International Report Raises Red Flag

Humans are damaging the planet at a rapid rate and raising risks of abrupt collapses in nature that could spur disease, deforestation, or "dead zones" in the seas, an international report claims.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment study claims that in the last 50 years a rising human population had polluted or overexploited two-thirds of the ecological systems on which life depends, including clean air and fresh water. The study urges changes in consumption, better education, new technology and higher prices for exploiting ecosystems. The five-year study, commissioned by the United Nations and involving 1,360 researchers in 95 nations, looked at 24 "services" that Earth's ecosystem provided people. The study found that 15 if these critical services were in trouble. http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.aspx