INFOTERRA: News: Growth In Number of Households Key Threat To Biodiversity
http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/03/pr0306.htm
EMBARGOED UNTIL 2 p.m. EST
NSF PR 03-06 - Sunday, January 12, 2003
Researchers Tie Worldwide Biodiversity Threats to Growth in Households
Pandas in China face encroachment, as do other species in global
"hotspots"
ARLINGTON, Virginia - Scientists from Michigan State (MSU) and Stanford
universities, in a fresh look at world population dynamics, have revealed
evidence that increased numbers of households, even where populations are
declining, are having a vast impact on the world's biodiversity and
environment.
Reduction in household size has led to a rapid rise in household numbers
around the world and has posed serious challenges to biodiversity
conservation, write Jianguo (Jack) Liu of MSU and Stanford colleagues
Gretchen C. Daily, Paul R. Ehrlich and Gary W. Luck in the Jan. 12 advance
online publication of the journal Nature. Biodiversity is threatened
severely not only by increased numbers of households, but also by less
efficient per capita consumption of natural resources, the researchers
say. They cite examples that larger numbers of households require more use
of natural resources for construction, and that smaller numbers of people
per household use on average more energy and goods per person.
[...]
----
This message was sent by INFOTERRA@CEDAR.AT
To signoff from the list, send an email to majordomo@cedar.at
the message body should read "unsubscribe infoterra" (without quotes).
Visit http://www.cedar.at/unep/infoterra/index.html
for more info, list commands, and mail archives (searchable).
----