US based environmental research group Worldwatch has published its Sate of the World 2012, warning that current trends of consumerism cannot be sustained and that more must be done to ensure development does not further compromise environmental health.

 

The report found that over the last 50 years, the global middle and upper classes have more than doubled their consumption levels, with the strain set to grow as between one and two billion people vie to join the consumer middle class.

 

“The planet cannot maintain such increases in resource demand without serious consequences for both people and ecosystems, concludes the Worldwatch Institute in State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity. The book, the 29th in a series that Worldwatch began in 1984, stresses that we must act quickly to redefine our understanding of the “good life” and redouble our efforts to make that life sustainable,” the report warns.

 

“The Industrial Revolution gave birth to an economic growth model rooted in structures, behaviors, and activities that are patently unsustainable,” says Worldwatch Senior Researcher Michael Renner, co-director of State of the World 2012. “Mounting ecosystem stress and resource pressures are accompanied by increased economic volatility, growing inequality, and social vulnerability.It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the economy no longer works for either people or the planet.”

 

The full report can be found here