the WWF underscores that country’s potential to make a meaningful difference and emphasized that it was making a step in the direction by striving to reduce its energy consumption by 20% over the next several years.

What seems to be required of all human beings at a basic level is a complete change in lifestyle, which is certainly not easy but which would necessarily have to include reducing the use of fossil fuels and better managing resources such as farming and fisheries.

For travelers, who frequently use a disproportionate amount of resources compared to local residents, environmentally-friendly travel is getting easier to find. Google has even compiled an interesting list of maps with travel that is friendly to the environment.